Kim Jeong-hwan (born 1954) is a South Korean poet, novelist, critic, and translator.
1. Life
Kim Jeong-hwan was born in Seoul and studied English literature at Seoul National University. Kim made his literary debut in 1980 when the quarterly Changbi published his "Mapogangbyeon dongneeseo" (마포강변 동네에서 Mapo, At a Riverside Town) and five other poems. He is known for the poems "Haebang seosi" (해방 서시) and "Yuchaekkotbat" (유채꽃밭) and has published some 25 poetry collections over his career, including Jiul su eomneun norae (지울 수 없는 노래 A Song That Cannot Be Erased), Hwangsaengnyesu (황색예수 The Biography of Yellow Jesus), and Uri nodongja (우리 노동자 We the Laborers); five novels, and numerous volumes of essays, nonfiction, and literary criticism. As a translator, Kim has undertaken the gargantuan task of translating Shakespeare’s complete works into Korean, a project he completed from 2008 to 2012. He has received the 2007 Baek Seok Literary Award and the 2017 Manhae Literature Prize. Jasugyeonbonjip (자수견본집 An Embroidery Sampler) carries his Korean poems alongside his own English translations.
2. Writing
Kim's first poetry collection, Jiul su eomneun norae, depicts the internal turmoil and strife of an intellectual who suffers under the dire political conditions and absence of free thinking in the Korea of the early 1980s. The poetry of this era did not often offer a direct or mainstream depiction of contemporary social realities, but was rather an expression of sympathy and admiration for the minjung and their sorrow and resentment.
His serialized poetry collection, Hwangsaengnyesu, surpasses the narrow scope of his early poems, and offers a personal and positive perspective on saving the people. In this collection, the poet allows the reader to hear the messages for the people's independence and struggle through the words of Jesus and from the perspective of heaven.
Kim's voice in Uri nodongja is more declarative than in his earlier poems, an indication of the increasingly political nature of his works. Laborers are also central figures who reject hypocrisy and falsity to quest instead for freedom in a land where they suffer from exploitation and oppression. The poet's examination of a society actualized chiefly by the working class, is his most lucid, clearly constructed work, and clearly exhibits the poetic transformation undergone in the late 1980s.
In the late 1990s, Kim published Gichae daehayeo (기차에 대하여 About Trains). The poems in this collection, through simple, concise diction free of the occasional monotony of prose, effectively reveal the worldview and character of the working class.
In his latest collection, An Embroidery Sampler, the poet plunges deep into the themes of time and death, as well as emphasizing the importance of taking ownership of Korean culture, the driving force behind our sense of community.
