Poetry that crosses cultures

FRAGRANCE OF POETRY: KOREAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE

Edited by Yearn Hong Choi

Homa & Sekey, $13.95,

108 pages, paper

REVIEWED BY MARK MCTAGUE

Writers put words on paper out of an urge to communicate. Such acts have always seemed courageous to me. The challenges are great. “What do I really think? Do I honestly believe that? Do these words express that belief accurately?”

Whether it is poetry, prose, or non-fiction, writers not only wrestle with their own thoughts, trying to find the precise words that express their meaning most clearly, but they also do so hoping, consciously or not, that their effort will not have been in vain. They write for others, and the road our words take to the minds of our readers is uncertain, replete with obstacles, detours, and dead ends.

Much can get lost along the way. This is particularly true of poetry, that most personal of literary modes, and nowhere more so than in translation. All the difficulties of verbal expression are magnified in the act of translating, for even cultures which share the same language don’t automatically see the world in the same way; e.g., the difficulties British audiences have with American humor, and vice-versa.

An old Italian proverb says, “Traditore tradutore,” which means “to translate is to betray.” And while that is always true in an exact sense, it obscures what is undoubtedly true for all such transcultural movements — some meanings do carry across. So it is all the more remarkable when one finds a collection of poems that manages to bridge these many divides. And that is what concerns us in this slim yet marvelous volume of poetry by a group of Korean ex-patriates in the greater Washington area.

“Fragrance of Poetry,” translated by Eunhwa Choe and Yearn Hong Choi, is the first in what one hopes will be a series of anthologies by Korean poets living in the United States. Mr. Choi, president of the Korean-American Poets’ Group, has shown great faith in shepherding the work of 15 Korean poets, including his own, to publication.

What does one find here? These are first-generation Korean Americans. And they speak to us of the immigrant life — the joy of discovery in their new homeland, the frustrating effort to bridge gaps of language and culture, and the sorrow and pain of the loss of cultural grounding. However removed this immigrant experience may be from the native born, the commonality of human experience is fresh and immediate.

There is “Mount Yudal” by Moo Il Moon, which reflects on the persistence of memory: “With the aging and the passing time / Why do these meaningless memories / Slowly, slowly surface in my heart?” Or consider “English Makes Me Laugh” by Chong Cha Lee, which takes the reader behind the counter of any immigrant-owned business:

When he walks in with an

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