Jo Eun (1960 - ) is a Korean poet. In her early poems, she focused on connecting nature and an inner world, but she has gradually expanded her poetry world to deal with other people and an outer world.
1. Life
She was born in 1960 in Andong, North Kyungsang Province. She debuted with three poems including “Ddangeun jugeomeul horakhorak badajuji anneunda (땅은 주검을 호락호락 받아주지 않는다 The Land Does Not Easily Accommodate Dead Bodies)”1) in Segyeui Munhak (세계의 문학 World’s Literature) in 1988. For a long time, she has studied poetry by herself and she met Oh Kyuwon2) through his lecture and kept up acquaintance with him until he died. She said that she could not write poems when she was happy; she could only write through the five senses recovered at the misfortunate moment. With her belief that literature is part of an ordinary life, she has seldom met with anyone from the literary circle.
Living in Sajik-dong, Seoul, she has a poetry reading once a month.3) Since June 2019, she has published serially “Joeunui dosisanchaek (Jo Eun’s Walking in the City)” which describes every corner of the city through her delicate lense.4)
She also published several poetry collections including Sarangui wiryeokeuro (사랑의 위력으로 With the Power of Love) (1991), Ddangeun jugeomeul horakhorak badajuji anneunda (땅은 주검을 호락호락 받아주지 않는다 The Land Does Not Easily Accommodate Dead Bodies) (1991), Mudeomeul maemdoneun iyu (무덤을 맴도는 이유 The Reason for Lingering around Graves) (1996), Yeop baljaguk (옆 발자국 Footprints Next to Me) (2018). In addition, she was interested in children’s books and published warmhearted stories such as Hatbyet ttatteuthan jip (햇볕 따뜻한 집 House with Warm Sunshine) (1999) and Yetnalcheoreom sala bwateoyo (옛날처럼 살아 봤어요 I Lived Like in Old Days) (2012) that inspire children with friendship and love.5) Besides, she released essays such as Byerangeseo salda (벼랑에서 살다 Living on the Cliff) (2001) and Maeumiyeo geoleora (마음이여, 걸어라 My Heart, Walk) (2011). She received the Jeon Sukhui Literary Award for Ttotto (또또, Ttotto) (2013), an essay illustrating the 17 years she lived with her pet, Ttotto.
2. Writing
Her poems describe agony, pain, despair and death we face every day in our ordinary life in a plain language. Death in her poems is portrayed as part of daily life in a form of natural image not an abstract statement. A serial poem “Jeonwonilgi (전원일기 Country Diary)” in her first poetry collection, With the Power of Love, depicts a poor and depressing farm village where she spent her youth.6) The second collection, The Reason for Lingering around Graves, describes death as one side of life, showing her resolution to overcome difficulties without giving up on her life. The unyielding determination is expressed through her solemn tone.7)
Darkness, pain and death are the key aspects of her poems. But graves that used to be described as a dark image is now portrayed as something inherently vital in Ddaddeuthan heul (따뜻한 흙 Warm Earth) where death is not simply the end of life but something stimulating life. This transformation resulted from her new awareness of selfdom. In “Supui hyusik (숲의 휴식 Rest of the Forest)” and “Gayahal got (가야할 곳 The Place I Should Go),” opposite things such as light and darkness and flower and root coexist, and contradictions become identical.9) The form of prose highlighted in her earlier poems has been changed into the poetic form.
Her poetry world has stretched from her focus on the self and the inner world to the other and the outer world. Saengui bitsal (생의 빛살 Light of Life) (2010) shows her compassion to others who are sick and distressed through the sixth sense. Particularly, “Gieokui simcheung (기억의 심층 The Depth of Memory)” illustrates the narrator who finds her old self through flowers, trees, cats and strangers and who shares pain and sadness with others.10) Yeop baljaguk (옆 발자국 Footprints Next to Me) (2018) shows the journey of understanding life by looking into the destiny of human beings that past memories inevitably encounter forthcoming death at this very moment. Well illustrating attention to others, empathy of sorrow, and warm concerns for neighbors, poems in this collection are considered “the steps or footprints moving toward life, not death, despite the awareness of the close relation between life and death.”11)
Reference
1) This poem is the first piece of the first poetry collection, With the Power of Love.
2) Oh Kyuwon, Wikipedia https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%98%A4%EA%B7%9C%EC%9B%90 (September 16, 2019)
3) Kim, Jiyul. “Poets Plaza [84], Interviews with Poets [9] Hope to Meet you on the Cliff, Interview with Jo Eun”
https://blog.naver.com/w_wonho/221023141697 (September 16, 2019)
4) “Jo Eun’s Walking in the City” Munhwa Ilbo
http://www.munhwa.com/news/series.html?secode=2187 (September 16, 2019)
5) The Reason for Lingering around Graves, Naver
https://book.naver.com/bookdb/book_detail.nhn?bid=1231867 (September 16, 2019)
6) Oh, Kyuwon. “Water and the Cliff,” With the Power of Love, Mineumsa, 1991.
7) Park, Hyekyeong. “Strong Determination and Transparent Naivety – Recent Poems of Jo Eun and Ham Minbok,” Literature and Society, 10 (1), Munji, 1997.
8) Jo Eun says in her essay, Living on the Cliff, “The reason I like the form of graves and I often visit them is because I want a life that can be earned only through death, that gets more intensive. For those who left this world, graves mean death but for those who are alive, graves are something that stimulates a life.”
9) Choi, Hyeonsik. “[Review] Root of Light or Light of Root – Jo Eun, Warm Earth.” Literature and Practice, February, 2004.
10) Lee, Sujeong. “[Poem] Empathy, the Sixth Sense That Is Tiring Yet Beautiful – Jo Eun’s Poetry Collection, Light of Life.” Literature and Society, 23 (2), Munji, 2010.
11) Oh, Saenggeun. “Poem on the Cliff and Border.” Footprints Next to Me, Munji, 2018.
