Dawn of Labor

Dawn of Labor, 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.

Dawn of Labor is an enduring classic that shook a society, transformed lives, and demonstrated the power of poetry.

The war of night labor once over,I pour cold soju over my aching heart. Ah . . . I can’t go on like this for long. For sure, I can’t go on like this. —"Dawn of Labor"If I ever kill myself, I’ll probably do it at dawn. —"For a Peaceful Evening"We too want to become heaven. Not a dark clouded heaventhat presses down,but a clear blue heavenover a world that lifts one another. —"Heaven