Bari's Love Song

In her early career, Kang Eun-Gyo marked nihilism as the departure of her poetic imagination. In response to the turmoil of the world and modern Korean history full of violence and violations of human rights, the poet struggled to build her poetry in a house of nothingness. With Bari’s Love Song, Kang Eun-Gyo echoes the voice of a sorceress, a female shaman who treats the sadness, suffering, loss, and pain of all people. From the private losses of the poet to the universal songs of losses and love, Bari’s Love Song portrays the modern history of Korea in the forms of songs and recollections of Bari, the princess from Korean folk literature who walked the land in search of hope.

Kang Eun-Gyo made her literary debut with the publication of Night of the Pilgrims, which earned her the 1968 New Writer Prize by the journal Sasanggye (World of Thoughts). Her most significant poetry collections are House of Nothingness, Diary of a Pauper, House of Noises, Red Rivers, Song of the Wind, and Letter in the Wall. Kang was also the recipient of the Korean Writers Prize and the Contemporary Literature Award.

About the Translator

Chung Eun-Gwi is Professor in the Department of English Literature at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul. Her publications include Ah, Mouthless Things (2017), Fifteen Seconds without Sorrow (2016), The Colors of Dawn: Twentieth Century Korean Poetry (2016), and When the Wind Blows (2019) Her articles and translations have appeared in a wide variety of journals.

This book is published with the support of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea)