Ha Seung-moo


Ha Seung-moo is a South Korean poet, pastor, educator and historical theologian.

Early life

Ha was born on February 5, 1964 in Sacheon, South Korea. Ha is the grandson of Sir Ha Yeon, who is the twenty-first grandson of Joseon's most notable prime minister, Yeonguijeong.
After his basic education, Ha began to read modern literature. He was motivated by a bookseller who visited the school and purchased a series of books on modern Korean literature. Thereafter, readings of Korean literature sparked his interest in writing and philosophy. In this process, Ha began to question humanity and thing-in-itself. During the high school years, Ha's spiritual journey continued. He pursued truth, the meaning of life and humanity in Buddhism, Hinduism and other major religions. In this spiritual journey, he read many western philosophical classics.
Ha was influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Immanuel Kant and Søren Kierkegaard. Ha experienced spiritual progression recognizing the importance and meaning of human existence, and the 'despair' of Kierkegaard and the 'reason' of Kant became a less serious issue to his life and study. At the end of 12th grade, Ha had a mystical religious experience that made him confess that God is the only answer to his quest for meaning. Ha then became a Christian.
His poetry became an artistic stimulus for artists in parts of England and America.

Career

Ha became a Presbyterian minister and a professor of historical theology at Korea Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He teaches Biblical Exposition. Ha established Korea Presbyterian Church and the Korea Presbyterian Seminary, serving as Pastoral General, Christian education, Missions etc., at his own expense.
His theological thought is inherited from the original church, unlike the Roman Catholic or Reformed Church, or of the Protestant church, which offer traditional Christian interpretation. Ha presented the historical point of view of the Orthodox Church, describing how the confession of faith and the historical context coincide. Ha is a poet, and a reformist theologian. He debuted as a poet by the recommendation of fellow poet Park Jaesam and two others in Hankyoreh Literature Magazine in 1994.
Ha began to write poems in Han-Kyoreh Literature. His poem "Recollections of Homo Sapiens" introduced him to the public. Ha's work faced difficulties, because it conflicted with traditional Korean literature. Nonetheless, Korean writers and poets generally admired his poetic work.

PoetryHistory of Korea(in Korean)http://www.doopediat.com/_upload/share/2012/03/01/20120301144149.hwp

is a representative of Korea-specific mentality. He evaluated Ha in the examination Review. He found that while Ha's poetry has a deep inner world, life and death, reality and ideal, metaphysics and metaphysics, and self-determination are dominant.
He stated, "Super aesthetic psalm is a manifestation of his poems, and a critical approach is difficult if you do not understand the symbolism of religion and aesthetics to interpret such works."
Professor Kyung-Soo Yoon, among the critics of Ha's poetry, the peculiar one is deepening the symbolic systems of the surreal tendency of Yi Sang poet, His unique poetical style is considered to be reasonable to see in terms of the mystical experiences and spiritual aspirations that have returned to Christianity.
Since 1994, he announced at the time, such as newspapers, magazines, etc. and has become rather widely known to the general reader rather than a literary background. In particular, while a Christian, religion without being bound to the Christian poetry style, semiotics, and embody the poetic image to deepen the symbolic system of aesthetics. His poems "The sixth tailbone of the Cenozoic era", "The perspiration from the sun comes out" have appeared well.
In the 2000s after is, the poem "Songs of Wildflowers" depicting the lyricism by intuition and There is a "The story of an elephant's hand expelled by the sky", which can be said to be poetry that first introduced allegorical techniques to the work of poetry.
Other common collaborative poetry books are “There is no way to nostalgia”, “The Southern Poetry”, “Flowers bloom, On the bluestem”, “Seihangobi., “Forest of Sosa Tree”, “My poetry I choose”.
In recent years, Byeon Uisu literary critic wrote Ha Seungmoo's poetry world, and in his special review commented on poetic excellence:

Notable awards