I Must Be the Wind

"''Dazzling strokes of falling stars in falling water. I want to write poems like that,'' writes Moon Chung-hee. Thanks to Silberg and You, these poems dazzle bright in English. Here love is violent and ''suffered, an encysted stone . . . wedged'' in the heart, and defiance trembles the soul: ''Dress up for men, you say? / Nonsense / I stripped / for them . . . the world''s women / root on earth, naked.'' Chung-hee casts off ''the watch and mink stole,'' and exclaims: ''I want to be a free dancer from now on.''"—Sholeh Wolpé

Moon Chung-hee''s poetry is passionate, impetuous, a poetry of love, epiphany, feminist assertion, even rebellion.

Richard Silberg co-translated, with Clare You, The Three Way Tavern and This Side of Time, by Ko Un. He is author of The Horses: New and Selected Poems.

Clare You is the Chair of the Center for Korean Studies at USC Berkeley, and has co-translated modern Korean poetry and fiction into English.