Pak Hui-jin explained

Pak Huijin
Birth Date:4 December 1931
Birth Place:Keiki-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan
Death Date:[1]
Occupation:Teacher, poet
Language:Korean
Alma Mater:Korea University
Module:
Child:yes
Korean name
Hangul:박희진
Rr:Bak Hui-jin
Mr:Pak Hŭichin

Pak Huijin (December 4, 1931 – March 31, 2015) was a South Korean poet.[2] [3]

Biography

Pak Huijin was born in Keiki-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan on December 4, 1931. In 1956 at the age of 25, three of his poems were recommended to the arts journal Literary Art (문학예술), thus beginning his formal career as a poet. His love of literature, however, was apparent from a very young age. He recalls that when he was asked as a primary school student about his dream for the future, he answered unhesitatingly, "to become a writer." Due to the colonial circumstances of the time, he spoke and wrote in Japanese, and because his first encounters with literature were in Japanese, he was greatly interested in Japanese novels and poetry, especially the haiku.[4] Pak Huijin was born in Keiki-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan on December 4, 1931. In 1956 at the age of 25, three of his poems were recommended to the arts journal Literary Art (문학예술), thus beginning his formal career as a poet. His love of literature, however, was apparent from a very young age. He recalls that when he was asked as a primary school student about his dream for the future, he answered unhesitatingly, "to become a writer." Due to the colonial circumstances of the time, he spoke and wrote in Japanese, and because his first encounters with literature were in Japanese, he was greatly interested in Japanese novels and poetry, especially the haiku.[4]

Pak attended Korea University, where he majored in English, and worked as a teacher at Tongseong Junior High and High School. He was a member of the Sahwajip literary club in the 1960s, and also a member of the poetry reading club Space.[5]

Pak Huijin, who remained single his entire life, admitted in his own words, "I married poetry." He refrained from participation in writers' groups which often fell into the snares of political ideology, rather devoting himself to the perfecting of his poetic art. He has boasted that he "made real contributions to the literary coterie magazine movement in Korea," and also had great pride as the poet "who first truly experimented with the poetry recitation movement." Defining poets as those who are "insanely in love with words," he emphasized that poets "must pour every ounce of their effort into language".

Career

Pak Huijin's poetry starkly contrasts heaven and earth and contradictions between light and darkness.[5] Following Korea's liberation from Japan, Pak engrossed himself in writing poetry in his mother tongue. At first his Korean was inelegant, but he strove to create his own poetic world, drawing upon artistic trends from both inside and outside Korea. Having majored in English literature at university, Pak was heavily influenced by Romantic poets like T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats, as well as the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke and the French poet Paul Valéry. Pak also received great inspiration from traditionalist Korean poets, such as his contemporaries, the renowned Seo Jeong-ju and Yu Chi-hwan, as well as Jo Jihun, Pak Mok-wol and Pak Dujin, both of whom wrote traditional nature poetry.[4]

Unusually for modern Korean poets, Pak Huijin also wrote traveling poems, primarily as a result of his extensive travel in the United States and Europe.[5]

Works

Works in translation

Works in Korean (partial)

Awards

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 원로시인 박희진 노환으로 별세. Newsis. 2015-04-01. 2015-06-10. Korean.
  2. "박희진" biographical PDF available at LTI Korea Library or online at: Web site: Author Database - Korea Literature Translation Institute. September 3, 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055413/http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do. September 21, 2013.
  3. Web site: 박희진. Doopedia. 2015-06-10. Korean.
  4. "Bak Hui-jin" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: Web site: Author Database - Korea Literature Translation Institute . September 3, 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055413/http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do . September 21, 2013.
  5. Book: Who's Who in Korean Literature. Park Hijin. 390–92–15. Lee Kyung-ho. Hollym. Seoul. 1996. 1-56591-066-4.