DITTA: Korean Humanities in Translation – serie

In his poetry collection, Flatfish, Moon Tae-jun offers an aesthetic that emphasizes the author’s exploration of the inner self. At times sparse and allusive, his poems use blank space and other stylistic considerations to convey a voice and thought that ranges from the contemplative to the surreal and absurd. Moon’s poems suggest Buddhist ideologies, natural images, and Korean temples, as the collection explores individual experiences within the context of a search for understanding a greater whole.While Korea is certainly the setting of these poems, the works remain largely free of cultural-specific imagery and are, instead, naturalistic or universal. This first bilingual edition is a critical resource for students, poets, translators, and general readers alike.

In his poetry collection, Flatfish, Moon Tae-jun offers an aesthetic that emphasizes the author’s exploration of the inner self. At times sparse and allusive, his poems use blank space and other stylistic considerations to convey a voice and thought that ranges from the contemplative to the surreal and absurd. Moon’s poems suggest Buddhist ideologies, natural images, and Korean temples, as the collection explores individual experiences within the context of a search for understanding a greater whole.While Korea is certainly the setting of these poems, the works remain largely free of cultural-specific imagery and are, instead, naturalistic or universal. This first bilingual edition is a critical resource for students, poets, translators, and general readers alike.

Historian and novelist Song WooHye chronicles the life of Yun Dong-ju (1917-1945), one of the most beloved and important poets in the modern Korean literary canon, widely considered Korea's "National Poet". Beginning with the history of the North Gando region (now Yanbian, China), where Yun was born, and ending with facts behind the publication of his only and posthumous poetry collection, Sky, Wind, Star, and Poem, this critical biography elucidates who Yun Dong-ju really was, with factual descriptions of the bleak and turbulent period of Japan’s colonization of Korea.  While first working on the book in the 1980s, Song had interviewed the poet’s surviving relatives and friends, most of whom have since passed away. Without her interviews, these important first-hand accounts would have been lost. Song had an added advantage of an “insider,” as she is a niece of Song Mong-gyu, who was the poet’s first cousin and inseparable friend for life. Incorporating newly discovered materials and using interviews with the beloved poet's family and friends, this biography is the most comprehensive, definitive biography of Yun Dong-ju to date, now available in English for the first time.This book is published with the support of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).

Historian and novelist Song WooHye chronicles the life of Yun Dong-ju (1917-1945), one of the most beloved and important poets in the modern Korean literary canon, widely considered Korea's "National Poet". Beginning with the history of the North Gando region (now Yanbian, China), where Yun was born, and ending with facts behind the publication of his only and posthumous poetry collection, Sky, Wind, Star, and Poem, this critical biography elucidates who Yun Dong-ju really was, with factual descriptions of the bleak and turbulent period of Japan’s colonization of Korea.  While first working on the book in the 1980s, Song had interviewed the poet’s surviving relatives and friends, most of whom have since passed away. Without her interviews, these important first-hand accounts would have been lost. Song had an added advantage of an “insider,” as she is a niece of Song Mong-gyu, who was the poet’s first cousin and inseparable friend for life. Incorporating newly discovered materials and using interviews with the beloved poet's family and friends, this biography is the most comprehensive, definitive biography of Yun Dong-ju to date, now available in English for the first time.This book is published with the support of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).

An elderly Korean woman talking about being forced into sexual slavery during World War II. A modern Korean woman extricating herself from a failing relationship with an artist. Award-winning South Korean writer Kim Soom presents us with portraits of two women who couldn’t be more different but who both show resilience and compassion. No Hand Held Mine: Stories, containing one non-fiction piece and one short story, demonstrates the power and breadth of Kim’s writing. “Granny Wild Goose” uses former Comfort Woman Gil Won-Ok’s own words, recorded during conversations with Kim, to tell her life story of brutality, betrayal, and survival. In “The Root’s Tale,” the female protagonist comes to understand the strength of solitary women. Both devastating and reaffirming, No Hand Held Mine shows why Kim Soom has received every major literary award in Korea. Joon-Li Kim and Doo-Sun Ryu’s sensitive translation maintains Kim’s lyricism and exquisite imagery.This book is published with the support of The Daesan Foundation.

An elderly Korean woman talking about being forced into sexual slavery during World War II. A modern Korean woman extricating herself from a failing relationship with an artist. Award-winning South Korean writer Kim Soom presents us with portraits of two women who couldn’t be more different but who both show resilience and compassion. No Hand Held Mine: Stories, containing one non-fiction piece and one short story, demonstrates the power and breadth of Kim’s writing. “Granny Wild Goose” uses former Comfort Woman Gil Won-Ok’s own words, recorded during conversations with Kim, to tell her life story of brutality, betrayal, and survival. In “The Root’s Tale,” the female protagonist comes to understand the strength of solitary women. Both devastating and reaffirming, No Hand Held Mine shows why Kim Soom has received every major literary award in Korea. Joon-Li Kim and Doo-Sun Ryu’s sensitive translation maintains Kim’s lyricism and exquisite imagery.This book is published with the support of The Daesan Foundation.

The history of the Korean popular music industry dates back a century before the beginnings of K-Pop, to when the Korean peninsula was still under Japanese rule. Though Koreans didn't have an independent country, they were still able to use recorded music to assert a distinct cultural identity. Brother Is a Street Musician chronicles the development of Korean popular music over the first half of the twentieth century, examining both industry trends and talented composers and performers like Nam Insu and Yi Nanyǒng. Drawing from rare archives of gramophone records and lyric books, musicologist Zhang Eujeong shows how Korean musicians drew from folk traditions to create totally new genres, ranging from comic songs to Western-influenced jazz records. She also includes English translations and detailed analyses of lyrics from some of the era's most popular songs.A landmark study of Korean music, now available in English for the first time, Brother Is a Street Musician tells the inspiring story of how a colonized people developed their own form of popular music, planting the seeds for an industry that would grow to export Korean culture around the world.

The history of the Korean popular music industry dates back a century before the beginnings of K-Pop, to when the Korean peninsula was still under Japanese rule. Though Koreans didn't have an independent country, they were still able to use recorded music to assert a distinct cultural identity. Brother Is a Street Musician chronicles the development of Korean popular music over the first half of the twentieth century, examining both industry trends and talented composers and performers like Nam Insu and Yi Nanyǒng. Drawing from rare archives of gramophone records and lyric books, musicologist Zhang Eujeong shows how Korean musicians drew from folk traditions to create totally new genres, ranging from comic songs to Western-influenced jazz records. She also includes English translations and detailed analyses of lyrics from some of the era's most popular songs.A landmark study of Korean music, now available in English for the first time, Brother Is a Street Musician tells the inspiring story of how a colonized people developed their own form of popular music, planting the seeds for an industry that would grow to export Korean culture around the world.

Kim Myeong-sun is Korea's first published woman writer. Fruit of Life: Poems (생명의 과실: 김명순 시선) is the first book-length, Korean-to-English translation of her poetry. Kim's poems offer a raw portrait of 1920s–30s Korea, driven by her personal experiences of sexual assault, misogynistic journalism and criticism, displacement, and poverty during the Japanese colonial occupation (1910– 1945). Alongside feminist and anti-colonial critique, Kim also writes about sapphic desire, familial affection, and nature, in styles that range from the traditional to the experimental. While Kim's work was erased from the canon by Korea's misogynistic literary establishment, Fruit of Life celebrates the legacy of Kim's radical, versatile poetry, which paved the way for contemporary Korean women writers. English-Korean Bilingual Edition 영-한 이중언어판This book is published with the support of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).'한국 여성 최초 등단 작가' 김명순의 시가 영문 완역본 『생명의 과실: 김명순 시선』으로 영어권 독자들을 만난다. 1920–30년대 조선 사회의 민낯을 강렬하고 가감 없는 언어로 담아낸 김명순의 시는, 일제강점기 아래 성폭력과 여성혐오적 언론 및 비평, 이주와 빈곤을 직접 겪어낸 작가의 여성주의적·반식민주의적 저항 정신을 생생히 드러낸다. 또한 전통과 실험을 넘나드는 다채로운 형식과 기법으로 여성 간 연대와 사랑, 가족애, 자연에 대하여 노래한다. 『생명의 과실: 김명순 시선』은 여성혐오적 문단으로부터 소외당한 김명순의 작품을 재조명하며, 한국 여성문학의 새로운 지평을 연 그의 업적을 기념한다.