Park Nohae (1957~) is a South Korean poet. He is one of the representative labor poets of the 1980s. He made his literary debut publishing “Sidaui Kkum” (시다의 꿈 A Dream of a Tailor’s Assistant) in a literary coterie magazine Siwa Gyeongje. In spite of the military government’s official ban, his first poetry collection Nodongui Saebyeok (노동의 새벽 Dawn of Labor) was sold nearly a million copies. Following the first one, he published three more poetry collections: Chamdoen Sijak (참된 시작 True Beginning, 1993), Gyeouri Kkotpinda (겨울이 꽃핀다 The Winter is Blooming, 1999) and Geureoni Geudae Sarajiji Marara (그러니 그대 사라지지 말아라 So You Must Not Disappear, 2010).
1. Life
Park Nohae was born on November 20th, 1957 in Hampyeong, Jeollanam-do. His original name was Park Gi-pyeong. His father, Park Jeongmuk, belonged to the Donggang-myeon, Goheung branch of the South Korea Labor Party and supported the Yeosu-Suncheon rebel army. He ended his life as a drug peddler, and Park Nohae spent his childhood as a “son of a commie” in a poor family. After his father’s death in 1962, his mother took over peddling to raise the children. Park Nohae graduated from the night class of Seoul Sunrin Commercial High school in 1977. Afterwards, he worked as a laborer to make a living in various places – Samwon Steel, a textile factory in Gunja-dong, a construction site in Cheongryang-ri, small factories in Seongsu-dong and Annam Transportation, etc. It was during this period that he was a member of Seoul Worker’s Union. He first made appearance in the literary world as a “faceless poet,” publishing six poems – “Sidaui Kkum”; “Haneul” (하늘 The Sky); “Eolmajjariji” (얼마짜리지 How Much Could It Be?); “Bagenseil” (바겐세일 A Bargain Sale); “Geurium” (그리움 Longing); and “Bom” (봄 Spring) – in Siwa Gyeongje, a literary coterie magazine founded by Hwang Ji-U, Kim Jeong-hwan and Kim Sa-in, etc. In 1984, his first poetry collection Nodongui Saebyeok was published, after which he spent seven years of his life hiding from the police until he was finally arrested in 1991. He helped establishing the South Korean Socialist Workers Alliance in 1989. Being involved in South Korean Socialist Workers Alliance Affair (남한사회주의노동자동맹 사건), he was arrested and demanded the death sentence for the violation of the National Security Act. He was finally sentenced to life imprisonment. In prison, his second poetry collection Chamdoen Sijak (1993) was published, as well as a collection of essays Sarammani Huimangida (사람만이 희망이다 Only a Person Is Hope, 1997) containing his talks and notes in jail. He was discharged in 1998 after seven years and six months by the President Kim Dae-jung’s special pardon. Thereafter, he was reinstated as a contributor to the democratization movement, but refused any state compensation. In 1999, he published his third poetry collection, Gyeouri Kkotpinda.
Afterwards, he refrained from expressing his stance on social issues. Instead, he engaged in peace activities visiting impoverished and war-ridden areas around the world. He also established a social organization called “Nanum Munhwa” (Culture of Sharing) under the banner of sharing.[1] In 2003, with the outbreak of Iraq War, he undertook peace activities in disputed areas in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Central and South America. In 2010, he held his first photo exhibition “Ra Gwangya” (라 광야 Ra Wilderness) and “Na Geogie Geudeulcheoreom” (나 거기에 그들처럼 Like Them, I Am There). In 2014, he held photo exhibition on Asia, titled “Dareun Gil” (다른 길 Another Way), and at the same time published his collection of photo essays with the same title Dareun Gil.
2. Writing
Not until the publication of Nodongui Saebyeok in 1984 did Korean literary world and readers take notice of Park Nohae. His distinctive career as a laborer and the mystique of being so-called a “faceless poet” resonated with the atmosphere of those days when discussions on the people literature were relatively active, which in turn positioned him and his first poetry collection as sort of a cultural icon of the mid-late 1980s. Park Nohae was considered “the most revolutionary labor poet of [the] time,” “the poet who became a mirror of the laborers” and “the flag bearer of the labor poets of the 1980s.” This was because his hands-on experiences as a laborer had him overcome ideality and unreality, distinguishing him from the previous labor literature that had been led by intellectuals.
There was a famous story that co-workers of Park Nohae, who didn’t know that he was the anonymous poet, gave him the poetry collection Nodongui Saebyeok he himself had written. The collection is in three parts – part 1. “Sarangiyeo Mojin Saengmyeongiyeo” (사랑이여 모진 생명이여 Oh Love, Oh Wretched Life); part 2 “Nodongui Saebyeok” (노동의 새벽 Dawn of Labor); and part 3 “Sae Ttangeul Wihayeo” (새 땅을 위하여 For the New Land). A critic, Chae Gwangseok, wrote commentaries saying: “[Park’s works] melt all the despair, sorrow, grudge and anger of common people in love, that is, a fight for the world of human dignity. He unifies them into devoted sentiment of liberation of people.”[2]
The title piece, “Nodongui Saebyeok,” depicts exhausted workers after a night shift. The narrator of the poem, “I,” pours “icy soju” meaning “wrath and sorrow” to him after a “war-like night shift,” submitting to inescapable “labor,” “tough life” and the “yoke of poverty.” But the last stanza of the poem, “This unavoidable wall of despair / will break and burst in the end / in rough drops of sweat and blood, / as for the sake of our calmly breathing, / growing love, / our fury, / our hope and unity” shows heroic resolution to overcome the contradiction of the severe reality of labor.
The second poetry collection Chamdoen Sijak was published while he was imprisoned, having been sentenced to life imprisonment for the violation of the National Security Act. It consists of three parts: 35 poems written in prison, including “Gyeongju Namsanjarage Nareul Mudeun Geon” (경주 남산자락에 나를 묻은 건 That I Buried Myself at the Foot of Namsan Mountain of Gyeongju) and “Baram Jal Nal Eopseora” (바람 잘 날 없어라 There Is No Day without Wind); 46 poems that had been published; and 3 epic poems that had been published in the Nodong Haebang Munhak in 1989. Being published when labor literature was on the decline due to the fall of socialism economy and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, Chamdoen Sijak was evaluated by some that “its poetic completeness, or poetic achievement, [was] weaker than the former works.”[3] It could not evade being criticized to be a schematic “Proletarian Poetry” as the poems exposed the aspects of social reality and conflict rather directly, in a form of slogans. However, some appreciated the poet’s agony facing the inevitable change of time and his genuine will to escape therefrom. It was a process of an 80s poet Park Nohae, who had cried out for labor liberation, turning into a poet of the 90s; a poetic process of a person in a group transforming into an individual.
The third poetry collection Gyeouri Kkotpinda (1999) and the fourth Geureoni Geudae Sarajiji Marara (2010) show the poet’s way of existence reflecting the changing time. Park Nohae published Sarammani Huimangida (1997) and Oneureun Dareuge (오늘은 다르게 Today Is Different, 1999) before he was freed by special pardon on August 15th, 1998. The poems in these collections show hope for the future of unity, inclusivity and change, which continues to his works after the discharge. In particular, Geureoni Geudae Sarajiji Marara, published after the poet started living the value of peace and sharing around disputed areas of the world, draws attention in that it expands the subject of his poem from “laborers” to “the weak.”[4]
Reference
[1] Nanum Munhwa (Culture of Sharing) http://www.nanum.com
[2] 채광석, <노동현장의 눈동자>, ≪노동의 새벽≫, 풀빛, 1984 / Chae Gwangseok, “Pupils of a Labor Site,” Dawn of Labor, Pulbit, 1984
[3] 김희진, <박노해 시의 변모양상 연구>, ≪인문학연구≫ 48, 2014 / Hee Jin Kim, “A Study on the Changing Aspects of the Park No-hae`s Poetry,” Humanities Study 48, 2014
[4] 최명국, ≪박노해 시 연구≫, 충남대학교 대학원 석사학위논문, 2010 / Choi Myeongguk, “A Study on Pak-nohae's poems,” Master’s diss., Chungnam National University
