Jeong Ji-yong, often romanized in literature as Cheong Chi-yong (; 20 June 1902 – 1950), was a

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

English poetry This article focuses on poetry from the United Kingdom written in the English language. The article does not cover poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, including the Republic of Ireland after December 1922. The earl ...

who "opened a new horizon of poetic possibilities through chiselled expression, tempered sentiments, and precise visual imagery" according to the scholar of

Korean poetry Korean poetry is poetry performed or written in the Korean language or by Korean people. Traditional Korean poetry is often sung in performance. Until the 20th century, much of Korean poetry was written in Hanja. History The performance of oral ...

, Brother Anthony.

Biography

Cheong Chi-yong was born in Hagye-ri, Okcheon,

Chungcheongbuk-do North Chungcheong Province (), also known as Chungbuk, is a province of South Korea. North Chungcheong has a population of 1,578,934 (2014) and has a geographic area of located in the Hoseo region on the south-centre of the Korean Peninsula. No ...

, on June 20, 1902. He attended Whimoon High School and graduated from Japan's

Doshisha University , also referred to as , is a private university in Kyoto, Japan. Established in 1875, it is one of Japan's oldest private institutions of higher learning, and has approximately 30,000 students enrolled on four campuses in Kyoto. It is one of Japa ...

with a major in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

. While studying at Whimoon High School, he published the literary magazine ''Bulletin'' (''Yoram'') with contemporaries like Park Palyang. In 1926, he began to concentrate exclusively on composing poetry, and his piece "Cafe France”(Kape peurangseu) was published in ''Hakjo'' magazine. Later in life, Jung was active as an associate of Pak Yong-chol's ''Poetry'' (''Simunhak'') magazine and taught at Whimoon High School. After Liberation, he taught at

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's research university in Seoul, South Korea. It was originally founded as Ewha Haktang on May 31, 1886, by missionary Mary F. Scranton. Currently, Ewha Womans University is one of the world's largest f ...

, edited the '' Kyunghyang Daily News'', and was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Korean Writers Federation (Joseon Munhakga dongmaeng). In 1950, at the onset of the Korean War, he was detained by the Government Preservation Department and then transferred to

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

Prison, where he is believed to have died.Source-attribution, "Seo Jeongju" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do#

Work

Cheong Chi-yong is considered among the most important poets to emerge from the modernist movement in Korea, he has been described as "the first modern Korean poet." In 2007, he was listed by the Korean Poets' Association among the ten most important modern Korean poets. His poetry can be divided into three stages. The first stage, which took place around 1925 to 1933, is characterized by the poet’s sensual imagist work, which often focused on the sea. Beginning with his 1933 poem Phoenix (Bulsajo) and ending in 1935, the poet composed religious poetry influenced by his Catholic faith; this second period served as a transition period between his early sensous poetry and his later more traditional poetry. After his "Ongnyu Village" (Ongnyudong) and "Guseong Village" (Guseongdong) in 1941, his poetry evinced the predominance of Eastern thinking in its aesthetic. After his 1934 poems "A Different Heaven" (Dareun haneul) and "Yet Another Sun" (Tto hanaui dareun taeyang), Jung discarded the religious tendency of his earlier work. After nearly four years of absence from writing, he arrived at a mentality that sought to overcome the pains of reality, as seen in "Ongnyu Village", "Mountain Peak" (Bong), and "Guseong Village".

Works in translation

* ''Distant Valleys: Poems of Chŏng Chi-Yong. translated by Daniel A. Kister''. (1994) * ''Cheong Chi-yong Cheonjip'' he Collected Works of Chŏng Chi-yong Seoul. (1988) * "Eight Poems of Chong Chi-yong" ith translations by Daniel A. Kister ''Korea Journal'' 30 (2): 39~51. ''includes "Dahlias."'' (1990) * "The Early Poetry of Chong Chi-yong" ith translations by Daniel A. Kister ''Korea Journal'' 30 (2):28~38. (1990) * Eine andere Sonne () * ''Nostalgia'' (): ''Poems of Chung Ji-yong'' ranslated by Insoo Lee and Sung-Il Lee (2017)

Works in Korean (partial)

Poetry * The Collected Poems of Jung Jiyong (Jung Jiyong sijip; 1935) * White Deer Lake (Baengnokdam; 1941) * The Collected Works of Jiyong (Jiyong siseon),(1946) Prose * Literary Reader (Munhak dokbon; 1948) * Prose (Sanmun; 1949)

Secondary material

* Jin A Moon, "A Study of Chong Chi Yong's Poetry" (abstract in English) 청람어문학, 8권, 단일호, 시작쪽수 250쪽, 전체쪽수 56쪽 http://www.papersearch.net/KissShop/search/Sh_se_DetailView.aspx?strAtclKey=220342

Tribute

On 17 June 2019, on Jeong Ji-yong’s 117th birthday, he was honored with a

Google Doodle Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...

References

;Notes ;Citations

External links

Jeong Ji-yong literary officer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeong, Ji-yong Korean writers 1902 births 1950s deaths 20th-century Korean poets Korean male poets People from Okcheon County 20th-century Korean male writers Doshisha University alumni Whimoon High School alumni