Instances

Description

Alert and streetwise, but tuned into the undercurrent of things, Choi’s poetry creates environments at once familiar but dreamlike, marked by a preternatural clarity. Favoring imagistic condensation and formal trimness, Choi’s poetry possesses a highly-suggestive, allusive intensity that locates the startling within the familiar. Always rooted in the here-and-now, Choi’s speakers are simultaneously outside it, questioning the propriety of our taken-for-granted arrangements. Delicate and wistful, this poetry has the tensile strength to address itself to the deepest challenges of human experience: as Choi writes, with characteristic (and deceptive) off-handedness, “hey abyss.” In a world of inconstancy and ceaseless transformation, Choi’s poetry forgoes easy consolations and instead offers poetry of the highest order as the only consolation. Reading it offers an almost vertiginous sense of the variousness of experience. As Brenda Hillman observes, “There is a quality of imagination in her work that is still a rare thing in poetry.”

Subjects

• Books
• Littérature
• Poetry

Informations

• Published by: Parlor Press, LLC
• Published: 15 September 2011
• Reads: 0
• EAN13: 9781602352353
• Language: English
• Document size: 1 MB

Exrait

S E L E C T E D P O E M S J E O N G RY E C H O I

ïNŚĀNÇÉŚ S E C NATS NI NSECNATS

TRANSLATED BY BRENDA HILLMAN, WAYNE DE FREMERY AND JEONGRYE CHOI

Fréé Vérŝé EDIIONŝ Edited bY Jon THompson

I NS TA NC ES

JéONgryé ChOI SélécéD POéMŝ

TRànsàted bY BRendà imàn, WàYne de FRemeRY, JeonGRYe CHoi

Pa r l O r P r é ŝ ŝ AndeRson, SoutH CàRoinà www.pàRoRpRess.çom |

PàRoR PRess LLC, AndeRson, SoutH CàRoinà

© 2011 bY PàRoR PRess A RiGHts ReseRved. PRinted in tHe United Stàtes of AmeRiçà S A : 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9

LibRàRY of ConGRess CàtàoGinG-in- Pubiçàtion àtà

CHoi, JeonGRYe, 1955- [Poems. EnGisH] ïnstànçes : seeçted poems / JeonGRYe CHoi ; TRànsàted bY BRendà imàn, WàYne de FRemeRY, JeonGRYe CHoi.  p. çm. -- (FRee VeRse editions) ïnçudes bibioGRàpHiçà RefeRençes. ïSB 978-1-60235-234-6 (pbk. : àk. pàpeR) -- ïSB 978-1-60235-235-3 (àdobe ebook) ï. imàn, BRendà. ïï. FRemeRY, WàYne de. ïïï. Tite. P9520.9.C55A2 2011 895.7'15--dç23  2011033536

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PRinted on àçid-fRee pàpeR.

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C O N T E N T S

PréaOry Oé  

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TiGeRs in tHe SuniGHt

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P R E F A T O R Y N O T E

ït is à GReàt peàsuRe to Hep bRinG JeonGRYe CHoi’s woRk into àn EnGisH edition. is is not tHe îRst time HeR wRitinG Hàs àppeàRed in EnGisH, but it is tHe îRst fu-enGtH çoeçtion of HeR woRk to àppeàR in tHe United Stàtes. ï met tHe àutHoR àt tHe UniveRsitY of ïowà in 2006, wHen sHe wàs doinG à tHRee- montH ResidençY àt tHe ïnteRnàtionà WRiteRs’ WoRksHop. A sHY ànd intense peRson, JeonGRYe wàs woRkinG witH à çoupe of Gied ànd wiinG GRàduàte students in tHe WRiteRs’ WoRksHop—eissà içkeY ànd JoRdàn Stempemàn— às we às Yu eewon, àn exçHànGe student fRom KoReà studYinG in ïowà, ànd CHoi JonGYo, now àn instRuçtoR of EnGisH iteRàtuRe in KoReà. ï àm GRàtefu to tHese wRiteRs foR tHe woRk tHeY did in RendeRinG tHese veRsions wHie tHe àutHoR wàs in Residençe àt tHe ïnteRnàtionà WoRksHop, ànd of çouRse to CHRis eRRi foR tHe pRoGRàm tHeRe.

ïn tHe midde of tHe semesteR, JeonGRYe àsked me if ï’d be wiinG to Hep do some poems às we; ï wàs not àbe to Hep HeR muçH wHen ï wàs in ïowà, but soon eàRned tHàt sHe woud be doinG à YeàR-onG ResidençY tHe foowinG YeàR àt U.C. BeRkeeY. We weRe botH in touçH witH ouR fRiend WàYne de FRemeRY, àn AmeRiçàn PH çàndidàte in KoReàn Studies àt àRvàRd, wHo çuRRentY ives in Seou. WàYne knew JeonGRYe’s woRk ànd its pàçe in çontempoRàRY KoReàn wRitinG; sinçe JeonGRYe wàs just in tHe pRoçess of eàRninG EnGisH ànd ï Hàve no KoReàn, WàYne àGReed to pRovide tRànsàtions.

us tHe çuRRent pRojeçt beGàn; WàYne pRoduçed tHe îRst àdept veRsions oveR tHe next few YeàRs, ànd ï tRied to RendeR tHem into EnGisH poetRY. e ànd ï

Pr éaOry Oé  9