Pak Dujin

Pak Tu-jin (, 10 March 1916 – 16 September 1998) was a Korean poet.

A voluminous writer of nature poetry, Pak Tu-jin is chiefly notable for the way he turned his subjects into symbols of the newly emerging national situation of Korea in the second half of the 20th century.

Pak Tu-jin was born in Anseong, 40 miles from Seoul in modern-day South Korea, an area to which he often refers nostalgically in his poetry.

His family was too poor to give him any formal education, but two early poems of his appeared in the publication Munjang (Literary Composition) in 1939.

After Korea's liberation from Imperial Japanese rule, Pak co-founded the Korean Young Writers' Association alongside Kim Dongni, Cho Yeonhyeon, and Seo Jeongju.

During that time, he shared a first collection of poetry with fellow poets Pak Mog-wol and Cho Chi-hun.

Pak worked in a managerial position until 1945, then in publishing, and later as a professor in various universities.

This was the Blue Deer Anthology (Cheongnokjip, 1946), which was followed by individual collections of his own, Hae (The Sun, 1949), Odo (A Prayer at Noon, 1953) and several more, all distinguished by their treatment of nature.

Among the awards given his poetry were the Asian Free Literature Prize (1956), Seoul City Cultural Award (1962), Samil Culture Award (1970), Korean Academy of Art Prize (1976) and the Inchon Prize (1988).

Of Pak Tu-jin's contribution to Korean literature, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea writes:

The onomatopoeia, figurative expressions, and the poetic statements in prose form used so boldly are perhaps the most notable technical devices in Pak's poems from this period.

With the onset of the 1970s, when he published such collections as Chronicles of Water and Stone (Suseok yeoljeon, 1973) and Poongmuhan, the nature of his poetry evolved once again; founded now on private self-realization, these poems are often said to reveal Pak's attainment of the absolute pinnacle of self-discovery at which ‘infinite time and space are traveled freely.’ As such, Pak, known as an artist who elevated poetry to the level of ethics and religion, is today evaluated more as a poet of thematic consciousness than of technical sophistication.

His poem "Peaches Are in Bloom" is a good example of the way his rapturous and incantatory verse unites cultural and personal references to make it expressively symbolic of his country.

Tell them that the peaches are in bloom and the apricots

By the warm home you left abandoned, and now on that hedge once recklessly trampled, cherries and plums ripen.

Bees and butterflies praise the day, and the cuckoo sings by moonlight.

In the five continents and six oceans, O Ch’ôl, beyond the hoofed clouds and winged skies, into which corner shall I look in order to stand face to face with you?

You are deaf to the sad note of my flute in the moonlit garden, and to my songs of dawn on the green peak.

Come, come quickly, on the day when the stars come and go, your scattered brothers return one by one.

Suni and your sisters, our friends, Maksoe and Poksuri too return.

Come then, come with tears and blood, come with a blue flag, with pigeons and bouquets.

Come with the blue flag of the valley full of peach and apricot blossoms.

The south winds caress the barley fields where you and I once frolicked together, and among the milky clouds larks sing loud.

On the hill starred with shepherd’s purse, lying on the green hill, Ch’ôl, you will play on the grass flute, and I will dance a fabulous roc dance.

And rolling on the grass with Maksoe, Tori and Poksuri, let us, let us unroll our happy days, rolling on the blue-green young grass.

After Pak Tu-jin's death in 1998, a boulder with his poem "Nostalgia" inscribed on it was erected in his memory at the entrance of Anseong Municipal Library.

The Pak Tu-jin Hall on the library's third floor was opened in 2008.

This is dedicated to the poet's literary work and life and also has on display examples of his calligraphy and ceramics on which he had inscribed his poems.

The Pak Tu-jin Memorial Society, based in the poet's home town of Anseong, hosts a national essay contest in his memory as well as the annual Pak Tu-jin Literature Festival.