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[Essay] Quotidian Life in Plain Truth scrap
by Lee Soong-won
July 16, 2015
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Author Bio 작가 소개
Kim Kwang-Kyu
“Those songs we sang for no reward rose up into the winter sky and fell as shooting stars.” (“Huimihan Yetsarangui Geurimja” [“Faint Shadows of Old Love”], Urireul Jeoksineun Majimak Kkum [The Last Dream to Drench Us]. Translated by Brother Anthony, of Taize, Moonji Publishing co., Ltd., 1979)
Kim Kwang-Kyu is a poet who expresses everyday emotions in plain language.
Kim Kwang-Kyu’s poems are easy to read. His poems depict everyday stories through simple language. However, simplicity of language does not imply that Kim’s poems contain a common message. Behind Kim’s unpretentious wording lies a twist of plot; within everyday language hides an allusive motif hinting at a higher meaning. Kim’s poems help us grasp aspects of life that we might have never considered or perceived before.
Kim takes note of the different facets of our everyday lives. He does not believe that life’s truth lies in some mysterious place detached from our ordinary lives. He seeks truth in the specificity of life without relying on ideological or metaphysical ideas. Because life is specific, the language he uses to express it is specific as well. Seen from this perspective, Kim’s seemingly straightforward narratives are in fact part of a sophisticated strategy directed towards discovering the truth about life. He creates a narrative structure suited for his unique and meticulous observation of life’s specific situations. This is why all of his poems have a different narrative and structure despite being written plainly: he is a poet who changes his technique to fit the theme of each poem.
In “One Leaf,” for example, the first two and the last two stanzas have different implications. In the first two stanzas, Kim refers to his obliviousness, while, in the last two, he alludes to a newly realized truth. He arranges the stanzas this way so that his obliviousness in the beginning emphasizes the significance of the discovery that follows. From a reader’s perspective, the poem’s first half generates curiosity about the nature of the poet’s ignorance: a curiosity quenched by the discovery in the latter half. With this strategy, the poet shares the joy of discovery with the reader. Kim has arranged the stanzas in accordance with the desired psychological effect on the reader.
The title, “One Leaf,” refers to the poet’s discovery and encapsulates the poem’s theme. We are accustomed to admiring the beauty of the verdure or the splendor of maple leaves in their entirety. Typically, we think of a forest or a mountain as being responsible for the beauty of nature as a whole. However, when the poet sees a leaf dangling at the tip of a branch of a gaunt tree fall, he realizes that change in the forest is brought about by each individual change. Each individual sprouting leaf gives rise to a forest of green; each individual falling leaf lays bare the mountain. The logic here is manifest, but we always look at the forest and mountain without being conscious of this connection. Only after reading this poem do we realize the importance of the individual.
This unique technique can be seen in “The Land of Mists” as well. At the start, Kim says that in a land always shrouded in mist, nothing ever happens because nothing can be seen. In reality, it is not that nothing happens, but rather that people think nothing happens because they cannot see anything happening. Accustomed to not seeing, the people of that land do not try to see. Their eyes atrophy while their ears grow bigger like a rabbit’s. The poet uses this allegory to satirize how a society where information is controlled causes man’s powers of insight to become paralyzed, leaving room only for an unnatural fascination with rumors. The line, “People like rabbits / with ears of white mist / live in the land of mists” seems to simply present an image of gentle rabbits, but the allusion is to an abnormal loss of an essential function. If the poet himself were in this situation, the poem could be read as a satire criticizing an oppressive reality. If readers placed in a similar situation read this poem, they might go through a process of serious self-criticism and arrive at a reflective awakening leading to a drastic change in in their lives.
Readers who are aware that Kim lives in a divided land can comprehend the profound meaning behind the simple wording of “North South East West” and can understand his distinct viewpoint. The Korean peninsula is split into the North and the South, one people divided into two nations, which leads to conflict and strife. Naturally, unification is a major issue for him.
Kim observes nature and looks for clues on how to overcome division within the ecology of plants that are unhindered by borders or lines. Spring journeys from the South to the cold North, while winter journeys from the North to the warm South. This is a natural seasonal change in temperatures. In spring, flowers that bloom in the South rise and spread northward; in fall, leaves that become tinged with golden hues in the North drop and spread southward. The poet uses the terms weolbuk or “cross[ing] the border north” and weolnam or “cross[ing] the border south” to describe this movement, terms that both nations avoid. Seasons cycle through the North and South unhindered. Even blizzards pay no heed to where they fall—whether it is the north, south, east, or west. Nature is unified to this extent and yet ideology has splintered a nation in two.
We can surmise why Kim Kwang-Kyu leaves out ideology and looks for truth in everyday life. Ideologies detached from real life suppress humankind. Religious wars and ethnic strife are caused by man-made ideologies. Humanity needs to rid itself of ideology and seek the truth in quotidian life. It is the same reason why you remember an ordinary “airport near the beach” where you had a “brief unscheduled rest” far longer than some “famed scenic sights” highlighted on a map. 
Writer 필자 소개
Lee Soong-won
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