Jack Saebyok Jung 정새벽

Schrödinger It is my mother's turn in the box she is alive she is dead

Today's Featured Poem:

"Schrödinger" by Katie Erbs published by @pinchjournal.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/schrodi...

Many thanks to @poetrydaily.bsky.social for hosting this essay and the poem.

Nurse II Even though it seems unlikely that I see myself in their lines, I do,

Today's Feature:

What Sparks Poetry: @daybreakjung.bsky.social on "Nurse II"

Read here:
poems.com/poem/nurse-ii/

Grateful to have three new translations of Heeum’s poetry in the latest Fall issue of the Massachusetts Review.

massreview.org/issue/volume...

There are 12 mentors in 2026:

📚 Children’s Lit from a South Asian Language w. @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
📚 Japanese w. @tnieda.bsky.social
📚 Kannada w. Deepa Bhasthi
📚 Korean Poetry w. @daybreakjung.bsky.social
📚 Korean Prose w. Janet Hong

ALTA A L T A

📣 Meet the mentors for the 2026 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program! buff.ly/uQyIkTL

The program allows an emerging translator to establish and develop a close working relationship with an experienced translator on a literary translation project chosen by the emerging translator.

These 12 mentorships available in 2026: 

📚 Children's Lit from a S. Asian Language w. @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social
📚 Korean Prose w. Janet Hong
📚 Korean Poetry w. @daybreakjung.bsky.social
📚 Japanese w. @tnieda.bsky.social
📚 Kannada w. Deepa Bhasthi
📚 Lit from Taiwan w. @linkinglionking.bsky.social

📣 The 2026 Emerging Translator Mentorship Program submission portals are open!

The ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program is designed to establish and facilitate a close working relationship between an experienced translator and an emerging translator.

Apply by 11/30: buff.ly/cpduT69

God of Petals - Words Without Borders In Kim Bok Hui’s poem, the speaker’s faith in God and God’s creations rises and rots, creating a rapturous fever dream.

In Kim Bok Hui’s poem, the speaker’s faith in God and God’s creations rises and rots creating a rapturous fever dream. Translated from Korean by @daybreakjung.bsky.social . Read the poem here:

A text-based graphic with a purple hue and the edge of a photo of flower stems on the right hand side. On the left, text in white, plus the WWB logo, which reads: ”POETRY God of Petals By Kim Bok Hui, translated from Korean by Jack Saebyok Jung From one distant country to another, it is sending up its prayer.”

Sit back and let the heady odors of this poem—floral and earth, rot and illness—carry you through the speaker’s seesaw of gratitude and frustration. Read “God of Petals” by Kim Bok Hui, translated from Korean by @daybreakjung.bsky.social , at the link: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Grateful to @wwborders.bsky.social for hosting my translation of Kim Bok Hui’s “God of Petals”!

wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Source text

Yi Yuksa, a poet and freedom fighter, wrote “Blue Grapes” while under Japanese colonial rule. His work blends lyrical beauty with quiet defiance. Perhaps freedom was his long-awaited guest. Another poem in translation for the 80th anniversary of Korea’s Liberation Day.

Source text:

Han Yong-un (aka Manhae)—poet, Buddhist monk, and advocate for Korea’s freedom—ended his 1926 poetry collection "The Silence of My Beloved" with this tender piece, almost a calling. Here are his words in English on the 80th anniversary of Korea’s Liberation Day.

Lady No From the legendary avant-garde poet Kim Hyesoon, a landmark collection documenting her first and only work of digital performance art to date. “Poetry in Ko...

Correct link here: www.harpercollins.com/products/lad...

Screenshot of the HarperCollins website page for the book Lady No by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Jack Saebyok Jung. The book cover is bright yellow with red text. The illustration shows a stylized figure with a large flower-like head filled with upright knives, a lit cigarette in one hand, and bent legs in motion. The names “KIM HYESOON” and “JACK SAEBYOK JUNG” appear in bold red, with “WITH DRAWINGS BY FI JAE LEE” in smaller text along the side.

Thrilled to share “Lady No” by Kim Hyesoon—with drawings by Fi Jae Lee—179 pieces spanning journals, aphorisms, recipes & reflections on a national tragedy. Surreal, visceral, and searing with humor & rage.

Out Apr 14, 2026 from @eccobooks.bsky.social Preorder: harpercollins.com/products/lady-…

Source text:

시인·소설가·만화가 앨런 마이클 파커 @ampydoo.bsky.social 의 신작 『빙고 뱅고 배잉고』  (Bingo Bango Baingo/Dzanc, 2025) 중 삶의 갈래를 빙고판에 풀어낸 초단편 (flash fiction) 〈인생을 바꾸는 빙고〉 입니다. 파커의 섬세한 위트와 통찰을 만나 보시길.

Yoo’s quiet poems turn everyday sorrow into luminous insight, and Stine An’s translation carries that light across languages, building a bridge between our own losses and a voice that refuses to shout.

Stine An’s translation mirrors Yoo’s restraint, preserving the confessional hush. Lines like “my howl‑like self became an empty bell” ring with the same fragile power in English.

Stylistic fingerprints abound: lowercase pronouns, minimal punctuation, breath‑length lines. The hush is its own music; sorrow travels best by whisper.

Time is pliable here. In “the loose pages of time” and “today is,” past and present blur into a single, liminal moment. Laundry, late‑night streets, the heft of a winter coat become vigils for who we were and who we might be.

Romantic distance cuts just as sharply. “I am in love and you are at a loss for words” holds the space between I and you in threadbare hope—love may falter, yet yearning keeps the day alive.

The theme reaches a crest in “boy ivan,” where sorrow isn’t denied but openly worn. Grief colors moments of cooking, playing catch, even the search through a lost wallet.

Every poem hums with absence: a father who is gone, a younger self stilled by grief. Phrases like “father inside my coat” and “erasable map” show loss weaving through the smallest tasks.

Book cover for “Today’s Morning Vocabulary” (오늘 아침 단어) by Yoo Heekyung, translated from Korean by Stine An. The design is in soft black‑and‑white: diffused window light fills the background while the dark silhouette of a leafy plant stretches across the lower right. The English title appears in crisp white sans‑serif lettering near the upper left; the Korean title sits beneath it in elegant Hangul script. The author’s name and translator credit are positioned in the lower right, both in white text, creating a minimalist, contemplative mood.

Happy pub day to poet Yoo Heekyung and translator Stine An—Today’s Morning Vocabulary is out today from ZephyrPress. Dive into this quietly luminous collection in this thread.

(www.zephyrpress.org/product-page...)

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Janus Ice dissolving is a sorrow. Ice unyielding is a dread. To survive, somehow, unseen, ice enters a slow thaw. Poem by Oh Eun Translated by Jack Saebyok Jung

In "Janus," Poet Oh Eun distills his wit and existential unease into a deceptively quiet meditation on survival. Known for pushing the aesthetic of linguistic play to bold extremes in Korean poetry, Oh Eun pairs his surreal sensibility with a sharpened clarity.