Night-Sky Checkerboard Poems

Night-Sky Checkerboard introduces English-language readers to the understated, imagistic lyricism of a Korean master at the peak of his powers. As a young poet, Oh Sae-young was fascinated by Modernism, and attempted to represent the inner landscapes of the dislocated self produced by industrial society before arriving at more existentialist concerns.

The present volume, masterfully translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé, reflects Oh Sae-young's harmonious fusion of image with idea, with woodpeckers pecking secret coded messages, the farmer finding the ground's erogenous zones, and a cloud factory on strike.

Oh Sae-young was born in Yongkwang, South Jeolla Province, in 1942. He has published some twelve volumes of poetry as well as a number of volumes of literary essays, and has received several awards for his work. His poetry as a whole is characterized by the pursuit of a harmonious fusion of the lyrical with the ideological, and the desire to give new formal expression to tradition using the techniques of Modernism. He is now an Emeritus Professor at the Seoul National University.

Brother Anthony of Taizé is a translator, scholar, and member of the Taizé Community who has become a naturalized Korean citizen. He lives in Seoul.