Poems by Cho Ji Hoon Translated by Sekyo Nam Haines

Born in 1920, Cho Ji Hoon is a canonical poet of modern Korea and a renowned scholar of Korean aesthetics. Written in a modernist free-verse form, his poetry is rooted in the literary Sijo that began in 12^th century and has the intense local flavors, imbued with the sounds, smells and colors of pre-industrial Korea.  In 1939, Cho Ji Hoon’s first poem appeared in the literary magazine MoonJang.  In 1946, his poetry appeared in the collection, Cheongnok Jip (청록집) along with the works of Park Mokwohl and Pak Doo Zin. The three were known as “Cheongnokpa,” or the “Green Deer Poets.” A professor of Korean language and literature at Korea University for 20 years, Cho Ji Hoon served as the president of the Korean cultural society affiliated with the university and president of the Korean poets’ association. He received numerous literary awards and published five poetry collections, as well as many books related to Korean literature and culture. He died in 1968.

Born in South Korea, Sekyo Nam Haines immigrated to the U.S. in 1973 as a registered nurse. She received her BA in American literature and writing at Goddard College ADP. She continued her study of English literature at the Harvard Extension school and poetry with the late Ottone M. Riccio in Boston, MA. Her first book, Bitter Seasons’ Whip: The Complete Poems of Lee Yuk Sa, was published in 2022 (Tolsun Books). Her poems appear in the poetry journals Constellations, Off the Coast, and Lily Poetry Review, and elsewhere.  Her translations of Kim Sowohl’s poetry appear in The Harvard Review, The Brooklyn Rail: In Translation, Ezra, and Circumference.  Her translations of Cho Ji Hoon appear in Interim, Asymptote’s Translation Tuesday blog, The Fourth River, Tupelo Quarterly, Anomaly, The Tampa Review, May Day, Guernica Magazine, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Azonal, Diode, Common, Consequence Forum,  Rhino and The Hopper Poetry and are forthcoming in Gulf Coast Journal. Sekyo lives in Cambridge, MA with her family.

21 September 2023