Occupation Poet Citizenship South Korean Language Korean Name Mah Chonggi | Nationality South Korean Role Poet Ethnicity Korean | |
Born January 17, 1939 (age 85)
Tokyo, Japan ( 1939-01-17 ) Books Eyes of Dew: Poems by Chonggi Mah Alma mater Yonsei University, Seoul National University | ||
Mah Chonggii is a Korean poet.
Contents
Life
Mah was born in Tokyo, Japan on January 17, 1939. He graduated from medical schools at Yonsei University and Seoul National University. After finishing his graduate research at Seoul National University in 1966, he went to the United States. He taught at Ohio State University Medical School and practice radiology in Toledo, Ohio. He retired from the medical field and professorial duties in 2002, and turned his attention entirely to writing poetry.
Work
The major themes in the poems of Mah are his experience as a doctor and his life abroad in Japan and especially America. The pieces marked by his medical experiences express profound compassion and hope for the ability of love to negate pain. His works dealing with life in foreign countries tend to be more complex in tone; in them he writes of his recollections of his life in Korea and the various conflicting feelings: intense patriotism, love and anger toward his fellow Koreans, and shames that stem from his reflections on his homeland. Both themes ultimately inspire the same compassion for humanity, whether for the suffering or for the uprooted, and attain a universality that has become Ma’s trademark.
Works in Translation
Works in Korean (Partial)
Poetry