[11/10/26] Jangwook, Lee: Possible Because It's Not Eternal

Black Ocean, paperback

Translated by Eun-Gwi Chung

Publication Date: November 10, 2026

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Poems from an award-winning Korean poet, known for verse exploring the complexities of modern life and memory.

The title of Lee Jangwook's poetry collection Possible Because It's Not Eternal suggests that certain existences become possible only because they are not eternal, and certain moments hold meaning because they are finite. The absence of eternity becomes a force in these poems that triggers the "eventhood" of the moment, and the fragmentation of the self is not the fall of the subject, but a process of generating new meaning. This triggers a positive line of thought that transcends nihilism and deconstruction.

This is a poetry that navigates the absurd world of bureaucracy, contingency, rupture, and instability.