Poet Seo Jeong-joo’s prose with the motif of `A Bride` found

Seo Jeong-joo (1915-2000)’s prose with the motif of his poem “A Bride” has been found. The poem is part of the late poet’s collection of poems titled “The Myth of Jilmajae,” which was published in 1975.

“Lovers,” a quarterly literature magazine, has released Seo’s prose “The Journal of Manchuria” in its winter edition. The poet`s prose was published by Maeil Newspaper for seven days from Jan. 15, 1941, but it was not included in Seo’s collection of poems.

The prose depicts what he felt when he went to Manchuria to get a job, hoping for a success – loneliness, frustration, and a sense of being lost. He described a story that became the motif of the poem “A Bride” on the Jan. 15 edition of the newspaper.

“On his way to the bathroom, the bridegroom found a gentleman’s robe was on the wall. He abandoned his bride because he thought she was lascivious. A decade later, he came back. The bride was sitting there exactly where she sat 10 years ago. Whether the misunderstanding was resolved or not, he held her hand. But the bride has become a handful of black ash.”

Later, Seo wrote a similar story in “A Bride,” a poem about a woman’s resentment and fidelity. The poem also tells a story about a husband who left the bride for being lustful and came back in 50 years only to find her turned into ash.

“It is first known how Seo wrote ‘A Bride,’” said Yoo Han-geun, a professor at Digital Seoul Culture Art University and the poet’s student. “It will be a valuable document for scholars who study Seo’s poems.”