A prestigious journalist interviewed an old poet living in a regional city. The journalist is famous for having been interviewing several persons through very deep inner inquiry and multi-lateral viewpoints over a long period. He is also writer that published his own novel in the past. But at this time my excitement was disappointingly shattered.
The interviewed story written on the full page constituted the old poet’s trifles with hard drinks and complaints towards the central literary circles of Seoul. The person who is said having written poems for 50 years owed his unknown to ‘the status of regional poets’.
What a grumbling about regionalism in the internet age! He appears to say that he should be ‘great’ poet that critics do not know the value of. Nevertheless, he never talked about poetic meaningful themes and creation.
Subsequently he referred to ‘romanticism’, which means ‘hard drinking’ in Korea literary circles. In other words, the poetic world is the one that a drunken poet sees, maybe the drunken world would be ‘romantic’ or ‘fantastic’. Most Korean poets seem to be false admirer for Li Taibo (李太白), who would not be pleased of their inferiority.
He also sneered at flashy knowledge of his poetry teacher, remembering in his literature classes. The reason he do not like his teacher is guessed in his saying context because the teacher explained French poets in class whose poems should have been difficult to understand.
Most Korean poets are so ignorant that they are always singing their home town, drinking hard. A few learned ones are at best ‘uncreative’ adorers of meditation, Nothing.
He might have thought earnest and heavy themes ‘useless’ or ‘meaningless’ in his higher poetry world. If so, he should have refused the interviewing proposal of the reporter. We readers do not want to hear his ‘romanticism’.
Korean pop, music, musical, drama, films, and art are elating their levels globally, at least recognized differentiated and unique places. But Korean literature lingers over a ‘literary youth’. How to be a literary adult:
Firstly, Korean writers must escape ‘infantile’ meditation and void abstract philosophy.
Secondly, Korean writers must not be proud of their ignorance about world literature classics.
Thirdly, Korean writers should leave their home town.
Fourthly, they should not write poems in a mood of alcoholic drinks. (The end)
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