Belly Button Disc: Selected Poems of Dongho Kim

Description

Belly Button Disc: Selected Poems of Dongho Kim

Author: Dongho Kim
Translators: Won-Chung Kim, Chang-Soo Ko
Order No. 1133
ISBN-13: 9781622460274
ISBN-10: 1622460278
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Homa & Sekey Books
Pub Year: 2016
Language: English
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Page: xii, 87
Price: $12.95. You pay only $10.36 (after 20% discount)

Belly Button Disc contains about 50 poems by Dongho Kim who investigates
the mysteries of life and the world we inhabit from a Taoistic lens.
His poems exhibit the insights he has harvested throughout his life-long
sauntering through the mountains of Lao-tze and Chuang-tze. Though he
sings of the depth of Oriental thoughts, Kim does not hesitate to tell
of the painful reality of our lives. This double vision allows him to
stand apart from the pressing issues that haunt us incessantly. Hence
the many ironies, satires, and paradoxes found in his poems. However,
these weapons of rhetoric are not aimed at others. They are, instead,
directed toward himself, which is why his poetry is seldom biting or
vicious, but rather humorous. This comedic quality is the most prominent
characteristic of Kim’s poetry. With his sense of humor, Kim overthrows
the obstinate, rock-hard preconceptions and prejudices, and directs us
to uncover hidden facets of things.

Dongho Kim was born in Koesan in
1934. He studied English literature at Sungkyunkwan University and
worked as a professor of English poetry. Kim has published twelve books
of poetry including Flowers, Lao-tze’s Mountain, and Belly Button Disc
since 1975. He was awarded the Sungkyun Literary Prize and the Poet
Selected by Poets Prize. He lives in Kunpo with his wife Jeung-kang Lee.

Translators Won-Chung Kim is a professor of English Literature at
Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea, where he teaches contemporary
American poetry, ecological literature, and translation. He earned his
Ph.D. in English at the University of Iowa in 1993. He has translated
twelve books of Korean poetry including Chiha Kim’s Heart’s Agony, Choi
Seungho’s Flowers in the Toilet Bowl, Hyonjong Chong’s The Dream of
Things, and Cracking the Shell: Three Korean Ecopoets. He has also
translated E.T. Seton’s The Gospel of the Redman and H.D. Thoreau’s
Natural History Essays into Korean. His first book of poetry, I Thought
It Was a Door, was published in 2014. Chang-Soo Ko‘s poems, in Korean
and in English, have been published in Korean and American journals. He
has published more than six books of poems including Things, Their Eyes
and Ears (2013) and one of his book of poems What the Spider Said: Poems
of Chang Soo Ko was published in English. He also translated several
books of Korean poetry including Sending the Ship out to the Stars and
Drawing Lines: Selected Poems of Moon Dok-su. He was awarded the Poetry
Prize, the Jung-mun Literary Award the Modern Korean Literature
Translation Award (for poetry), the Bolan International Merit Award in
Pakistan and the Lician Blaga International Poetry Festival Grand Prize
in Romania.