skip-navigation

한국문학번역원 로고

TOP

Korean Literature Now

Back to Cover Features

Hwang Tong-gyu: Poet on the Road to Discovery scrap

by Lee Soong-wongo link October 18, 2014

Hwang Tong-gyu: Poet on the Road to Discovery 이미지

Author Bio 작가 소개

황동규

Hwang Tong-gyu

Hwang Tong-gyu is a professor emeritus at Seoul National University and chairperson of the literature department at the National Academy of Arts. He was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley and NYU, and participated in the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. He has received the Lee San Literature Prize, Daesan Literary Award, Midang Literary Award, and Eungwan Order of Cultural Merit. His books of poems have been translated into English, German, French, and Spanish.

Born in April 1938, Hwang Tong-gyu made his debut as a poet in 1958 when he was a sophomore studying English Literature at Seoul National University. His debut poem, “A Joyful Letter,” which was written when the poet was eighteen, has since become a well-loved romantic poem in Korea. Hwang has so far penned 14 volumes of poems, all of which have been well received by his readership. This is a testament to his tireless strive for change and progress in his works. Borrowing his words, he has been fiercely committed to a life of multifarious creativity, challenging tradition, challenging others, challenging himself, and challenging language. His style went through several stages over the course of his career, most notably the “drama lyric” style that surfaced since his fifth book, When I See a Wheel, I Want to Roll It (1978). The terms “drama lyric” describes poems in which there is a change in the character’s actions or attitude, as is the case of plays. Hwang attempted to overcome the limits of lyric poems in order to diversely portray human existence. His style has gone through more innovative changes that have led to a unique world of poetry that combines western methodology with eastern thought.



Another important accomplishment is the Wind Burial series, which began in 1982 and ended in 1995. Wind Burial is a report on a poet’s evolving view on life and death when he was in his midforties to late-fifties. At the end of the series, the poet said, “It took me 14 years to learn that transcendence lies in a place that one does not transcend.” Writing on the same topic for many years, he has gained a wiser perspective of life and death. “I wrote poetry, and poetry taught me,” he said.





1. Wind Burial
2. Wind Burial (Published in German)
3. A Winter Night at 00:05 Hours
4. When I See a Wheel I Want to Roll It
5. I Used to Rely on Chances



His twelfth volume, I Used to Rely on Chances (2003), introduced another experimental style: a religious meditation on human existence and the fundamentals of life through a conversation between Buddha and Jesus. According to the poet, Buddha and Jesus both strove to lead people down different paths to the same place. The poet sets out to invalidate the Jesus-Buddha dichotomy, an effort born of his discovery of the importance of an average person’s heart, whether holy or worldly, and his Bodhisattva mentality of embracing and loving all creatures.
Lately his poetry has turned from the eruption of the senses to the unity of the senses, seeking to uncover the truth of life by using all senses. He attempts to move away from the relative notions of pain and elation in order to find the path the average person’s heart takes, and in the process hopes to find an affirmation of trust and love for fellow human beings on that path. He attempts to find the reactions that arise in a poet when he scrutinizes a visible object with a “deep vision.” In his poems, there is an interplay between the observer and the observed as they exchange meaning. To thus communicate with an object, one must lower one’s ego in approaching the object. This is also an act of love.



Whether the theme is travel or nature, Hwang Tong-gyu’s poems all address the same question: human beings. His poetry poses the question, “What does it mean to live a life?” The answer is not easy to come by. He seems to say that to live is to experience something beautiful, wretched, painful, breathtaking – indescribable. His poetry is still on the road to finding the answer. 



 



By Lee Soong-won

Writer 필자 소개

Lee Soong-won

Lee Soong-won

Literary Critic and Professor of Korean Literature Seoul Women’s University

Did you enjoy this article? 별점

Did you enjoy this article? Please rate your experience

Send