{"id":37659,"date":"2023-09-13T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=37659"},"modified":"2025-02-21T11:53:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T19:53:46","slug":"issue-92-suphil-lee-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/issue-92-suphil-lee-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 92: Suphil Lee Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Suphil<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About Suphil Lee Park<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Suphil Lee Park (\uc218\ud544 \ub9ac \ubc15 \/ \u79c0\u7b46 \u674e \u6734)<\/strong> is the author of Present Tense Complex<\/em>, winner of Marystina Santiestevan Prize (Conduit Books & Ephemera 2021), and a poetry chapbook, Still Life <\/em>(Factory Hollow Press 2023), winner of the Toma\u017e \u0160alamun Prize. She’s also the translator of If You’re Going to Live to One Hundred, You Might As Well Be Happy<\/em> by Rhee Kun Hoo, forthcoming from Union Square Books and Ebury, U.K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find more about her on her website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cat<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\"Carving\"<\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n
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A Profile of the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Notes on “Love Song”, “Already Noon”, and “Wino’s Song”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This small suite of poems\u2013two by Kim and one by Hoe\u2013sings, among other things, of love. Yes, Heo\u2019s poem blatantly brings up the word \u90de\u5fc3 (lover\u2019s heart), centering the whole verse on the speaker\u2019s internal, romantic struggle. Kim\u2019s explore this sentiment in more implicit, albeit sexually more explicit, ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What captivates me about so-called love poems from these two vastly different Korean poets is their different approaches to moments of hardship where their love is challenged. Each of the poems presents a different conflict. \u201cAlready Noon,\u201d the poet\u2019s financial ruin and subsequent life on the farm; \u201cWino\u2019s Song,\u201d a playful verbal jousting with a seemingly reserved addressee; \u201cLove Song,\u201d the lover\u2019s fickle heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Heo expertly molds her conflict into a verse rich with metaphors, classical imagery, and puns\u2014for which she is famous\u2014Kim takes a more lighthearted approach. I’m as much in awe of Heo’s ability to pack so much into such a concise form as I am delighted by the irresistible sense of life that Kim’s poems exude. Where Heo offers a timeless, elliptical landscape, Kim plainly depicts and embraces her pains or mocks and seduces her husband, defying social norms. But who’s to say which one does it better, or is superior?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether about love for family\u2013sharing in moments of literal sweat\u2013or romantic temptation and frustrations, their poems equally provide indispensable insights into the lives of Korean women poets. Their fate was, more often than not, dictated by the reciprocity of their various kinds of love, and that always leaves me with much to ponder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music, Food, Booze, Tattoos, Kittens, etc.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I have a single tattoo\u2013an infinity sign crossed with a zero\u2013on my left ring finger. Among other meanings, this tattoo primarily alludes to the famed line from William Blake\u2019s \u201cAuguries of Innocence.\u201d And yes, it\u2019s that line: \u201cTo see a World in a Grain of Sand \/ And a Heaven in a Wild Flower \/ Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand.\u201d It has come to carry an important reminder that a poet\u2019s mind never fails to find a microcosm of reality and truth in just about anything she stumbles upon. Instead of the palm of my hand, I chose the more forefront\u2013admittedly less painful\u2013place for my tattoo. The placing itself serves to signify how I uphold what this tattoo embodies above all other promises I have made or might make in the future.

On a largely irrelevant side note, I have a beautiful gray cat that I like to address in many ridiculous ways other than his actual name, such as \u201ccrown jewel of my heart,\u201d \u201cmy guardian angel,\u201d or \u201cgyeongookjisaek (\uacbd\uad6d\uc9c0\uc0c9, meaning a beauty so fatal that it might destroy a nation).\u201d I\u2019d say, speaking from experience, affection justifiably defies all conventions of designation and role definition, and invalidates shame (as my translations of the poems, specifically “Wino’s Song,” might also hint at).

Nowadays, I\u2019m also into pottery\u2013or carving shapes into wet clay\u2013probably for no deeper reason than the one that drove me to pick at my scars as a little kid. Just a slight alphabetical variation from poetry<\/em>, it’s a wholly different craft that helps me take my mind off the kind of things I delve into when engaging with poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Willow<\/figure>\n\n\n

Two Poems Translated by Suphil Lee Park<\/a><\/h2>\n\n

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\"Willow<\/figure>\n\n\n

“Love Song” Translated by Suphil Lee Park<\/a><\/h2>\n\n

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