“I’ll return to the Heavens.
On the day when my picnic in this beautiful world is over,
I will return and let them know of the world’s beauty.“

He was a poet who could find happiness
in a pack of cigarettes and a gallon of makgeolli (rice wine)...

gallon ~ 3.785L

Born in Japan in 1930,
he returned to his motherland and settled in Masan after the liberation of Korea.
Then, in 1949, he caught the eye of
Kim Chun-su, a Korean language teacher at Masan Middle School,
and published a poem titled “Gangmul (River Water).”

In 1967,
he was accused of being involved in the East Berlin Incident,
and was imprisoned.
After his release, he suffered from the sequelae of atrocious torture
before going missing.

“Is he dead?”
People searched for him everywhere,
and after concluding that he must be dead,
“Bird,” comprised of some 60 poems he had written,
was published as a “posthumous book.”

Then, one day,
there was surprising news that the man was still alive.

He had collapsed on a street
and someone admitted him to a mental hospital.

The one and only poet,
whose poems were published as a “posthumous book.”

A man who lived in poverty his entire life
yet found joy and happiness in the small things...
It was the heavenly poet Cheon Sang-byeong.