Cheon Sang-byeong (; January 29, 1930 – April 28, 1993) was a South Korean writer.

Life

Cheon Sang-byeong was born in the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

on January 29, 1930. He immigrated to

Masan Masan () is an administrative region of Changwon, a city of South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It was formerly an independent city from 1949 until 30 June 2010, when it was absorbed to Changwon along with Jinhae District, Jinhae. Masan was ...

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

in 1945, after Korea was liberated from Japan. It was then that the 15-year-old Cheon began writing poems in the language of his ancestry. He published his first poem "River Water" while still in school. Cheon went to

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

for a short period. In 1967 he was implicated in the and jailed for six months during which he was tortured. This experience scarred Cheon who became impotent and alcoholic. Found unconscious on the street Cheon was institutionalized and his friends, believing him to be dead, published a posthumous book of his poetry. Cheon, however recovered and began a prolific career.

Work

Cheon's poetry was written in a condensed style, and explored themes of existentialism. His most famous poem "Return to Heaven" (Gwicheon), speaks of a man's encounter with the afterlife and his journey from life to death, as a passing from one world to another: "I am returning to heaven, the day on which my sojourn to this beautiful world ends. Go and say it was beautiful".

Works in translation

* Rumanian: L ÎNTOARCEREA ÎN CER detail () * Serbian: ПОВРАТАК НА НЕЪО detail (천상병 시선집 <귀천>) * Spanish: Regreso al cielo detail () * Turkish: Gőğe dőnüş detail () * French: Retour au ciel detail ()

Works in Korean (Partial)

* Bird (1971) * At the Roadside Inn (1979) * If Even the Journey to Afterlife Costs Money (1987) * I'm Going Back to Heaven (1993) * Collected Works of Cheon Sang-byeong (1996)

References

External links

*
"Cheon Sang-byeong"
- at

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*
Cheon Sang-byeong Art Festivalofficial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheon Sang-byeong Korean male poets 1930 births 1993 deaths 20th-century South Korean poets Yeongyang Cheon clan 20th-century South Korean male writers Seoul National University alumni