한국 역사의 산 증인, 고은 시인을 만나다

 

Ko indifferent to ‘Western yardstick’

 

2010-11-2

 

Over lunch, as he drained his first glass of drink, poet Ko Un shook his head in resentment at the word “past.” With a touch of unease, he quibbled on the question. “Why do people repeatedly ask of my past when they are here to see my present? My past, my birth name, and things alike do not have meaning any longer.”

 

Surviving the nation’s decades of checkered history ― the Japanese colonial period, the moment of liberation, the Korean War and the tragic consequences of the struggle for democracy ― he was racked with memories of the nation’s kaleidoscope past. “My life was like going over the threshold of death,” he murmured, intimating why he was reluctant to reminisce.

 

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