Later, a second edition (1955) came out with 62 more poems; the third, expanded edition came out in 1976 with 85 more poems. The latest edition, The Anthology of Yun Dong-ju’s Handwritten Poetry (1999), includes 125 poems.

As many scholars have pointed out, Yun’s poetics can be characterized as the “poetics of shame.” Having lived during the Japanese occupation, Yun seems to have felt constantly ashamed of himself for lacking the courage to engage in resistance activities and choosing instead to study and seek transcendental beauty in nature, taking little notice of his countrymen’s suffering.

This taint of shame is not unique to him, however, but can be applied to almost all Korean intellectuals who studied in Japan then. It is not difficult to imagine how they might have felt about studying in the country that had occupied their motherland and victimized their people.

Thus, Yun’s “Self-Portrait” is a representative portrayal of Korean intellectuals who endured a similar psychological cycle of shame, helplessness, hatred, sorrow, and resignation.

The recurrent poetic motifs in Yun’s poetry are the night sky, moon, wind, and stars. Traditionally, these are symbols of sacred gods that guide and protect people. Since Yun’s youth was an era when many weak-minded scholars and writers, for fear of their lives, took Japanese names and wrote articles, novels, and songs encouraging young Korean men to support Japan, it is easy to imagine how desperately Yun wanted to keep his conscience and literary integrity intact.

Just as (in his poem “Suh-Shi” [Foreword]) Yun calls on the moon, the sky, the wind, and the stars to protect him, the speaker in “Self-Portrait” looks at the moon, clouds, sky, and wind as the sources of his inspiration. But this time the poet sees them only as reflections inside a remote, deserted well, which symbolizes his inner self. Despite his innocent resolution to commit himself to the pursuit of transcendental beauty, he does not feel he has earned the seal of approval he desperately wanted from the cosmic animus he honors.

Instead, what he receives is only a fragmented sense of his inner self: the more he looks at the man in the well—actually the image of himself mirrored there—the more shame and hatred he feels toward him. But while oscillating wildly between hatred and self-pity, Yun tries to reconcile his split selves, pondering his feelings with stoic resignation.

In the end, he suggests that even if he is not courageous enough to be what he would like to be (a freedom fighter), he nevertheless finds solace in his determination to keep his conscience and integrity intact. He hopes his anxiety and shame will pass and belong someday only to memory, just as he holds his hand out to his split self in “A Poem Too Easily Written.”

Even though Yun may have felt extreme personal anguish and shame, it is due to the intensity of his inner struggle. He glows more brightly today than those other poets who more easily compromised with their times.

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Bibliography
Yun Dong-ju. “Self-Portrait.” Translated by Peter Lee. In The Silence of Love: Twentieth-Century Korean Poetry, edited by Sammy E. Solberg, 81. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.