Hong Shin-seon (1944~) is a Korean poet. His writing career dates back to the 1960s, when he was active as a modernist poet. During the 1970-80s, his poetry engaged critically with the politics of the time. From the 1990s, Hong’s focus shifted to Buddhist thought, and the serial poem Maeumgyung (마음경 The Book of the Mind), which was written over a period over twenty years, is considered his major work.
1. Life
Hong was born in 1944 in Hwaseong, Gyunggi Province. From a young age he studied Chinese literary classics under the guidance of his great-uncle, and grew up reading classical texts such as Samgukji (삼국지 Records of the Three Kingdoms).1) As a middle-school student, he read Kim Naesung’s popular detective story Main (마인 Fiend) and began to dream of becoming a novelist. Throughout his years at high school he read the literary journals Jayumunhak and Hakwon and wrote his own stories. Hong has spoken about how this period improved and influenced his writing by building up his vocabulary and training him in descriptive technique.
Once at university, Hong’s interest shifted from prose fiction to poetry. After three years of writing and honing his craft, he officially debuted as a poet while in his senior year when his poem “Huirabinui piri (희랍인의 피리The Greek’s Pipe)” was selected for publication in the journal Shinmunhak in 1965. The poem was influenced by the Greek myths he had been reading throughout college. In 1968, Hong set up the literary coterie magazine Hanguksi with Oh Kyuwon and others. In 1970 he married one of his fellow coterie members, the poet Ro Hyang-Rim. In the 1980s he left Seoul and settled in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province. There his world expanded from the narrower confines of literary circles, and he came into closer contact with the diverse lives around him. This brought about a big shift in his poetry. In 2003 he founded the literary magazine Munhak Seon (or Zen, 선禪), and remains its publisher and editor.2)
2. Writing
People-oriented poetry
Although he himself had engaged in numerous debates and discussions about literature and politics with fellow coterie members and writers since his debut in 1965, Hong Shin-seon recalls how after moving to Andong in the 1980s and coming into daily contact with ordinary lives, he came to realize the speciousness of the very reality or ideologies that he and his friends had so often talked about. Hong felt that the people he encountered in Andong were “a key-hole, a password, and a symbol” in that they would allow him to “observe contemporary life”. Uri iut saramdeul (우리 이웃 사람들 Our Neighbors, 1984), an earlier collection from this period, features people from broad walks of life, from tearoom servers and people in migrant communities to brokers.3) Searching for the right form and way to depict the lives of people in an honest, truthful manner, Hong eventually came to turn to a sort of narrative poetry, or storied poetry.4) This collection marks Hong’s transition from brooding critical and intellectual poet to a poet interested in the lives of his neighbors.5)
This is still very much apparent in his next collection, Dasi gohyangeseo (다시 고향에서 Home Again, 1990), even if the backdrop is now the poet’s own hometown of Hwaseong rather than Andong. The poems collected here are especially notable for their embodiment of giving voice and form to agricultural/farming communities that have been hollowed out by industrialization and the loss of traditional forms of life and teeter on the brink of ruin.6) Hong’s attention to marginalized or excluded ‘neighbors’ continue in Salmui ongi (삶의 옹이 Gnarl of Life, 2014).7)
Maeumgyung Series
Hong Shin-seon published the first installment of his serial poem “Maeungyung” in 1991 and the last installment, collected in Uyeoneul jeom jjikda (우연을 점 찍다 Marking Out Coincidence), in 2009.8) This series of poems ponder life and death from the perspective of Buddhist thought. Hong says the impulse for this work came from the strong aversion he felt toward the general prevalence of poetry purporting to represent reality, as well as from the considerable shock he experienced at the demise of the socialist countries of the Eastern bloc, which prompted him to seek out work that was more reflective and that interrogated one’s inner life.9) As for his growing interest in Buddhism, he points to Kim Daljin’s poetry and the Buddhist seon poems10) translated by Kim as a direct influence on him.11) Hong’s serial poem captures his own dawning realization that life can be viewed much more clearly when one confronts rather than turns away from the solitude and futility of existence.12)
Reference
1) Author profile on aladin.co.kr.
https://www.aladin.co.kr/author/wauthor_overview.aspx?AuthorSearch=@52211
2) “[Special Feature] In Search of the Poet Hong Shin-seon”, Yeolinsihak, March 2010 Issue.
3) “[Special Feature] In Search of the Poet Hong Shin-seon”, Yeolinsihak, March 2010 Issue.
4) Yi Deokhun, “Putting one’s soul into the writing of poetry is a process rife with adventure”, Chosun Ilbo, 2004.03.07.
http://m.chosun.com/svc/article.html?sname=news&contid=2004030770264#wrap_id
5) Publisher’s book synopsis. http://moonji.com/book/4545/
6) “[Special Feature] In Search of the Poet Hong Shin-seon”, Yeolinsihak, March 2010 Issue.
7) Cho Minseo, “Salmui ongi asks unending questions about life and death”, The Asia Business Daily, 2014.05.26.
http://www.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?idxno=2014052611154264549
8) Lee Gowoon, “Hong Shin-seon’s new collection Uyeoneul jeom jjikda offers deep contemplations on life and death, The Korea Economic Daily, 2009.06.08.
https://www.hankyung.com/life/article/2009060828571
9) “[Special Feature] In Search of the Poet Hong Shin-seon”, Yeolinsihak, March 2010 Issue.
10) Seon poems refer to poetry that reflects Seon Buddhist thought (선사상 禪思想) and the process by which one attains or strives for awakening.
11) Park Roksam, “The 21st Kim Daljin Literature Prize: “I will eradicate rather than compromise my poetry”, Seoul Shinmun, 2010.05.26.
https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20100526022006#csidx1533ae4900baa
9cb95b7e18f3bc3a87
12) Baek Wonki, “The Poetics of Hong Shin-seon’s Maeungyung”, Buddhism Journal, 2011.10.15.
http://www.buddhismjournal.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=5234
