A representative poet of modernism and imagism,
Let's meet Baek Seok's work!

Baek Seok is a representative modernist poet of Korea who utilized indigenous poetic language with restrained sensibility. He published only one collection of poetry, “Deer,” in 1936, 100 copies directly through Seongwang Company.

The first edition of “Deer” published by The Story this time was produced by borrowing the cover design of the 1936 edition as is.
In addition to the poems included in “Deer” from 1936, the book also includes Baek Seok’s representative works published later, such as “Me, Natasha, and the White Donkey” and “There is a White Wind Wall,” allowing readers to see most of Baek Seok’s works.
The text has been edited to conform to Korean spelling rules for readers' convenience, but the original text has been preserved as much as possible so that the meaning of the poem is not damaged.
Occasionally, footnotes are provided to help readers understand words that are no longer in use or difficult Chinese characters.


Published in 1936, “Deer” contains 33 poems divided into four parts, including Baek Seok’s early work “Nun”, “Chodongil”, and “Fox Nangoljok (族)”.
In this collection of poems, Baek Seok sang regional colors and folk materials based on modernism and an objective attitude.
In particular, by utilizing place names, dialects, and archaic words from Pyeongan Province, we realistically portrayed our daily lives based on a sense of displacement.
This can be seen as a demonstration of Baek Seok's will to protect our language even during the Japanese colonial period.

Poet Baek Seok, who was undervalued after being abducted, returned to us only after the ban was lifted.
Baek Seok's poetry, which strives to preserve the beauty of our language, is loved by many people.

Poor me
Because I love the beautiful Natasha
It's going to snow heavily tonight.

I love Natasha
The snow is falling heavily
I sit alone and drink soju.
Thinking while drinking soju
Natasha and I
Riding a white donkey on a snowy night
Let's go to the mountains, to the deep mountains where the groaning comes from, and live in Magari.

The snow is falling heavily
I think of Natasha
There's no way Natasha wouldn't come
When did you come and talk to me so quietly?
Going to the mountains is not losing to the world.
The world is a dirty place

The snow is falling heavily
Beautiful Natasha loves me
Somewhere, a white donkey will bray tonight because it's so good.

--- From "Me, Natasha, and the White Donkey"