A Time When I So Loved Someone

<p class=ql-align-justify>A large body of the poems in Lee Byung Ryul's book is comprised of accounts of his own tangible life story or his observation of other's experience. He writes about things of deep concern to him--the love relationship between him and his beloved trips abroad friendship and enmity a natural object like a persimmon or an inanimate thing such as a used train ticket. But there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. An adroit storyteller he adopts a reader-friendly approach to the given subject matter and develops the narrative in a simple yet subtle way. Quite like a parable in essence. Nonetheless his mystical power to communicate ideas and emotions breathes life and beauty into seemingly mundane subject matter. Lee Byung Ryul is counted one of the rare affirmative voices of our time.</p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><strong>Lee Byung Ryul</strong> was born in Jecheon North Chungcheong Province and graduated from the Creative Writing Department of Seoul Arts University. He launched his literary career in 1995. He has published seven books of poetry including <em>You Are about to Go Somewhere Snowman Inn </em>and<em> Parting Wants a Rendezvous with Me Today </em>in addition to several<em> </em>selected books of prose. He has been recognized with the Prize for Contemporary Literature the Discovery Literature Award and the Park Jae Sam Literature Award. The literary coterie Poetry Power of which he is a member has been the hub of his poetic creativity. </p><p></p><p class=ql-align-justify><strong>Cho Young Shil</strong> holds a Master of English & English Literature from Chonnam University Korea. A recipient of numerous grants for her English translation of modern Korean literature she has translated and published nine contemporary Korean poetry books including <em>One Day</em> <em>Then Another </em>by Kim Kwang-Kyu (White Pine Press 2014) <em>Whisper of Splendor </em>by Chong Hyon-Jong (Homa & Sekey Books 2018) <em>Forty Two Greens </em>by Chonggi Mah (Codhill Press 2020) and <em>Bukchon </em>by Shin Dal Ja (Homa & Sekey Books 2023).</p><p class=ql-align-justify></p>