threshold
Telemachus
Trojan
Obad of the Burning City
A little closer to the edge
Immigrant Highfive
Always & Forever
Father sends a letter from prison
Head first
In Newport, I saw my father rubbing his cheek against the wet back of a dolphin that had washed ashore.
gift
Self-portrait as a gunshot wound
Thanksgiving, 2006
homewrecker
sing to you
Because it's summer
Into the cracks
Anaphora as a coping mechanism
The seventh circle on earth
On earth we are momentarily fascinated
Eurydice
“Untitled (Blue, Green, and Brown)”, oil on canvas, Mark Rothko, 1952
Queen Under the Mountain
Torso - a body made of air
A prayer for those who have just committed a crime
To my father/to my future son
Explosion (land)
Song of Su-myeong
Fragments of Notes
smallest unit
daily bread
Odysseus returns
Language phobia
Someday I will love Ocean Bhuong
commitment
Author's Note
Acknowledgements
Translator's Note
Recommendation

The poet we've been waiting for, Ocean Vuong

“Extraordinary” - Los Angeles Times
"An important new voice" - The Economist
“The Writer of Our Generation” - Affinity Magazine

Ocean Vuong, one of the most notable young writers in the United States today, was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and immigrated to the United States when he was two.
He spent a year in a refugee camp before immigrating, and after immigrating to the United States, he was raised by his mother, grandmother, and aunt.
He has published poetry and essays in various publications and two short poetry collections in booklet form in 2011 and 2013.
Her first full-length poetry collection, 『The Night Sky Covered with Gunshots』, published in 2016, won several literary awards and received praise and love from both critics and readers.
In 2019, she published "On Earth We Are Temporarily Fascinated," a novel written in the form of a letter to her illiterate mother. The novel was licensed to 19 countries and became a New York Times bestseller.
In 2022, he published his second poetry collection, Time is Mother.


In 『The Wounded Night Sky』, Ocean Vuong delicately captures the moment when different elements, such as Vietnam and the Vietnam War, the beginning of his life, the Vietnamese women who gave birth to and raised him like his mother and grandmother, and his life as a queer person, all come together through the poet himself, and depicts them in poetry.
Ocean Vuong, through his poetry, has filled his life with the overflowing multitude of universes.
However, while this is Ocean Vuong's personal voice, it also sharply exposes various sharp topics such as 'life as an Asian in America,' 'the Vietnam War,' 'refugees,' 'Vietnam and America,' 'queer people,' and 'misogynism.'
Ocean Vuong's poetry, which shows how the most intimate and personal voices connect with the world, is a much-needed voice in an age still rife with hatred and violence against minorities.

Desire, melancholy, and comfort conveyed through delicate and clear poetry

“Reading Ocean Vuong’s poetry is like watching fish move.
He handles the various streams of English with a powerful intuition.” - The New Yorker
“A masterpiece that elegantly captures the primal sorrows and joys of human existence.” - BuzzFeed Books
“The ability to immortalize moments like Ezra Pound.” - Poetry

What stands out most about Ocean Vuong's poetry is how he creates surprising moments with simple, ordinary words.
Of course, this does not mean that his poetry is easy to understand; although it is composed of relatively easy words, his poetry demands imagination and concentration from the reader.
But his poetry, which we encounter after that time, is both a moment of deep pain and a moment of fleeting joy.


And remember,
Even loneliness is spent together with the world
It's called time.
(Page 108)

I tried my best to convey the warmth of poet Ocean Vuong.
Because I was able to approach the translation with that warmth.
The poet's advanced skill and consideration in allowing us to confront the reality of trauma without transferring it.
-From the Translator's Note

As he writes about the various worlds surrounding him, his poetry allows readers to feel a variety of emotions.
Pain and sorrow are evident in his poetry, as are unfulfilled desires, deep and long-lasting depressions, and fears of violence.
But at the same time, the emotion that remains vividly in the reader's mind will be warmth.
As the translator said, it is the consideration given with a warm heart that makes us read his poetry repeatedly, and his voice, which wishes to be “blue despite the red, blue despite the rest,” will be a small but clear and sufficient comfort even in a dark and harsh world.