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pearloz's review
4.0
the Yi Sang poems were a little strange, as expected. Butterfly was easily my favorite of the numbered poems. But his best poems were the first two in the collection, about the Toy Bride.
Hahm Dong-seon was a solid poet, every one of his poems ended with a real gut-punch of a line. Here he is looking at his reflection in a window: "my mother's face rises up in mine/and from her face the quick rain streams down." At the end of his autumn poem we get these fine lines: "in my heart/a parched leaf is always sculling past." Great stuff.
The last poet, Choi Young-mi, was the best of the three. She's also the most contemporary and maybe that has something to do with it? Her poems seem more...calculated, like they were labored over longer, like they were constructed. I look forward to reading more of her poetry.
Hahm Dong-seon was a solid poet, every one of his poems ended with a real gut-punch of a line. Here he is looking at his reflection in a window: "my mother's face rises up in mine/and from her face the quick rain streams down." At the end of his autumn poem we get these fine lines: "in my heart/a parched leaf is always sculling past." Great stuff.
The last poet, Choi Young-mi, was the best of the three. She's also the most contemporary and maybe that has something to do with it? Her poems seem more...calculated, like they were labored over longer, like they were constructed. I look forward to reading more of her poetry.
spacestationtrustfund's review
4.0
『장난감신부에게 내가 바늘을주면 장난감신부는 아무것이나 막 찌른다.일력. 시집. 시계. 또 내몸 내 경험이들어앉아있음직한곳.』When Nabokov said, "I cannot separate the aesthetic pleasure of seeing a butterfly and the scientific pleasure of knowing what it is," that's kind of how I feel about poetry. Knowing intimately the form and structure of something allows you to better appreciate the effort and craftsmanship that went into its creation.
Available on the Internet Archive: 『현대시인 3인선(이상, 함동선, 최영미)』.
suddenflamingword's review against another edition
3.0
I read this because I was hooked on Yi Sang after reading "Morning" in Guernica. I was very excited that all of Crow's-Eye View was in this book (and learning that the title is a pun in the Hangul). It didn't disappoint.
Hahm Dong-Seon and Choi Young-mi on the other hand were fine. They seem far more conventional - which isn't an insult, and might also be a consequence of translation. That said I think James Kimbrell, the translator alongside Yu Jung-yul, does a decent job in the introduction. He does a "how do you do, fellow kids" thing by starting off talking about DJ's giving shout-outs to the then 80 years dead Yi Sang. If a true story, pretty cool. Regardless, weird.
He also describes the work of the other two poets more exactly (probably assuming you picked the book up for Yi Sang or have a vague sense of early 20th century poetry) but never fully contextualizes them. You can only do so much with the space you have, but clearly for Kimbrell he wants the poems to advocate on their own behalf without history. Which, fine, not my favored approach but I respect it.
Maybe the biggest gripe with this is that it allows them to awkwardly crosshatch three poets in the name of "bring[ing]...a bit of [Korean poetry's] energy, vitality, and relevance home to American readers." More relevant to American readers today - in Kimbrell's defense this published in 2003 - is that Choi Young-Mi fired up #MeToo in South Korea by calling out SK poetry icon Ko'un for sexual harrassment.
Hahm Dong-Seon and Choi Young-mi on the other hand were fine. They seem far more conventional - which isn't an insult, and might also be a consequence of translation. That said I think James Kimbrell, the translator alongside Yu Jung-yul, does a decent job in the introduction. He does a "how do you do, fellow kids" thing by starting off talking about DJ's giving shout-outs to the then 80 years dead Yi Sang. If a true story, pretty cool. Regardless, weird.
He also describes the work of the other two poets more exactly (probably assuming you picked the book up for Yi Sang or have a vague sense of early 20th century poetry) but never fully contextualizes them. You can only do so much with the space you have, but clearly for Kimbrell he wants the poems to advocate on their own behalf without history. Which, fine, not my favored approach but I respect it.
Maybe the biggest gripe with this is that it allows them to awkwardly crosshatch three poets in the name of "bring[ing]...a bit of [Korean poetry's] energy, vitality, and relevance home to American readers." More relevant to American readers today - in Kimbrell's defense this published in 2003 - is that Choi Young-Mi fired up #MeToo in South Korea by calling out SK poetry icon Ko'un for sexual harrassment.
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