Shadows of the void by I-mun Pak and translated by Brother Anthony of Taize

This is poetry from Korea, Republic of.

Shadows of the void by I-mun Pak translated by Brother Anthony of Taize is published by Seoul Selection. This is a Book originally written in Korean. This was published in 2014.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781624120275E12.

Shadows of the Void, by Pak I-mun and translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé, sounds like a philosophical lyric project from the first word. A void does not usually cast a shadow, which makes the title feel like a contradiction worth staying with. In this Korean collection, the poems may approach absence not as blankness, but as something with texture, edge, and consequence. Pak was also known as a thinker, and I would expect the work to move between poetic image and metaphysical inquiry. Brother Anthony’s translation gives English readers a way into that reflective space without requiring the poem to become an essay. This seems like a book for readers drawn to silence, negation, and the difficult beauty of trying to perceive what resists form.

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.