Cheon Sang-byeong

Korean spelling
Hangeul	천상병
Hanja	千祥 炳
Revised Romanization	Cheon Sang-byeong
McCune- Reischauer	Ch'ŏn Sangbyŏng
See also : Korean name

Cheon Sang-byeong (born January 29, 1930 in Japan , † April 28, 1993 ) was a South Korean poet .

Life

Cheon Sang-byeong moved to Korea in the city of Masan in 1945 . In 1949, while still at school, he published his first poem. He enrolled at Seoul National University but did not graduate.

In 1967 he became involved in the East Berlin espionage incident and was imprisoned for six months, where he was also tortured. Abused mentally and physically, he numbed himself with alcohol. When he was found unconscious on the street, his family or friends were not notified, but instead he was taken to a mental institution against his will. His family believed he was dead and published an anthology of his poems in memory of him. However, Cheon Sang-byeong recovered and regained stability in his life after getting married. He then began to write poetry again.

His poems are known for their simplicity and clarity.

Even after his death, his works did not lose their popularity, and the success associated with them did not stop. The “Cheon Sang-byeong Poetry Prize” has been awarded since 2004 and an annual festival is held in his name.

His wife Mok Sun-ok wrote a book about life with the author, which was published in 2006 in English under the title My Husband the Poet .

Work

Korean

Poetry collections

• 새 Vogel (1971)
• 주막 에서 In the pub (1979)
• 저승 가는데 도 여비 가든 다면 Even if the journey into the hereafter costs money (1987)
• 귀천 Return to Heaven (1989)
• 도적놈 셋 이서 There Were Three Thieves (1990)
• 요놈 요놈 요 이쁜 놈 Pretty Guy (1991)
• 아름다운 이세상 소풍 끝내는 날 The day the excursion into this beautiful world ends (1991)
• 나 하늘 로 돌아가네 I'm Going Back To Heaven (1993)

Collection of essays

• 한낮 의 별빛 을 너는 보느냐 Do you see the starlight at noon? (1994)

Prose collection

• 괜찮다 괜찮다 다 괜찮다 It's ok, it's ok, it's all ok (1990)

Translations into English

• Back to Heaven: Selected Poems of Ch'on Sang Pyong (Cornell East Asia Series Volume 77), Cornell University East Asia Program (1995)

Awards

• 2003: 은관 문화 훈장 ( Silver Order of Culture )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Author Database of the LTI Korea: Cheon Sang-byeong ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 26, 2014 (English) 
2. ↑ Daum: 백과 사전: 천상병  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 26, 2014 (Korean)  
3. ↑ 네이버 인물 검색: 천상병 , ㅁ accessed on February 26, 2014 (Korean)
4. ↑ Author Database of the LTI Korea: Cheon Sang-byeong ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. PDF, accessed on February 26, 2014 (English) 
5. ↑ Author Database of the LTI Korea: Cheon Sang-byeong ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 26, 2014 (English) 
6. ↑ Daum: 백과 사전: 천상병  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 26, 2014 (Korean)  
7. ↑ Seoulselection: My Husband the Poet. Accessed February 26, 2014

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Cheon is the family name here, Sang-byeong is the first name.