| Mun Tae-jun | |||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea | ||||||||||
| Occupation: | Writer, poet | ||||||||||
| Language: | Korean | ||||||||||
| Nationality: | South Korean | ||||||||||
| Alma Mater: | Korea University | ||||||||||
| Module: |
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Mun Tae-jun (born 1970) is a South Korean poet.[1]
Mun Tae-jun has published several poetry collections since his prize-winning debut in 1994, and the great artistic potential of his works have gained the attention of many literary artists and critics.[2]
Mun Tae-jun's poems employ a comforting language to soothe the wounds of the soul. His poems seek to assuage the pains of those suffering from the violence and oppression of a heartless society. He values "conversation" highly, emphasizing full empathy between two existences, such as when he says, "That over there, is in me here; and I here, am in that over there. Let me respect that which is not me, and therefore those things that are me." The poet aspires to a state in which the subject and object are not distinct form one another, but fused together. In this respect, Mun Tae-jun carries on the traditional lyrical tradition.[3] His poetry collection The Development of Dusk (2008) was translated to English by Kim Won-Chung and Christopher Merrill and published as The Growth of a Shadow (2012). A handful of his other works have also been translated.[4]