Kim Kwang-kyu

Kim Kwang-kyu
Korean spelling
Hangeul	김광규
Hanja	金光圭
Revised Romanization	Gim Gwang-gyu
McCune- Reischauer	Kim Kwangkyu
See also : Korean name

Kim Kwang-kyu (born January 1, 1941 in Seoul ) is a South Korean poet, Germanist and translator.

Childhood and Adolescence in Korea

Kim Kwang-kyu was born in Seoul in 1941. He experienced the Korean War , which overshadowed his childhood and youth, as well as the difficult post-war period. In 1960 , while studying German , he took part in the April Revolution to resist the dictatorship .

Studied in Germany

From 1972 to 1974 he continued his German studies in Germany. During his studies in Munich, Kim translated poems by Heinrich Heine and Bertolt Brecht into Korean, as well as poetry and radio plays by Günter Eich .

Professorship in Korea

After returning to Korea, he was appointed professor of German at Pusan ​​University in 1974. In 1983 he received his doctorate on Günter Eich from Seoul National University . Today he teaches at Hanyang University in Seoul.

Poet and cultural mediator

In addition to teaching, he made his debut as a poet in 1975. His first poems were published in the respected literary magazine "Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa" ( Literature and Spirit ). Since his first successful volume of poetry in 1979, which received several awards, a total of 8 volumes of poetry had been published by 2013. Kim Kwang-kyu is an influential poet of modern Korean literary scene who is read by a wide audience. In his poems he combines the traditional love for nature with observations of modern everyday life: "Here and there police officers write out traffic tickets as if they wanted to put my nostalgia under supervision" or about Seoul's local mountain "Poor Inwang-Berg / today he is locked in the middle of the eight million inhabitants of Seoul / sits on the edge of the downtown residential area / and lives in old age to sublet ".

He has received numerous literary prizes, including the 1981 Prize for Today's Authors , and the 1984 Kim Su Yŏng Prize for his book of poetry No, it's not like that.

Since 1992, Kim has been working as a cultural mediator for an exchange between Korean and German writers.

In 2001 Kim Kwang-kyu was a guest in Stuttgart, where he, the young Korean poet Jo Kyong-Nan and the novelist Kim Won-Il presented their own texts in the Stuttgart City Library. In 2003 he was a three-month Johannes Poethen scholarship holder at the Writer's House in Stuttgart .

In 2003 he finally received the renowned Daesan Literature Prize for his volume of poetry, At First Encounter .

In 2010 the volume of poetry messages from the green planet was published in German . Here Kim Kwang-kyu formulates the entanglement of modern man in indissoluble contradictions: "" I do not regret / I have not saved them in the computer / Just one wrong click and they would be deleted ... Sure they are only in our memory / gradually Fades. "He places hope in the children:" Their souls, bitter from the broken life / return early in the year / as grasses and blossoms and trees ... The towers and walls still guard the place / between pines, firs, junipers .. Perhaps the children are there / who ... run after a ball carefree / the descendants of the dead / reborn / to complete their abandoned game /. "

Works

• The Last Dream That Soaks Us (Uri-rŭl chŏksi-nŭn majimak kkum, Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, 1979) ISBN 978-89-320-0086-2
• No, it's not like that (Anida kŭrŏhji anhta, Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, 1983/2001) ISBN 978-89-320-0184-5
• The heart of the Knackberg (K'ŭnaksan-ŭi maŭm, Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, 1986) ISBN 978-89-320-0271-2
• Like a philistine (Chomp'aengi-ch'ŏrŏm, Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, 1988) ISBN 978-89-320-0372-6
• Aniri (Aniri, Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, 1990) ISBN 978-89-320-0470-9
• Waterways (Mulgil, Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, 1994) ISBN 978-89-320-0687-1
• I have nothing (Kajin kŏt hana-do ŏpchiman, Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, 1998) ISBN 978-89-320-1004-5
• At the first encounter (Ch'ŏŭm mannadŏn ttae, Munhak-kwa chisŏngsa, 2003) ISBN 978-89-320-1410-4

Published in German

• The depth of the clam. Pendragon, Bielefeld 1999, ISBN 978-3-929096-63-7 .
• Grave inscription / Herbsthimmen / A small spring / The small flowers / Snow in the night ( Die Horen , magazine for literature, art and criticism, 41st vol., 4/96)
• Who calls and calls ... / Useless friends / Aniri 8 / Snail love / Aviculture (Drehpunkt, Die Schweizer Literaturzeitschrift, Issue 106)
• Messages from the green planet. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0747-6 .

Published in English

• Faint shadows of love. Forest Books, London 1996, ISBN 978-1-85610-000-7 .

Published in Spanish

• Sombras del vieje amor. Verbum, Madrid 2005, ISBN 978-84-7962-341-8 .

Awards

• Isan Literature Prize (2007)
• Johannes Poethen scholarship for a three-month stay at the Writer's House in Stuttgart (2003)
• Daesan Literature Prize (2003)
• Pyŏnun Literature Prize (1994)
• Kim Soo Young Literature Prize (1984)
• Award for Today's Authors (1981)
• Nokwŏn Literature Prize (1981)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Naver Person Database: 네이버 인물 검색: 김광규 , accessed January 19, 2014 (Korean).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Kim Kwang-Kyu casts a longing look at Korea in his poems. Retrieved August 11, 2020 . 
3. ^ Perlentaucher: Kim Kwang-kyu , accessed on August 7, 2013 (German).
4. ↑ Kwang-Kyu Kim, Kyong-Nan Jo, Won-Il Kim: Big City Seoul - Korean Literature Today | Monday, 25.06.01 / 6.00 p.m. | Stuttgart City Library. Retrieved August 11, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Steffen Gnam: Kim Kwang-Kyu: Messages from the green planet: The blinking ciphers of the day . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 11, 2020]).
6. ↑ moonji.com

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Kim is the family name here, Kwang-kyu is the first name.