Park Je-chun (born 1945) is a Korean poet.
1. Life
Park Je-chun was born in Seoul in1945. He studied Korean literature at Dongguk University. Park debuted as a poet in 1966 when his poems including "Byeoksigyeege" (벽시계에게 To the Wall Clock) appeared in Hyundae Munhak upon the recommendation of the poet Shin Seok-cho. Park became a member of the literary coterie Sijeongsin (Poetic Thought) in 1983 and in 1995 helped to found the magazine Literary Academy, for which he served as publisher and editor. He has also taught at Kyonggi University and served as an official of the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation.
Park's collections of poetry include Jangjasi (장자시 Zhuangzi Poems), Simbeop (심법 Mental Method), Nojasipyeon (노자시편 Laozi Poems), Neoui ireum naui si (너의 이름 나의 시 Your Name and My Poem), and Pureun byeorui yeoldu gaji jiogeseo (푸른 별의 열두 가지 지옥에서 In the Twelve Infernos of the Blue Star). He has won prestigious literary distinctions including the Hyundae Munhak Literary Award, the Woltan Literary Award, and the Gong Cho Literary Award.
2. Writing
The bulk of Park Je-chun's poetry is marked by what the poet terms “exercises in imagination,” exercises in fashioning novel and radical imagery which draw upon Korean Buddhist and Taoist traditions as well as Korean classical literature. Park uses the language with remarkable plasticity and suppleness. He is an alchemist of poetic diction and his poetry as a whole shows an extraordinary aesthetic intuition.[1]
What attracts Park the most from Zhuangzi, one of his greatest influences, is the Taoist worldview and the ancient sage’s free-ranging spirit and imagination. One of the traits that sets Park apart from the majority of contemporary Korean poets is his unique poetic imagination; his ‘imaging’ involves a kind of ‘looking at the moon itself’ through some intuitive telescoping. He defines the subjects of his poems in his own insightful way, shedding new light on their meaning. While Park Je-chun’s poetry results from his struggle with his inner self, and from his own intense meditations, and contemplation of the human condition, he also studiously explores the world of everyday life to link, through his poetry, people, things, and events that may be far removed in time and space.[1]
If Park's first collection, Jangjasi, was not entirely successful in sustaining poetic intensity despite rhetorical flourish and sensuous language, his second and third volumes of poetry, Simbeop and Yul (율 The Law) respectively, make apparent that the poet is striving towards poetic maturity, abandoning flowery language to reflect upon the Buddhist world of goodness with solemnity and care. Dareun jeumeun garame (달은 즈믄 가람에 At the Moonless Buddhist Temple) and Eodumboda meolli (어둠보다 멀리 Further Than Darkness) show greater depth and breadth in the poet’s language and his contemplation upon the world. In his tenth volume of poetry, SF-gyogam (SF-교감 SF-Consensus), Park delves into the crisis of poetry and of the literary arts at large brought on by the proliferation of visual media in the 20th century. Park’s poetic imagination has evolved beyond mere contemplation of the self to embrace the individual as a part of a larger group. With an expansive worldview, Park continues to explore the meaning of poetry in the modern world.
Reference
[1] Park Je-chun. "Introduction," p. x-xi. Sending the Ship out to the Stars: Poems of Park Je-Chun. Translated by Chang Soo Ko, Ithaca, New York, East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1997.
