From the Director
David R. McCann,
Director of the Korea Institute;
Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Literature
The Korea Wave has descended upon us! Professor Carter Eckert taught his course on The Two Koreas in Seoul this summer, at Ewha Womans University. More students than ever before were able to experience internships in Seoul and elsewhere in Korea. Harvard is exploring a number of exciting new programs in Korea for student and scholar exchange, in a wide range of fields from the easily expected history and literature to the sciences, engineering, and medical sciences. The director taught a course in the spring semester 2007, Writing Asian Poetry, where we read and wrote poems in response to works by Li Po and Tu Fu, Basho, and a number of Korean sijo poets. Prompted in part by a turn in the class discussion that led to the interesting fact that all school children in the U.S.A. have a “haiku day” in third or fourth grade—And so why not a sijo day!?—and in part by an invitation to attend the fiftieth anniversary meeting of the Korean Poets Association, the director has vowed to write nothing but sijo, in English, for the next year of his own poetry composition. You probably are wondering what it might taste like. Here is a sample:
Just “Away,” autoreply
to all e-mail, including mine.
What a joy, deliberately
to write anything and next moment
Read “I’m gone. All e-links are bad here.
If I can, I’ll reply soon.”
The big news, though, most recently is the publication of AZALEA, a journal of Korean literature and culture. Yi Youngjun, Ph.D. 2005, put together a magnificent collection of contemporary Korean fiction and poetry. Wayne de Fremery has come up with yet another outstanding design for one of our publications. And a number of today’s outstanding translators, young and more seasoned as well, have brought the work of a variety of contemporary writers into brilliant English translations. Our deep thanks to the International Communication Foundation, the Korean Literature Translation Institute, and several other supporters for their belief and crucial help as we seek to launch and stabilize this new resource. Do have a look at AZALEA, when you have a chance. Korean literature has never looked nor read better.
-- David McCann
