Monarch Butterfly
Selected poems

Translated by Kooseul Kim and Darcy Paquet

Author Choi Dongho

Published by Mundus Artium Press

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From the Media

Monarch Butterfly illustrates the spiritual quest of a celebrated master of literature. In Choi Dongho’s pioneering “extreme lyric” vision, the butterfly’s stages of self-transcendence epitomize nature and humanity seeking light.

With this decade-spanning collection, accomplished translators — poet and scholar Kooseul Kim (Lost Alleys) and Korean cinema expert and subtitler Darcy Paquet (Parasite) — offer nuanced initations into what critic Yoo Seong-ho calls an “aesthetic model of Korean lyric poetry.”

Poet, critic and scholar Choi Dongho has earned numerous major prizes and honors. A member of the Korean National Academy of Arts, he is a Distinguished Professor at Kyungnam University, as well as a Professor Emeritus and past Dean of the Graduate School at Korea University, from which he holds a PhD in Korean Literature.

He has been a Visiting Scholar at UCLA and at Waseda University, and has taken part in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. He participated in the December 2011 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, becoming the first Korean officially invited by the Nobel Committee to do so.

He was the founding President of Korea’s Poetry Loving Society and has served as President and Councilor of the Society of Korean Poets. He is the Editor of Lyric Poetry and Poetics, the Chair of the Changwon KC International Literary Prize, a member of the Managing Committee of the Hoam Award, and President of the KS World Poetry Festival.

Choi Dongho’s Korean volumes of poetry include Yellow Dust Storm; A Morning Desk; Where is the Woodpecker Hiding?; Dharma, Playing With a Ball; A Jewel Beetle in Flame; A Face of Ice; and Monarch Butterfly. His work has been translated into many languages.

He has produced multiple books on poetry theory, including The History of the Spirit in Modern Poetry, Digital Culture and Ecological Poetics, Poetic Incantation of Mud Paradise and Chung Ji Yong’s Poetry and Archeology of Criticism.

This book has been supported by the Daesan Foundation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Noted poet and literary critic Choi Dongho, born in Suwon, Korea, is currently a member of the Republic of Korea’s National Academy of Arts. He is a Distinguished Professor at Kyungnam University, as well as a Professor Emeritus and past Dean of the Graduate School at Korea University, from which he holds a PhD in Korean Literature.

He has been a Visiting Scholar at UCLA and at Waseda University, where he studied comparative Eastern and Western literature. He has participated in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. He took part in the December 2011 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, becoming the first Korean officially invited by the Nobel Committee to do so.

He has earned several major prizes and distinctions, including the Modern Buddhist Literary Award, the Daesan Literary Award, the Park Dujin Literary Award, the Gosan Yun Sundo Literary Award, the Yusim Literary Award, the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature and Art, and the Kim Satgot Literary Award.

He was the founding president of the Poetry Loving Society and has served as President of the Society of Korean Poets.

He is the Councilor of the Society of Korean Poets, the Editor of Lyric Poetry and Poetics (Quarterly), the Chair of the Changwon KC International Literary Prize, a member of the Managing Committee of the Hoam Award, and President of KS World Poetry Festival.

As a poet, Choi Dongho has produced a considerable body of literary works, including Yellow Dust Storm; A Morning Desk; Where is the Woodpecker Hiding?; Dharma, Playing With a Ball; A Jewel Beetle in Flame; A Face of Ice; and Monarch Butterfly.

As an international poet, his poetry books — among them Trees Wet with Rain (English), Korean Buddhist Poems (English) and Море в бутылке (Sea in a Bottle, Russian) — have been translated into languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian, French, Russian and Romanian.

As a scholar of Korean literature, he has produced many books on poetry theory, including The History of the Spirit in Modern Poetry, Digital Culture and Ecological Poetics, Poetic Incantation of Mud Paradise and Chung Ji Yong’s Poetry and Archeology of Criticism.