Korean Poet Kim Chiha

I have never been a great fan of poetry but nevertheless still picked up a collection of poems by Korean poet Kim Chiha.

Never a great fan coz unless the poems are straight-forward and easily understood, the subtlety will probably be lost on me.

But thankfully, Kim Chiha's poems do not fall into this clueless category, especially his scathing criticism of the then Korean establishment in his poem "Five Thieves".

Indeed, the satire is so "in-your-face" that it cannot be missed, such as referring to the different categories of officials as "Plutocrat", "Aristocrat", "Technocrat", "Autocrat" or "Bureaucrat", and overall describing them as "sonuvabitch", at least according to the translation, and "respectable thieves".

There were also many other non-subtle allegations such as:

"His favorite hobby is to keep concubines
and to beget children day and night.
By offering his numerous daughters
as concubines to men holding swords,
he easily winnows out top secrets.
Therefore all the best deals end up in his lap.
With only a $5 million bid he steals
something worth a $1 billion."

"Empty slogans flow from his forked tongue:
It's time for revolution and change.
Change old evils into new ones,
Change unlawful money-making,
and make money-making itself unlawful,
Change illegal elections,
and make elections themselves illegal."

"On his desk lie huge files of paper
and under the desk lie bundles of bank notes.
He is a spaniel to his superiors and
a hound to his inferiors"

"Export more goods, even if we die of hunger,
Produce more goods, even if they don't sell.
Let's build a bridge over the Straits of Korea
with the bones of the people who starved to death."

His other poems are chillingly haunting, yet depressing, such as:

Never will you return
"If I cry, eyes glaring, and endure the pain
Of fingernails plucked out and flesh ripped apart
Can my shriveled soul survive
And stand on the road again?"

Hell 2
"Here, unless you wear gloves,
You cannot even hold another's hands
Because they become daggers in your palm.

Dust falls on your chest
And silently petrifies."

But there are also simply yet uplifting ones, such as:

New Spring 6
"Bees
Visit flowers,

And children
Play in the park.

These are too much for me
And my heart leaps
At the wonder of all living things."

New Spring 4
"I hold the universe
In my placid heart.

Somewhere under the tree
I hear the budding sound of life
And a bird's song."