[08/04/26] Seong-bok, Lee: That Summer's End (HB)

Knopf, hardcover

Translated by: Anton Hur

Publication Date: August 4, 2026

Publisher Marketing: 

One hundred and six poems of self-reflection and exquisite beauty--an intoxicating blend of Seon Buddhism and French Symbolism from one of South Korea's most celebrated and influential poets

That summer I stood in the centers of storms That summer my despair burst out into crimson but still I weathered the wind and rain

Mountains, rivers, trees, flowers, the dark, a cat, a train. In the elemental forms and figures of our world, Lee Seong-bok finds repositories for thought, sounding boards against which he can test his reflections. Again and again, in sequences, he probes his subjects--five "Mountain Path" poems, three "River" poems, three commentaries on the I Ching-- not to solicit answers, like Moses impatiently striking the rock for water, but to savor the muted tones that echo in response.

After one ruckus / begins another / The silent forest vibrates // Suffering was always / new suffering

The poems of That Summer's End, though acutely conscious of the self, are free of an inhibiting self-consciousness, speaking directly of youth, love, fear, family, grief, old age, impermanence, and all that's central to life. As enticing as they are profound, Lee Seong-bok's poems have made him not only a poet's poet but a favorite of RM, leader of K-pop superstars BTS, whose support of his work on social media has brought him international attention.