Catcalling by Soho Lee and translated by So J. Lee

This is poetry from Korea, Republic of.

Catcalling by Soho Lee translated by So J. Lee is published by Open Letter. This is a Book originally written in Korean. This was published in 2021.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781948830386E12.

Catcalling, by Soho Lee and translated by So J. Lee from Korean, brings Korean-language poetry connected to Korea, Republic of into English through Korean feminist encounter, public address, and the rough weather of being spoken to without consent. The metadata gives the reader a doorway, but the real value is what happens once the poem starts making its own weather. I would read it for street, voice, body, and the sudden violence of attention arriving from outside, not as a fixed lesson about Korea, Republic of. The best entry point is still the poem itself: the line that catches, the image that refuses to explain itself, the feeling that arrives before paraphrase. Catcalling belongs in the translated poetry library because it lets contemporary Korean poetry speak through gendered public space without reducing itself to a lesson.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.