Tae Ho Han was born in Tanyang(Red Light), South Korea in 1952. He studied The Science of Translation at Han Kuk University of Foreign Studies(MA) and the Comparative Studies in English Literature at Han Yang University(Ph.D). Since 1985, he has taught English Poetry and Translation Studies at a university, has published 3 books of verse and two books of prose on poetics, and the editor of Poetry and Reality and New Directions of Poems(Si Hyang). He has also published many literary articles and critical essays in the eminent Korean literary magazines. His poetry shows a special interest in Zen Buddhism. He has been a fellowship recipient from Arts Council Korea and The Korean Writers' Association. Prof. Han has travelled extensively in Asia and America as an interpreter and a poet of honor. He has represented Korea at the Kuala Lumpur International Poetry Reading(2004) and the Zagreb International Poetry Festival(2006). He also writes short stories and contribute weekly literary columns to a local newspapers. He is on invitation to the International P.E.N as a poet of distinction to the Senegal Festival in July, 2007! . His first poem book, titled The Roof without a House, focuses on the Zenistic Romanticism to the diurnal things. The second verse book(Transport to Summer) displays the Surrealistic Idealism to the summer fantasies. The third English verse book(A Wooden Ox Rocks Zagreb) is a brief chronological collection of poems. He is now fully engaged in the initiation of a Biannual Contemporary Poetry Translation Magazine in cooperation with Korea Literature Translation Institute. He is now a visiting professor at Han Yang University in Seoul.


The Sea Sings in Silence


The sea is the wrinkles of groaning silence,
the eyebrows of waves before utterance.

The crisp season walks into the cold heart,
forgets the verbal veins in silent sounds.

The sea never keeps silent by himself.
He absorbs the voices in the mist.

He is a new sound reveals the old silence,
a lingering tone in the silicone breasts, long monologues.

The sea speaks in two smiles;

silence of sound and sound of silence.

He is a contemplation before the cry of seagulls,
a condolence after the cry of waves.

Door of Mind

I am your white wall,
You are my blue window.

I hear the Mind through your ears,
Which opens and closes soundlessly.

A dusky evening, you walk in as a shadow,
I, eyeless, just overlook in a chagrin, motionless.

You are breezily leaning on my back,
I wish to embrace you, no syllables.

You are dewing from your dawny eyes,
I wish to dry up with my morning light.

But you are sealing up your mind,
How can I turn it around, armless?

You are my purple window,
Now I am your black wall.

We are here and now, side by side,
Whispering the old wisdom of love.