A brief synopsis

Radiant is Lee Byeong-ryul’s third poetry book. Published three years and three months after his previous poetry book, Private Life of Wind, it is full of trembling lives that were encountered through ‘being alive’. This book contains 55 poems, into which the poet sculpted the ‘radiant’ moments of life, utterly transparent and luminous, through his eyes and fingertips.

What is ‘radiant’? The poet tells us: ‘The attempt to live is radiant’. The dictionary definition of ‘radiant’ is a state in which light or numerous lights shine brightly. It is the state in which light is so intensely bright that it feels ornate and beautiful. In lieu of this light, the poem substitutes the state of ‘being alive’. Therefore, all things that attempt to live are radiant. ‘Radiant’ sings admiration and volition for life. The language of poet Byeong-ryul Lee is as urgent and pure as that of a baby who has just started to learn to speak. His poems are the inside stories of life that is molded in his fine language. In this book, the reader will be able to discover another self, and to feel the poet’s earnest and silent gaze into bottomless sadness.