Lee Seong-Bok (born 1952) is a South Korean poet.
1. Life
Lee Seong-Bok was born in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province. He earned his Ph.D in French literature from Seoul National University. He taught at Keimyung University's French department for many years before switching to the creative writing department. He retired in 2012 and remains a professor emeritus.
Lee made his debut as a poet in 1977, publishing "Jeongdeun yugwageseo" (정든 유곽에서 At a Familiar Brothel) in the quarterly Literature and Intelligence. His first collection of poems, Duingguneun doreun eonje jam kkaeneunga (When Does a Rolling Stone Awaken? 뒹구는 돌은 언제 잠 깨는가) was published in 1980. His collection A, ibi eopneun geotdeul (아, 입이 없는 것들 Ah, Mouthless Things) was published in English in 2017.
Lee's other poetic works include Geu eoreumui kkeut (그 여름의 끝 The End of Summer), Horanggasinamuui gieok (호랑가시나무의 기억 Memories of a Holly Tree), Darui imaeneun mulgyeolmunui (달의 이마에는 물결무늬 자국 Traces of Waves on the Moon’s Brow), and Raeyeoaebandara (Come and Share Sorrow 래여애반다라). He has also written on poetic theory, such as Geukjiui si (극지의 시 Poetry of the Polar Regions), Bulhwahaneun maldeul (불화하는 말들 Words at Odds), and Muhanhwasa (무한화서 Endless Blooming). He received the 1982 Kim Su-Young Literary Award, the 1990 So-wol Poetry Award, the 2004 Daesan Literary Award, the 2007 Hyundae Literary Award, and the 2014 Yi Yuksa Poetry Award.
2. Writing
Since his first poem, "Jeongdeun yugwageseo," was published in 1977, Lee Seong-Bok has impressed readers with his opulent images of free association, unexpected transformations charged with aroused feeling and calling. The poetic world he presents, sometimes flamboyantly and sometimes serenely, is composed of events or scenes revealing the secrets of lives.
Lee's poetry evokes events and landscapes unfolding above a horizon of unlimited interpretive possibilities. As Kim Hyeon states of Lee's work, "It vastly expands its meaning to permit endless questions, not only on an individual or private level, but on a collective and public one as well." Lee has attracted attention for his imaginative and multi-layered poetry which features European influences including Baudelaire, Kafka and Nietzsche and often attacks the corruption, hypocrisy, and perversion of the modern world.
The work of Lee Seong-Bok suggests that all things exist in relation to other things, and that there is no core or isolated act. All binary categories—the collective versus individual or the social versus the ontological—are simultaneously one. But Lee's poetry does not deny opposition itself. Rather, through such distinctions, his poetic world reads more dynamically, and represents the overcoming of life's pain with the strength gained through the exchange of meanings from opposing categories.
