A debut English-language collection of hopeful and carefully attentive poems by one of South Korea’s most lauded young poets.

This collection offers a selection of poems from Sin Yong-mok’s earlier collections, intended to serve as an illustration of his evolution as a poet, alongside a complete translation of the poems from his fourth collection, When Someone Called Someone, I Looked Back. Beautifully translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé with close attention to the sonorous aspects of Sin’s lines, this collection also captures the larger themes within Shin’s work and his attention to the spirit of community and peaceful coexistence with others. These are poems with a powerful belief in humanity and the beauty of the smallest hopes.

Born in Geochang, South Gyeongsang Province, Korea, Sin Yong-Mok received a new writers award in 2000 and has published six collections of poetry, a novel, and a volume of prose essays. He is currently assistant professor of creative writing at Chosun University.

Brother Anthony of Taizé has lived in Korea since 1980 and has published over fifty volumes of English translations of contemporary Korean poetry in addition to a considerable number of translations of Korean fiction and other books related to Korea. He is an emeritus professor at Sogang University and a chair professor at Dankook University and president emeritus of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch.