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To me, poetry was always ”something beautiful but elusive.” I always admired Moon Byung-ran as a poet. He seemed special, and not like any ordinary person. I wondered how different his home and study would be from the usual ones. Located at 267-11, Jisan-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, this house has a nameplate on the exterior wall that reads, ”Moon Byung-ran the Poet’s House.” White steel frames surround this recently remodeled two-story red brick building, making the house quite easy to spot. The house looks like a pretty coffeehouse from a distance. Inside, it feels like a cozy gallery. As soon as I pass the main gate, a mural depicting the columnar joints of the Mudeungsan Mountain can be seen on the wall to the right, along with Moon’s poem “Mudeungsan.”

Located at 267-11, Jisan-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City(Tel (062)-222-8182)

Online reference room

Moon Byung-ran the Poet’s House, 1st Floor

The late Moon Byung-ran was a nationalist/resistant poet. This house served as the late poet’s home from 1980 until he died in 2015. The house was later purchased and remodeled by the Dong-gu Office of Gwangju, and disclosed to the public in September 2021 as “Moon Byung-ran the Poet’s House.” This old house with a total floor area of around 150 m2 has been remodeled to have exhibition spaces both on the first and second floors. After passing the narrow yard, I open the sliding door and enter the room after taking the shoes off. And there I am greeted by one of the docents at the Dong-gu Humanities Trail. On the opposite side, I see a portrait of the poet displayed in a spotless white space. Placed next to the portrait is a writing “Moon Byung-ran the Poet’s House.” The phrase is written in the poet’s unique handwriting style. To the right, I see a chronology of Moon’s life from his birth in Dogok-myeon, Hwasun-gun in 1934 to his passing in 2015. The wall on the left is covered with the cover pages from the collections that he wrote throughout his life. I can’t help being amazed by the sheer number of the poem collections, which must mean that the poet never stopped writing poems all his life.

Moon’s poems are displayed on a loop on the left wall from the entrance using a beam projector, and the room to the left provides an overview of his life as a poet divided into different periods, along with the poems associated with each period. The room shows “Mountain Trail in Autumn,” a poem from his elementary school days that revealed the poet’s talent early on. Another poem featured in the room is “Street Trees,” which he wrote under the tutelage of Kim Hyun-seung while studying literature at Chosun University. According to the description, Moon made his debut after he received Kim’s recommendation for the poem. The room also presents visitors with some trivia about Moon. For example, the former major leaguer Park Chan-ho said in an interview that Moon’s poet “Song of Hope” gave him courage and consolation. The book Beyond Death, Beyond the Darkness of the Age, describing the May 18 Democratic Uprising, actually borrows its title from the fifth verse of the first stanza of his “The Song of Resurrection.” The exhibits there also tell us how his poems have been turned into songs and featured in films and TV shows, and how they changed the lives of people going through key moments in their lives.

The Poet’s Room, 1st Floor

Our last stop on the first floor is the Poet’s Room. A small room with lots of sunlight, it was used by the poet and his wife as the bedroom. In fact, the room still has the closet and the bed from those years. According to the docent, Moon’s family was financially distressed, and his wife mended clothes to make both ends meet and educate her children. A frame of the poem “Chanson for My Wife” hangs on the wall next to the bed. It is one of the poems that Moon dedicated to his supportive wife. The couple had a son and three girls, and the room has a photo taken during the son’s wedding. The room is unassuming overall, save for a frame of elaborately painted peony flowers. The story of this framed painting is told in Moon’s collection, Mindeule Taryeong.

Moon Byung-ran the Poet’s House, 2nd Floor

Throughout the house, the aroma of poetry is the richest on the second floor. A narrow staircase leads to the second floor, at the end of which a wide view of the village can be seen through the living room window. Moon’s handwritten notes and other personal belongings in glass cases can be found at the end of the staircase. A long table is placed against a side wall, complete with a place you can transcribe Moon’s poems and use 90 stamps with different phrases written by the poet. You can even create a poem of your own by choosing and combining the phrases you like and using them on a postcard available at the site. On display were some truly amazing works that previous visitors created by combining those phrases such as ”looking up at the sky,” ”not alone,” ”drinking soju,” and ”oh my friend.” A small room located next to the study is a quiet video room where visitors can appreciate Moon’s works as his poems are shown against beautiful backgrounds. The room has a literature vending machine. When a visitor touches the button, the machine randomly prints out one of Moon’s poems. I tried printing out a long poem and a short poem, and received “My Lover’s Flower Shop” and “Pyeongyang Naengmyeon.”

The Poet’s Study, 2nd Floor

It is said that Moon usually completed a poem in a single sitting. The poet left countless resistance poems, and The New York Times (1987) referred to him as a “Korean resistant poet that flung poetry instead of Molotov cocktails.” He dedicated his life to the nationalist literature movement and the May 18 Democratic Uprising, and composed many poems on these issues. Moon Byung-ran wrote many of his works in this study, which was also a place where he met with numerous writers at the time including Kim Nam-ju, Hwang Sok-yong, and Kim Jun-tae, as well as democratic activists such as Yoon Han-bong, one of the last persons who were made fugitives for participating in the uprising. A frame hangs near the room’s entrance with a wiring, “同塵軒 (dongjinheon).” The phrase is based on “和光同塵 (hwagwangdongjin. A literal translation would be “dimming the light and accompanying the dust of the secular world. It means hiding one’s intellect and virtues and going with the flow of the world), a phrase from Tao Te Ching written by Laozi. The study has bookshelves made of bricks and planks on either wall. Even these shelves were not enough to hold all of the poet’s books, and you can see stacks of books leaning against the other walls. Moon loved music, and his favorite speakers, CDs, and guitar are displayed in the back. Surrounded by the books and the music is a short-legged table, on which the poet must have written his poems. For a table that contributed to the birth of so many poems, it looks so small and humble. On the left from the entrance, you can see a woodcut piece with a phrase “심화독소(Simhwadokso)” along with the poet’s clothes and bag worn down by prolonged use.

Moon Byung-ran, who used Seoeun (瑞隱) as his pen-name, was born in Dogok-myeon, Hwasun-gun, Jeollanam-do. He attended Seoseok Elementary School in Gwangju, which was a four-hour walk away from his home. His poetic talent bloomed at an early age, and he made his debut when his poem “Street Trees” was published in Hyundae Munhak (Modern Literature, 1959) at the recommendation of the poet Kim Hyun-seung. His literature career took off during the time when the Park Chung-hee regime was consolidating its power. During these years, he published Moon Byung-ran Collection (1971) and Legitimacy (1973), which sang about the sufferings and contradictions in people’s lives. He released “To Jingnyeo,” a poem about his hope for the reunification of Korea, in 1977, and another collection On the Bamboo Root Field. The collection was banned from sale for the reason of disturbing the good customs when it was re-published in 1979.
Moon resisted the dark times with his poems. However, he challenged the status quo head on through other venues as well. While working at Daeseong Hagwon in 1980, he held political lectures for 40 days in a row and participated in street marches, for which he was arrested and incarcerated. Moon Byung-ran the Poet’s House is a place dedicated to remembering this nationalist poet who loved freedom and democracy. As its name suggests, the two-story building is filled with poetry from top to bottom. In particular, two verses written along the stairway to the second place caught my attention: “I am earth / Empty earth that lies long” from “The Love Song of Earth”; and “Today, become a ray of sunset that brightly blazes on a land that never sleeps” from “The Song of Resurrection.” These verses will hold a special place in my memories for a long time.

• Written by. Kim Ok-su mono755@daum.net
  Photography. Hwang In-ho photoneverdie@naver.com
  
  
  2022.2