River of August
‘‘River of August’’ was written in 1963 by Korean
poet Pak Tu-Jin. (Pak is the family name and Tu-
Jin is the given name. Koreans put the family
name first. Tu-Jin may also be spelled as Tu-jin
and Tujin and Pak as Park because of variations
in translation.) The poem was written to com-
memorate the occasion of the eighteenth anniver-
sary of Korea’s liberation from Japan on August
15, 1945, and it was published in Pak’s fourth
book of poetry,The Human Jungle.Anature
poet, Pak uses the image of a river to represent
the lives of the Korean people as they traveled
through the painful, humiliating occupation by
Japan and the horrors of World War II to a new
destiny. Having almost lost their own culture,
they were positioned after liberation, according
to Pak, to reclaim their heritage and recommit to
building a future together as a nation. The con-
clusion of the poem implies that the possibilities
are endless for a free and honorable people. How-
ever, Pak wrote the poem during a time when,
once again, there was political upheaval in Korea,
so he was using this poem to remind Koreans of
the promise of August 1945 and to try to reignite
that spirit of hope and national pride.
Since Pak’s books are not readily available in
the United States, perhaps the easiest way to find
a copy of the poem is to use a journal database
to locate the Korea Journal.‘‘RiverofAugust’’
appears in the February 1965 issue along with
three other of his poems ‘‘The Way to the Green
Mountains,’’ ‘‘Like a Tree,’’ and ‘‘River of Solitude.’’
191PAK TU-JIN
1963