[…]For many of us, poetry is difficult to understand even when it is written in our native language but Kim’s poetry is made even more difficult because it is written in literary Chinese with Korean pronunciation. Each poem in the book is given in its original literary Chinese and then translated in Korean and English but it is O’Rourke’s personal notes that really bring the magic out in the poetry.

O’Rourke acknowledges that “trying to convey in English the skill and sensibility of Kim Sakkat [was] an enormous challenge” and that many around him said that it could not be done.

Was he successful? I don’t know enough about Korean poetry to judge the accuracy of his translations but I do know that he awoke in me a desire to learn more about Kim Sakkat ­ whom Prof. Charles Montgomery of Korea Literature in Translation (ktlit. com) describes as Korea’s and the world’s first battle rapper. The introduction of the book also provides an introduction to Hanshi: Korean poems in Chinese and a fairly comprehensive write up of the sources and previous works published about Kim Sakkat. More.

See: The Korea Times

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