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 Taize, 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.