Chon Sang-pyong

Chon Sang-pyong (January 29, 1930 - April 28, 1993) was a Korean poet.

Born in early 1930 in Japan, Chon returned to Korea with his family in 1945 and resumed his interrupted schooling at Masan. The first of his poems to be published was the poem 'River waters' that appeared in the monthly review Munye in 1949, when the poet was still at school. By 1952 he was established as a poet, with recognition from already reputed writers. By this time he was studying at Seoul National University. After finishing his studies there, he worked for a while in Pusan. His best-known poem is "Kwicheon" . In addition to writing poems, he had also already begun to compose literary essays that were published in various periodicals. They constitute the other important aspect of his life's work as a writer.

In 1967, agents of the National Security Agency (KCIA) whisked him away to the dreaded cellars of their building in central Seoul. There he was subjected to torture by water, and also by electric shock applied to his genitals. His name had been found in the address-book of a friend from university days, a friend who was now accused of being a communist spy, of having visited the North Korean embassy in East Berlin. After six months in detention, he was finally freed, having nothing to confess except the fact that he had friends.

Deeply traumatized by the violence he had undergone, he began to roam about, drinking wildly until at last, in 1971, he disappeared. Months passed, his friends and relatives searched for him everywhere to no avail. They could only conclude that he had died and been buried somewhere anonymously, unknown. In sorrow, they collected the poems they could find, and published a posthumous memorial volume. Suddenly news came that he was alive after all, interned in the Seoul municipal asylum where he had been taken after he had collapsed in the street.

He showed a clear improvement after being visited by Mok Sun-ok, the younger sister of one of his university friends. The doctor told her that she could help him by her visits and that if all went well he might be ready to return to life in the outside world after a couple of months. So Mok came to visit her brother's friend frequently, until he was as ready as he ever would be to come back to life in society. Only it was clear that he would hardly be able to fend for himself on his own. He had the heart of a child, and a child's fragility. Chon and Mok were married in 1972, a marriage that endured through twenty years of sometimes terrible hardship and struggle.

Friends helped Mok Sun-ok open a cafe in a small room in the Insadong neighborhood of Seoul, much frequented by artists, writers, journalists and intellectuals. The name given to the cafe was "Kwi-ch'ŏn" (Back to heaven), the title of Chon's most popular lyric.

By 1988, years of drinking had eroded the poet's liver until at last a doctor told Mok that her husband had reached the end of the trail, that he would never recover and she must prepare for the inevitable end. Another doctor, a friend of theirs, with a small clinic in the town of Chuncheon, twenty or thirty miles outside of Seoul, decided to try to help. Chon was admitted there and for the following months Mok took the bus every evening to be with him. She has written how, returning to Seoul from her daily visits, she used to pray silently in the bus: "God! Not yet. Give him another five years, please. Five more years."

Amazingly, strength returned and the poet was able to leave the clinic to resume a measure of normal living for another five years. In the space of this reprieve he saw the publication of new volumes of poetry and of essays. Until at last he made his final journey Back to Heaven on April 28, 1993.