- Overview
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This book of poems brings to mind a love letter, filling up the time until the rainy season comes.
- Book Intro
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This is the second book of poems by Park Jun, who gained the love of Korean readers with a single book of poems and a single book of essays. In the words of the poet, "We may see the rainy season together." There is no word of desire, like "want," nor of the past, such as "saw." Instead the poet indicates the future - "may see" - to depict a time when they may be together.
The speaker of this collection of poems is someone who is waiting. "Questions during the day" can only be answered "when the night comes." But the speaker is waiting for things of the past not things in the future. The words of greetings that you exchanged in the past, the words that you use every day so you might forget easily, or the words that reaches me today -- all of which are, in fact, from memories.
If the past reaches the present, it means that our current moment is connected to the future. Let us take a look at the poem Rainy Season - A Letter Sent from Taebaek. The speaker writes two letters from Taebaek. The first letter talks about the "miners who died in the mine," but the writer soon "crumples the paper." The second letter begins anew with the phrase, "We may see the rainy season together." While the first letter described the incident that already happened, the second letter describes what can happen in the future. While this future has not come yet, if they spend the present faithfully, they will be able to reach it, the time when they can spend the rainy season together.
So what exactly is the speaker waiting for? As said earlier, the words that you exchanged in the past reach you in the present. What the speaker has been waiting for may be the person with whom those words were shared. As described on page 84, despite saying goodbye, this person is someone the speaker wants to care for, who will cause the speaker to immediately "stop what he/she's doing now" at even a small gesture of "your" opening "the window." The feeling of waiting for the rainy season while remembering the words shared with the person. This collection of poems is like a letter filled with such emotions.
- About the Author
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Park Jun
(English) Park Jun was born in Seoul in 1983, and made his debut in 2008 with Silcheon Literature in 2008. He has published the collection of poems, I Could Endure a Few Days with Your Name, We Can See the Monsoon Rain Together and a collection of essays, Nothing Changes Even if You Cry. He has won the Shin Dong-yeop Literary Award and Today's Young Artist Award.
(Japanese) 1983年にソウルで生まれ、2008年『実践文学』でデビューした。詩集『あなたの名前をつけて数日は食べた』、『私たち一緒に梅雨を見ることになりそうです』、散文集『泣いて変わることは何もないが』、『季節散文』、詩絵本『私たちはこんにちは』を出した。絵作家キム・ハンナは、『ほこり記録者』、『ほこりがおならする音』などの展示を行った。日光に反射してきらめくほこりのようなことを沢山集めて、絵と文でゆっくり記録している。