FEATURES
Four poems translated by Gabriel Sylvian
Read four poems by Korean poet Gi Hyeongdo, translated by Gabriel Silvian. These poems, a special addition to Cordite 35: Oz-Ko, are accompanied by an interview between Gabriel Silvian and Oz-Ko touree Terry Jaensch on Gi’s life and poetic works.
A Fortnight of Poetry in Seoul
(or, Someone’s Always Falling in Love with Korea and Doesn’t Want to Leave) I am at the boarding gate of Incheon Airport, waiting for my flight to be called and for my return journey to begin. I am wearing large …
Dialogue between Australian and Korean poets in Seoul
Australian poets Ivy Alvarez, Barry Hill and Terry Jaensch, accompanied by Asialink Literature Programme Officer Nicolas Low and Cordite’s Managing Editor David Prater, met with five Korean poets on 18 May 2011 in Seoul. Read a summary of the event, including excerpts from the Koreans’ poems.
Yi Sang House, Seoul
This gallery contains 20 photos.
The Conversations with Yi Sang project, co-organised by artist Jooyoung Lee, seeks to interrogate, engage with and memorialise the work of controversial twentieth-century Korean poet Yi Sang. View a gallery of images taken at the house during the Cordite tour of Korea in May 2011.
Oz-Ko (Hoju-Hanguk) is now online!
The task of bringing these poems to you has been nothing short of monumental. Starting with the combined efforts of twenty poets whose work was selected for this stage of the issue, followed by the Cordite editorial team’s struggles with the challenges of bi-lingual layout and formatting, and finally of course the crucial role played by our two Korean translators – 김재현 (Kim Gaihyun) and 김성현 (Kim Sunghyun) – it’s been a labour of love, and we hope you enjoy the results.
Kim Young-Moo and Perth
As somebody who was born elsewhere, I can identify with Kim Young-Moo’s Perth poetry. His awe for the Swan River corresponds with an awe that has bloomed through my own poetic tropes. It’s an awe I have seen flourish in the poetry of other West Australian poets, those who I admire or aspire toward. Perhaps it’s the innate love of rivers, a shared ancestral respect for these points where we build our cities.
Posted in FEATURES Tagged Kim Young-Moo, Ozko Features, Perth, Scott-Patrick Mitchell Leave a commentWhat the Job is – Notes on Racism and the Cultural Divide
My plan to start teaching phonetics in my Korean English class actually germinated in Nepal. I began to notice signs similar to ones I had seen in Korea, toting the English language as a kind of educational panacea. I found myself wondering if the modern world was engaged in a cultural war, an effort to arm itself with my mother tongue. A policy of Mutually Assured Comprehension.
The Bastards Learned How to Swim
My drinking has always had a very narrow purpose, one that I’ve repeatedly given up without issue or pain; it is a bonus to rather than a facet of my days. But when I moved to Seoul I was confronted with a type of drinking attitude that insisted my commitment to alcohol be put to the test. For the first time I was taking part in a night life that had no half measures, no flip side to the coin: it’s go for a drink or go to bed. And if you choose bed, you better take a drink along.
Jeju-do, with family: A Korean photo essay
This gallery contains 12 photos.
“It was before the Christmas of 2008 when my brother and his girlfriend came to visit my dad and I in Seoul. That’s over two years ago now and I didn’t keep a diary at the time. I have some memories, and I have some photos, and I have some memories from some photos. And I have some emails.”
Impressions of Modern Korean Poetry in Translation
Compared with Korean poetry, there is an avalanche of translations available of the Chinese and Japanese poets, and most poetry-readers would have some familiarity with Li Po, Tu Fu, Wang Wei, Basho and others. But how many have heard of Hwang Jin Yi, Han Yong Un, Pak Mogwol, Ko Un, Kim Chiha?
Oz-Ko Envoy (Editorial)
When the call for submissions to Cordite’s thirty-fifth issue went out last November, it included the following ‘instructions’ for potential contributors: “For this issue, while the overarching aim is Australia-Korea relations, we instead seek works on any theme. Although works that take Korean themes as their inspiration will of course be considered, the focus is on attracting engaging, innovative, translatable and contemporary works, no matter their ostensible subject(s).”
‘You’re alive, and I’m alive’: resistance and remembering in Ko Ŭn’s Maninbo
Ko Ŭn is a literary giant who has gathered together a suite of folk stories, anecdotes, vignettes and asides in order to construct the monumental edifice of his Maninbo. The title translates literally as the ‘family records of ten thousand lives’, and the poet seems compelled to record the details of those who might otherwise be erased from history.
Elizabeth Gralton: The Immortal Malley and the End of Modernity
The Ern Malley hoax provoked a debate that was not by any means unique to Australia. Indeed, the Ern Malley affair is simply an antipodean manifestation of a long-standing discussion in Western culture about the best way for literature and art to respond to the impact of modernity on society.
Recasting the Mould: "Beyond is Anything"
This gallery contains 9 photos.
Upon hearing of our Children of Malley II edition of Cordite, one of our readers sent us in an unexpected surprise. Lurking in the wings was a Malley encounter we never expected: we found that the hoax lives on.
