Books

what sound can penetrate the ear that has never heard the sick child's moan From "Small Song" in Traveler Maps

Traveler Maps
Poems by Ko Un

Translated by David R. McCann

ISBN 0-917436-06-7
Price: $25.95 $19.00
84 pages
Trim Size: 3"×4"
Library of Congress Control Number: 2003116298

One of present-day Korea's most revered and prolific writers, many followers of contemporary Korean literature believe Ko Un will be nominated for a Nobel Prize. Once a Buddhist monk, then a political dissident, and always a poet, Ko Un is "able to make the intensely personal into work having universal appeal and significance," writes David McCann, Harvard Professor of Korean Literature.

Translated into English by McCann, Ko Un's voice rings through the profound, intense, and often intensely funny poems in Traveler Maps. Long-time friends, McCann and Ko have been traveling together both literally and metaphorically for years. Having been to so many real and imagined places together, rather than "translating," Professor McCann often simply composes from his deep understanding of Ko Un and where he goes in his poetry. As a result, a reader gets an insightful representation of Ko Un's work as well as stunning English-language poetry.

Traveler Maps' design is based on a 17th-century book of maps used by Korean travelers - something put in their pockets to help find the way. Although the book is small, each of its sheets unfurls to present poems on large twelve-by-twelve inch pages. Traveler Maps is meant to unfold like the poems it contains, to be a collection of "maps" that guide a reader to some of the poetic places Ko Un visits. Hand-assembled and printed on 70 lb. felt text-stock, the book looks and feels like its 17th-century inspiration.

Benjamin Franklin Award winner, named Best Book of Poetry/ Literary Criticism 2005 by the Independent Book Publisher's Association.

Winner of the 2004-2005 Best Poetry Book, Northern California Publishers and Authors Association.