Che Ho-Ki (born 1957) is a modern South Korean poet and professor.
1. Life
Che was born in Daegu in 1957. He studied creative writing at Seoul Institute of the Arts and Korean literature at Daejeon University. He made his literary debut publishing his poems in the Summer 1988 issue of the quarterly Changbi. His poetry collections include Seulpeun gei (슬픈 게이 Sad Gay), Bamui gongjungjeonhwa (밤의 공중전화 Phone Booth at Night), Jidokan sarang (지독한 사랑 Hopeless Love), Suryeon (수련 Water Lilies), and Songaragi tteugeopda (손가락이 뜨겁다 Hot Fingers). He is the recipient of the Kim Su-Young Literary Award and the Contemporary Poetry Award. He has served as editor-in-chief and publisher of Moonji. He is currently a professor of creative writing at Seoul Institute of the Arts.
2. Writing
If a desire for emotional union with the subject matter can be described as a general characteristic of Korean poetry, Che departs radically from such a tendency to seek instead the complete obliteration of the boundary between the subject and the language in his poetry. His first volume of poetry, Jidokan sarang, rejects love as an idea and an emotional state and focuses on its physicality and mortality: “like the train daggering into the dark cave of your body/ Blue blade pierces death/ This ferocious love/Burying your casket in my womb/ So I bury my casket in your womb.” Desire itself is objectified and given a physicality in "Sad Gay," in which a gay man transforms himself into another being through the mechanical process of replacing body parts: “Your two eyes on my palm/ I pull out my eyes and inserts them into the sockets./ (. . .)/ Plucking all my hair out/ I cover my head with your hair.” Che's most successful attempt to create a oneness with another is judged to be his Suryeon. In this volume of poetry, language acts as a corrosive agent that melts away the external shape of things to reveal their true essence by means of which a perfect union with others is achieved.
