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Sowol Kim 1902 - 1934 (32)

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Azaleas



Kim Sowol (real name Kim Jeong-sik (김정식; 金 廷 湜), 1902-1934) was a Korean poet, one of the founders of modern Korean poetry. He was born on September 7, 1902 in Kwaksan, North Pyong'an Province, in present-day North Korea. His childhood was marred by the fact that his father had developed a mental illness and the local shamans had set up beatings and icy baths in front of his children to ward off demons. His grandfather taught Sowol Chinese and made sure he went to high school. After graduation he went to Japan to study at a commercial college. While there, he published several poems in various literary magazines. However, his studies were soon interrupted. In September 1923, a large earthquake struck the Tokyo area, causing many fires to break out. Many Japanese accused the Koreans of arson and launched massive attacks against them. Many Koreans were killed, many others, and most of the stufents, returned to their homeland.

Back to his country, Kim So-wol wrote the verses that foretold the birth of modern Korean poetry. He published them in literary magazines which began to appear in large numbers after the uprising of March 1, 1919 (an unsuccessful protest movement by Korean students demanding independence from Japan and protesting against forced assimilation into the Japanese way of life). In 1925 he published a collection of his poems, entitled Azaleas, which was to remain the only book he published himself.

However, poetry rarely pays well, and Korean poets had to make a living by other means. For a while, Sovol tried to support himself through a series of jobs and unsuccessful business activities. He worked in his grandfather's mines as a manager, but the business soon collapsed. He then tried to run a local branch of a major national newspaper, but this also went bankrupt. His personal life was not going any better either, as he was married since adolescence as the custom was, but he was in love with somebody else who died young, he wrote one of his best poems about her.

Disappointed with both the financial and personal impasse, Kim Sowol ended his life in 1934. His teacher published a volume of his selected poems in 1935. The magical charm of his lyrics can hardly be recovered in translation, as the spirit of his poetry is conveyed in part through the sound of Korean folk melodies.