Yun Dong-ju

Yun Dong-Ju was the eldest son among the four children of his father Yun Yeong-Seok and his mother Kim Yong. As a child, he was called "Haehwan" (해환, 海煥 [hɛːhwan]). He entered Eunjin Middle School in Longjing in 1932 and returned to Korea to attend Soongsil Middle School in Pyeongyang in 1936. When the school was closed down in the same year he moved back to Longjing and attended the Gwangmyeong Institute.[1] On December 27, 1941, aged 23, he graduated from Yonhi College, which later became Yonsei University.

He had been writing poetry from time to time and chose 19 poems to publish in a collection he intended to call "Sky, Wind, Star, and Poem" (하늘과 바람과 별과 시),[2] but he was unable to get it published.

After crossing over to Japan, entering Kyoto Doshisha University in 1942, arrested by the Japanese police for alleged anti-Japanese movements in 1943, imprisoned in a Fukuoka prison, leaving over 100 poems and died in prison at the age of 27. The view that the signing of the Japanese saltwater Vivo and after his death the Japanese by Maruta is uncertain, but raising theories, biological experiments.

In 1948 three collections of his handwritten manuscripts were published posthumously as "The Heavens and the Wind and the Stars and Poetry" (Haneulgwa Baramgwa Byeolgwa Si). With the appearance of this volume Yun came into the spotlight as a Resistance poet of the late occupation period.[1]

In November 1968, Yonsei University and others established an endowment for the Yun Tong-Ju Poetry Prize. In 2007, he was listed by the Korean Poets' Association among the ten most important modern Korean poets.[3]

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea summarizes Yun's contributions to Korean literature:

Yun’s poetry is notable for the childlike persona of his narrators, sensitive awareness of a lost hometown, and an unusual scapegoat mentality deriving from a sense of shame at not being able to lead a conscientious life in a period of gloomy social realities. "Life and Death" (Salmgwa jugeum) is representative of the poems dating from 1934 to 1936, his period of literary apprenticeship. It describes the conflict between life and death, or light and darkness, but its poetic framework is more or less crude. From 1937 onwards, however, his poems reveal ruthless introspection and anxiety about the dark realities of the times. The poems of this later period reach clear literary fruition in terms of their reflection on the inner self and their recognition of nationalist realities, as embodied in the poet's own experiences. In particular, they evince a steely spirit that attempts to overcome anxiety, loneliness, and despair and to surmount contemporary realities through hope and courage.[1]

In January 1948, 31 of his poems were published by Jeongeumsa (정음사, 正音社), together with an introduction by the fellow poet Chong Ji-yong; this work was also titled Sky, Wind, Star, and Poem (하늘과 바람과 별과 시). His poetry had a huge impact. In 1976, Yun's relatives collected his other poems and added them to a third edition of the book. The poems that are in this edition (116 in total) are considered to be most of Yun's works.

In a 1986 survey, he was selected as 'the most popular poet amongst the youth'[4] and his popularity continues to this day.

The following are two English translations of the Foreword to his collection, dated November 20, 1941:

In Lee Jung-myung's novel The Investigation (the title of the English translation of original Korean novel) is, inter alia, "an imaginative paean to" Yun.[7]

In 2011, Yun Dong-Ju Shoots the Moon, a musical based on his life, was performed by the Seoul Performing Arts Company.[8]

The movie DongJu: The Portrait of a Poet was released in February 2016. It depicts the lives of Yun Dong-Ju and Song Mong-kyu in the setting of the Japanese colonial era.[9] Yun is portrayed by actor Kang Ha-Neul. Several theaters screened the movie with English subtitles.[10]

On December 31 episode of Infinite Challenge featured the climax of the history and hip-hop, Kwanghee and Gaeko featuring Oh Hyuk from Hyukoh performed song title "Your Night" inspired from Yun Dong-ju life and poet.[11]

• List of Korean language poets
• Korean independence movement
• Korean literature

• Yu, Jong-ho (1996). "Yun, Tong-ju". Who's Who in Korean Literature. Seoul: Hollym. pp. 554–555. ISBN 1-56591-066-4.
• Choi, Dong-Ho. 2002. "A Study of Intertextuality between Yoon Dong Ju's 'Another Hometown' and Lee Sang's 'The Lineage': Centering on the Poetic Word 'the Skeleton'," Journal of the Research Society of Language and Literature 39: 309-325. [in Korean]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yun Dong-ju.

• Naver Encyclopedia entry
• The Heaven, The Wind, The Stars, and Poetry
• Yun Dong-ju literary officer (in Korean)
• Sky, Wind, Star, and Poem (하늘과 바람과 별과 詩) in Korean