Publisher's Synopsis
A critical addition to the classic poets in our Korean Voices series Ho Kyun's work is heavily influenced by the classic Chinese Tang poets such as Tu Fu and records a period of war with the Japanese. "Although written four hundred years ago, the profound and spontaneous humanity of these poems will delight readers of any century. At their heart are the twin shadows of war and exile, but they are also a marvelous travelogue and a time-lapse revelation of one man's personal joys and griefs. By turns feisty, tender, ironic, spiritual, and openly emotional, the collection give us a vivid portrait of a man living through an era of political violence and the disruption and chaos it caused. In reading Ho Kyun, I felt the thrill of discovering lost treasure. This is an important poet, and an important book. His words leave me with the eerie sense of a ghost surviving to speak truth that's particularly relevant in our own chaotic era of corruption and war. Ho Kyun will live on my shelves next to the poet he most loved and emulated: Du Fu." —Chase Twichell.
