- Born:
- August 1, 1933, Kunsan, North Cholla province, Japanese-occupied Korea [now in South Korea] (age 93)
Ko Un
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Who is Ko Un?
Ko Un (born August 1, 1933) is a celebrated Korean poet recognized internationally for his verse, which is influenced by his political engagement in Korea and a deep concern for humanity.
Born in Japanese-occupied Korea, he began writing poetry in 1945. Ko's life took a turn when he became a Son (Zen) Buddhist monk in 1952, later leaving the monastic life in 1962. Embracing Korean nationalism in the 1970s, his activism led to arrests and imprisonment. While jailed, he conceived his "Ten Thousand Lives" project, envisioning writing about every person he had known.
Pardoned in 1982, Ko continued to flourish as a poet, with his work drawing attention from prominent American poets. Despite a career in political activism, Ko's poetry reflects Chinese and Zen traditions, with subjects ranging from everyday people to commonplace occurrences.
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What is Ko Un known for?
Ko Un (born 1933) is a celebrated Korean poet recognized globally for his verses that reflect both his political engagement in Korea and a deep concern for humanity.
After early life hardships, including the Korean War and a period as a Zen Buddhist monk, Ko became involved in social and political activism, leading to arrests and imprisonment. While jailed, he conceived his Man'inbo ("Ten Thousand Lives") project, a series of poems about everyone he had known.
After his release and a more liberal political climate in South Korea, Ko flourished as a respected poet and cultural figure, holding prominent positions in Korean arts and literature associations. His works, translated into English, have earned the attention of notable American poets. Despite a later sexual harassment scandal, Ko Un remains known for his prolific poetry that blends Modernist influences with Korean identity, often focusing on everyday people and occurrences.
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Where is Ko Un from and what language does he write in?
Ko Un was born in Kunsan, North Cholla province, in Japanese-occupied Korea (now South Korea). He is a prolific Korean poet who gained an international readership with verse informed by his political activism and a broad concern for humanity. Ko's poetry is rooted in Korea’s Chinese and Japanese legacies, but above all, it rejoices in its Koreanness. His poems are demotic and often brash, written to be read aloud, and their subjects are usually everyday people and commonplace occurrences.
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What are some major themes in Ko Un's poetry?
Ko Un is a celebrated Korean poet known internationally for his verse, which is influenced by his political engagement in Korea and a deep concern for humanity.
His poetry, while emerging from a background of political activism, avoids being overly instructive, and instead demonstrates his knowledge of Zen and Chinese traditions, as well as a profound interest in humanity that goes beyond his political convictions. Rooted in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese traditions, his verses celebrate Koreanness, and his poems often depict everyday people and commonplace events while ranging from Zen-infused images to multivolume epics.
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What is the Ten Thousand Lives (Maninbo) series, and why is it significant?
The Maninbo (Ten Thousand Lives) series is a multi-volume poetry project by Ko Un, a Korean poet. Incarcerated in a military prison in 1980 for antigovernment activities, Ko Un was kept in darkness, where he envisioned people he had known throughout his life. This led him to write a poem about every person he had known.
The first three volumes were published in Korean in 1986. The Maninbo project reflects Ko’s concern for humanity, with poems about everyday people and commonplace occurrences.
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How has Ko Un influenced modern Korean literature and society?
Ko Un is a celebrated Korean poet known internationally for his verse, which is influenced by his political activism and concern for humanity. Despite his political involvement, Ko's poetry avoids being overly didactic, drawing instead from Chinese and Zen traditions.
His work reflects a deep connection to his Korean heritage, evident in his lively and passionate verses that celebrate Koreanness. Ko's poetry is known for its accessibility, often focusing on everyday people and occurrences, and is written to be read aloud. His contributions extend to novels, dramas, and literary criticism, solidifying his influence on modern Korean literature.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Ko Un (born August 1, 1933, Kunsan, North Cholla province, Japanese-occupied Korea [now in South Korea]) is a prolific Korean poet who gained an international readership with verse informed by both his political activism in Korea and a broader concern for humanity.
Ko was born in a farming village, and his schooling took place under Japanese authorities who were intent on suppressing Korean language and culture, especially during World War II. He began writing poetry in 1945. Physically slight and emotionally sensitive, Ko as a young adult endured the deadly struggle between the communists and nationalists and the viciousness of the ensuing Korean War (1950–53). He was traumatized by the all-pervasiveness of death and the loss of friends and family in the turmoil of the period, and he lost hearing in one ear as a result of a suicide attempt. In 1952 he sought solace by becoming a Son (Zen) Buddhist monk. He continued to write and published his first book of poetry, Pian-gamseong (“Transcendental Sensibility”), in 1960.
Ko’s anomie became more pronounced after militarists under Gen. Park Chung-Hee seized power in South Korea in 1961. Ko left the monastic life in 1962, and in 1970 he attempted suicide a second time. Ko embraced Korean nationalism in the 1970s and became actively involved in social and political causes. His activism led to two arrests and short prison terms in the following six years. In 1980 he was given a 20-year sentence for antigovernment activities and was jailed in a military prison, where one of his fellow prisoners was opposition leader Kim Dae-Jung, later president of South Korea and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Often kept in total darkness in his cell, Ko later related that he began to envision personalities he had known in his life, from the time when he was a boy in the countryside to his days as a political activist in the capital, as well as figures from national history. He decided then to write a poem about every person he had known. The first three volumes of his Man’inbo (“Ten Thousand Lives”) project were published in 1986 in Korean.
Ko was pardoned and released from prison in 1982, and in 1985 he married and moved to a village, Anseong, south of Seoul. In the much more liberal South Korean political climate that followed the democratic constitution of 1987, Ko flourished as a widely admired poet and leader in the Korean cultural scene. He was elected chairman of the Association of Korean Arts for 1989–90 and served as president of the Association of Writers for National Literature (1992–94). He accepted a resident professorship in the graduate school of Kyonggi University in Seoul. In 1998 and 1999 Ko was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Harvard University’s Harvard-Yenching Institute. A proponent of Korean reunification, Ko in 1998 led the first South Korean delegation to North Korea and recorded his observations in a book of poems, Nam kwa puk (2000; “South and North”).
Ko’s first volume of poetry in English translation, The Sound of My Waves, was published in 1992. His later books in English translation included Beyond Self: 108 Korean Zen Poems (1997); Ten Thousand Lives (2005), excerpts from the first 10 volumes of the Ten Thousand Lives project; The Tree Way Tavern (2006); and First Person Sorrowful (2012). Ko’s work drew the attention of prominent American poets, including Allen Ginsberg, Robert Hass, and Gary Snyder, all of whom contributed forewords to these books. Ko also published novels, drama, and literary criticism.
Despite Ko’s career in political activism, his poetry is not didactic or shrill; rather, it reflects his study of the Chinese and Zen traditions and a concern with humanity that ran even deeper than his political beliefs. He began writing in a Modernist vein, but he soon turned out more lively, passionate, and down-to-earth verses that were rooted in Korea’s Chinese and Japanese legacies but that above all rejoiced in their Koreanness. His poetry is demotic and often brash, written to be read aloud, and its subjects are usually everyday people and commonplace occurrences. Ko’s poems run the gamut from multivolume epics and the mammoth Ten Thousand Lives project to Zen-infused, seemingly simple images.
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In 2018 Ko became the centre of a sexual harassment scandal as various women publicly accused him of misconduct over the years. In the ensuing backlash, it was announced that his poems would be removed from textbooks, and the Seoul Metropolitan Library closed a section dedicated to his works. Ko denied any wrongdoing.