Dawn of Labor

<p><i>Dawn of Labor</i>, at last translated into English, is the legendary South Korean poet Park Nohae’s first collection, published in 1984 when he was twenty-seven years old. Despite a government ban, the book sold a million copies and propelled Park Nohae as the generation’s leading resistance poet. <i>Dawn of Labor </i>is an enduring classic that shook a society, transformed lives, and demonstrated the power of poetry. <br><br>The war of night labor once over,<br>I pour cold soju over my aching heart.<br>Ah . . . I can’t go on like this for long.<br>For sure, I can’t go on like this. <br>—“Dawn of Labor”<br><br>If I ever kill myself, I’ll probably do it at dawn. <br>—“For a Peaceful Evening”<br><br>We too want to become heaven.<br>Not a dark clouded heaven<br>that presses down,<br>but a clear blue heaven<br>over a world that lifts one another.<br>—“Heaven”</p>