Park Mok-wol

Pak Mok-Wol (1916–1978) was a Korean poet who was born as Park Young Jong on January 6, 1916 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, in present-day South Korea. He held a professorship at Hongik University and Hanyang University (at which a statue has been erected in his honor at the beginning in 1961.) Park was elected to the Korean Academy of Arts (Yesurwon) in 1965 and was chosen as chairman of the Korean Poets Association in 1968.

Park Mok-wol belonged to Cheongrok-pa (the Blue Deer school), a group of three poets who also included Cho Chi-hun and Pak Tu-jin, all named after the 1946 anthology in which they appeared. Although they differed in style, their work largely had its basis in natural description and human aspiration. The body of Park Mok-wol's work at this time established a new trend in Korean poetry, one that attempted to express childlike innocence and wonder at life through folk songs and dialectal poetic language.

Among such poems, "The Wayfarer" (나그네) is notable and was set by the musician Isang Yun as the last in his early song book Dalmuri (A halo, 1950).

강나루 건너서 밀밭길을 구름에 달 가듯이 가는 나그네 길은 외줄기 남도삼백리 술 익는 마을마다 타는 저녁놀 구름에 달 가듯이 가는 나그네		Across the ferry by the path through the corn like the moon through the clouds the wayfarer goes. The road stretches south three hundred li every wine-mellowing village afire in the evening light   as the wayfarer goes like the moon through the clouds.

After his experience in the Korean War, Park’s work shifted in style. Now he strove to incorporate the pain, death, and even monotony of daily existence into his poetry without maintaining a standard of sentimental and lyrical quality. His poetry collections, Wild Peach Blossoms (Sandohwa) and Orchids and other poems (Nan. Gita) encapsulate his artistic aim to depict the shifting human response to both the joys and sorrows of life. His later poems, however, represent a return to the use of vivid colloquial language as the medium through which to express the color and vitality of local culture.

His collection of poems from this later stylistic phase, Fallen Leaves in Gyeongsang-do(Gyeongsang-doui garangnip) provides the artistic forum through which he is able to further explore his earlier questions of the relationship between light and dark, happiness and despair, and life and death. Park’s poetry, especially his later work, reveals a fervent love for life that does not wane despite his diligent acknowledgment of the ever-present threat of the end. He is celebrated for the cautious optimism of his work and his ability to subtly internalize conflicts of empiric reality in his deceptively localized and dialectal poetry.

Park's awards include the Freedom Literature Awards, May Literature and Art Awards, the Seoul City Culture Awards, and the Order of the Peony.

• Selected Poems of Pak Mog-wol, English (박목월 시선집)
• 过客, Chinese ( 박목월 시선)
• Le Passant, French (나그네 )