Song Chanho


Song Chanho is a South Korean poet.

Life

Song Chanho was born in Boeun County, North Chungcheong Province, South Korea in 1959. He studied German language and literature at Kyungpook National University. His writing career began in 1987 when several of his poems, including "Geumho River", were published in the literary journal Literature of Our Age. Song published his first poetry collection, The Soil Has the Memory of a Square two years later.
Song won the thirteenth Dongsuh Literary Award and nineteenth Kim Su-yeong Literary Award, both in 2000. He has also received the Daesan Literary Award and the Yi Sang Literary Award.

Writing

Song Chanho's style of writing is experimental lyric poetry. His first poetry collection, The Soil Has the Memory of a Square centred around the image of a square with no exit as a metaphor for life and death. His second poetry collection, The Chair That Remained Empty for Ten Years, similarly focused on contrasting opposites, with more emphasis on the use of language. Song Chanho also frequently uses nature imagery to convey meaning, such as in Red Eyes, Camellia. More recent works, such as The Night of the Cat's Return, have more explicitly criticized society and civilization in general.
Of Song's fifth poetry collection, Pink Wooden Shoes, literary critic Yi Jae-bok wrote that Song's poetry had "a classical elegance as the result of his deep reflection on language and existence." Several of Song's poems and one of his poetry collections have been translated into English.

Works

Works in Korean (partial)

  • The Soil Has the Memory of a Square
  • The Chair That Remained Empty for Ten Years
  • Red Eyes, Camellia
  • The Night of the Cat's Return
  • Pink Wooden Shoes
  • ''Like a Goose Going To Play in the Aster Fields''

Works in translation

Awards