Chong Chi-Yong(20 June 1902 – c. 1950) was a Korean poet and translator of English poetry.
1. Life
Chong Chi-Yong was born in Okcheon, North Chungcheong Province, on June 20, 1902. He attended Whimoon High School and graduated from Japan's Doshisha University with a major in English literature. While studying at Whimoon High School, he published the literary magazine Yoram with contemporaries like Park Pal-yang. In 1926, while studying in Japan, he began to concentrate exclusively on composing poetry and his poem "Kape peuranseu" (카페 프란스 Café France) was published in Hakjo magazine. Later in life, Chong was active as an associate of Pak Yong-chol's Simunhak magazine, and taught at Whimoon High School. After Korea's liberation, he taught at Ewha Womans University, edited the Kyunghyang Daily News, and was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Korean Writers Federation. In 1950, at the onset of the Korean War, he was detained by the Government Preservation Department, and then transferred to Pyongyang Prison, where he is believed to have died.
2. Writing
Chong Chi-Yong is considered among the most important poets to emerge from the modernist movement in Korea, in fact he has been described as "the first modern Korean poet." In 2007, he was listed by the Korean Poets' Association among the ten most important modern Korean poets. His poetry can be divided into three periods. The first period, from around 1925 to 1933, is characterized by the poet’s sensual imagist work, which often focused on the sea. Beginning with his 1933 poem “Bulsajo” (불사조 Phoenix) and ending in 1935, the poet composed religious poetry influenced by his Catholic faith; this second period served as a transition period between his early sensuous poetry and his later more traditional poetry. After his "Ongnyudong" (옥류동 Ongnyu Village) and "Guseongdong" (구성동 Guseong Village) in 1941, his poetry evinced predominance of Eastern thinking in its aesthetic. After his 1934 poem "Dareun haneul (다른 하늘 A Different Heaven) and "Tto hana dareun taeyang" (또 하나 다른 태양 Yet Another Sun), Chong discarded the religious tendency of his earlier work. After nearly four years of absence from writing, he arrived at a mentality that sought to overcome the pain of reality, as seen in "Ongnyudong", "Bong" (봉 Mountain Peak), and "Guseongdong."
