Poet Park Yeon-jun’s Everyday Words
Even the pain of life is transformed into pleasant emotions
◇The Heart That Wants to Send a Heart/Written by Park Yeon-jun/216 pages/14,000 won/Changbi
The author, who was curious about the meaning of ‘Jeoksan’ after seeing the Jeoksan houses near the Gangneung sea, was surprised. The ‘Jeok’ in Jeoksan is not red or piled up, but means ‘Jeok’ (敵), ‘San’ (産), and ‘enemy’s property. The roughness, heaviness, history, and hatred contained in the hostile word ‘Jeok’ come closer, and Jeoksan houses feel unfamiliar. The author confesses that he sometimes looks up the dictionary and is genuinely hurt because of the “meaning of words that are nakedly shown without emotion, understanding, or feeling.”
The author, a poet who deals with words, takes a close look at moments that we may pass by inadvertently in our daily lives and puts them into words. Various stories unfold with themes such as ‘dawn’, which is given to everyone every day, ‘letters’ that send their hearts, or ‘insomnia’ and ‘deep sleep’.
What is impressive are the poet’s personal stories, such as memories of his father, his pet cat ‘Dangju’, and anecdotes from his part-time job when he was young. While observing Dangju’s behavior in detail and projecting his own feelings, he sometimes falls into the absurd imagination of animals talking and complaining. He imagines a cat saying, “Why do I always have to eat cheap food?” or “Do something that makes more money”, or a dog that has not been able to go for a walk complaining, “I think I’m going to get depressed”, and conflicts with humans unfolding.
The author talks about his father, who was sick for a long time, in a few short words and passes over it. The author says, “I could write three long novels about my father’s illness,” but “people who have had a hard time protect themselves with the ‘habit of abbreviation. ’” The author’s unique cheerfulness, when he looks at a single strand of his white hair in the mirror one day and exclaims, “A single scratch that life gave me!”, is the power to endure the pain that no one can avoid in life.
The writings in the book were first serialized online under the title, “Thinking in the Attic.” They are written while imagining being in a cozy place away from the world, and provide an opportunity to pause for a moment in our busy and chaotic daily lives and take care of our minds.
Reporter Kim Min [email protected]
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2024-08-17 00:25:48