photo = Yonhap News
Poet Kim Ji-ha (real name Kim Young-il), who longed for democracy and freedom ‘with a burning thirst’, passed away on the 8th. He died at the age of 81.
The deceased, who had been battling cancer, died at his home in Wonju, Gangwon, on the followingnoon of the same day while his family was watching, the Toji Cultural Foundation said. The deceased was born in Mokpo, Jeollanam-do in 1941 and graduated from Jungdong High School in Seoul and the Department of Aesthetics at Seoul National University. In 1969, he made his debut by publishing ‘Hwang Tot-gil’ in the poetry magazine 《Poet》.
He is a writer who is like a symbol of Korean democracy. He wrote participatory poetry containing sharp satire and criticism of the Yushin dictatorship in the 1970s. His representative work is ‘With a Burning Thirst’, a poem of resistance published in 1975. It is known as a poem written by someone while living on the run due to wanted because of the words ‘Long live democracy’ written in chalk on the wall. He left behind poems such as ‘Ojeok’ and ‘Beer’.
He was also imprisoned several times. He was even sentenced to death in 1964 for the ‘Mincheong Hakryun case’, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and then released on suspension of execution in 1980. Since the 1980s, he has been immersed in establishing a life philosophy that encompasses Eastern and Western philosophies and Korean traditional ideas.
Since then, he has been criticized as a ‘renegade’ from the progressive camp. In 1991, Myongji University student Kang Kyung-dae was killed by the police and self-immolation in protest followed one following another.
In 2018, he finally declared his desperate need for poetry collection 《White Shade》 and prose book 《Space Biology》. The deceased is also the son-in-law of the late Park Kyung-ri, who wrote the epic novel Land.
He has received the Lotus Special Award from the Asia-African Writers Association, the Great Poet Award from the International Poet Association, the Bruno Krysky Award, the Manhae Literary Award, and the Jung Ji-yong Literary Award. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize.
The mortuary was prepared at the funeral hall of Wonju Severance Christian Hospital.
Reporter Gu Eun-seo koo@hankyung.com
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