Customer Reviews

The Poet

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Poetry is the highest level of language subtlety and complexity. It takes work to comprehend and understand. Korean poetry in translation is next to impossible to access, grasp, or appreciate, especially for readers steeped in Western traditions. Fortunately, this novel is not so much about poetry, even though some very nice explanations abound; it is about the poet. When a tradition mandates that the political miscalculations of a person must be visited upon the `third and fourth generation' by society, most Westerners are unable to grasp the gravity and finality of such social behavior. Their ideology of individualism cannot comprehend such group power. Yi Mun-yol, and his translator, Chong-Wha Chung, bridge some of these cultural divides by simply looking at the poetry we call life. Thus, we are all poets, and when the suffering poet, Kim, of this novel wanders into the countryside, we walk with him. Life can be cold and cruel, full of inner turmoil and pain. Our lives may be different, but many of the elements of life's poetry are universal. We live in times that are harried and hurried. If there is a need to pause and reflect, contemplate and feed the soul, walking with Yi Mun-yol's THE POET may provide some food for thought.

Poet is a very exciting and interesting book. Among all the books that I've read, this would be the number one book that I would recommend to everyone.

I chanced to find this book at London when I was traveling there, and was very happy to find it on the shelve though it was placed too deep to find it out. Anyway, it really reminded me the discrepancy between what we believe right and what really happened several centuries ago. We are still believing that any forms of discrimination no matter what color we are, wher we live, how much we earn. But discrimination was there where the story goes. This book does not only mirror the emotional flows of Kim Sat-kat, but tries to argue about the twisted social structure. And this attempt beautifully melted into the poem, Korean traditional 4 line poem which Kim wrote.

this story is about family, art and history. the poet's self-exiled journey is still too realistic for many koreans even today. the ideology that an individual cannot be freed from, distorts individual life into empty cynicism and self-hatred, especially in the circle of "artists." the traditional connection of writers with intellectuals, and intellectuals with conscience, is in the root of (in)famous debates between "pure literature" and "engagement." the writer suffers in the middle, but still he has to deal with his family history first. anyway, it turns out to be not so different from the collective history, in terms that it situates the weak and (maybe therefore) suffering conscience of today. and lastly, the poet was nothing but the prisoner of his poems (language).

This story relates the unhappy life of Kim Sakkat, "Kim who wears a bamboo hat".This talented poet composed a poem which dishonored his grandfather who allegedly aided rebels fighting the Choson dynasty.This lack of filial piety cost him his peace of mind. He took to a life of wandering about Korea. At one point, however, he learns that his grandfather was perceived as a hero by the local peasantry. This helps to mend the broken spirit which cursed him most of his life.The tale is interesting in that it mirrors Yi moon-yol's own life- his father defected to the North. The tension of divided loyalites is portrayed through a graceful, balanced writing style