Dawn of Labor
Author | : Park Nohae |
Publisher | : University of Hawaii Press |
Total Pages | : 281 |
Release | : 2024-03-31 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780824896430 |
ISBN-13 | : 0824896432 |
Rating | : 4/5 (30 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Dawn of Labor, at last translated into English, is the legendary South Korean poet Park Nohae’s first collection, published in 1984 when he was twenty-seven years old. Despite a government ban, the book sold a million copies and propelled Park Nohae as the generation’s leading resistance poet. Dawn of Labor is an enduring classic that shook a society, transformed lives, and demonstrated the power of poetry. The war of night labor once over, I pour cold soju over my aching heart. Ah . . . I can’t go on like this for long. For sure, I can’t go on like this. —“Dawn of Labor” If I ever kill myself, I’ll probably do it at dawn. —“For a Peaceful Evening” We too want to become heaven. Not a dark clouded heaven that presses down, but a clear blue heaven over a world that lifts one another. —“Heaven”