Poet Ham Min-bok's newly published collection of essays, "Why Are Tears Salty?"

Poet Ham Min-bok's first collection of prose, and the most widely known of his collections, "Why Are Tears Salty?" has been republished.
In his various prose collections, poet Ham Min-bok has reminisced about his difficult past while also embracing reality, and has endlessly asked readers the question of what it means to truly live.
In particular, his life story and literary roots are fully contained in “Why Are Tears Salty” published in 2003.
This collection of essays continues to be loved, allowing readers to appreciate his writing skills even after ten years.
However, due to circumstances at the publisher, this collection of essays went out of print, which had been a source of regret for a long time. We have restored it in the Book Landscape, and added new essays carefully selected by poet Ham Min-bok.


Novelist Kim Hoon said this about the book:
“His poverty is not asking ‘Why am I poor?’ but rather, it is a poverty that asks what this poverty is and what content it has.
He speaks of the hope and joy that spring from the primal condition of being alive.
I treasure his prose sentences that reach this point.”

This collection of essays contains widely read works such as “Why Are Tears Salty,” “Cold Rice and Mother,” and “In a Factory Making Milking Machines,” as well as “Bouquet of Wild Chrysanthemums,” “Walking the Yellow Soil Road Barefoot,” and “A Clumsy yet Beautiful Dance,” as well as the preciousness of the land that he realized through his own body while settling down on Ganghwa Island and the salty stories he shared with people.


In this newly published collection of essays, the poet says that poverty was miserable, but he dared to say that he was full.
Reading his prose, we come to realize that poetry was the force that sustained him, and that the people who accompanied him were tears.
Yet, they were milestones that helped him stand firm, a room on earth that welcomed his life as he wandered in search of a resting place.
Through this collection of essays, we encounter the poet Ham Min-bok's arduous life, which became the literary foundation of his career, and we are reminded of what true life is, something we have forgotten.

Then, the owner approached us carefully so that we wouldn't feel sorry, placed a plate of kimchi the size of a matchbox, and turned away. In an instant, I burst into tears that I had been holding back. I quickly wiped the sweat from my forehead, pretending that the tears were sweat, and then very slowly wiped the sweat from my eyes with a wet towel. As I did so, I muttered to myself, "Why are tears salty?" --- p. 51

The food on the table my mother had prepared was cold.
I made some soybean paste stew that had cooled down after being reheated several times.
The mother had been worried since the two rich men who had gone to the mountains had not returned even after the moon had risen, so she had come out to meet them a long time ago.
As long as the rice had been cold, my mother waited for my father and me, bathed in moonlight.
The mother looked at the father and son, who were wearing sweat-soaked clothes, eating cold soybean paste soup and pickled vegetables with rice mixed in water, with eyes filled with relief.

The table filled with cold rice that day was filled with anticipation.
One night, as I ate the salty soybean paste stew, the moonlight was shining brightly in the yard of our low-roofed house, and the porch where our family of three sat was filled with the scent of chrysanthemums and deodeok. ---p.55

When I handed over the knitwear, saying I was sad to part ways, the factory manager gave me a gift he had prepared in advance.
“I bought a fountain pen and a pencil along with this article.
“Write a lot of good poems.”
I walked with heavy steps, looking back at the factory manager, this article, and the factory building.

'You have already written all the good poems in my heart.
Poets write poems on paper and publish them in a book, but you write poems in the poet's heart, so aren't you the true poets?
The milking machines you've created will milk clean cows and make the world healthy.'---p.62

The squirrel or the chipmunk is in charge of the pebaek, the elm tree is in charge of the guard, the arrow tree is in charge of the security, the goro tree that has a pain in water is in charge of the drinking, never ask the birch tree to take charge of the drinks, leave that to the pine tree, the bartender is a jan-dae, and for music, go to the traditional Korean music, the gong is a gardenia tree, the flute is a willow tree, the drum is a drum tree, the speaker is a gwang-gwang tree, and for singing, the osori is the right choice.
Society would be better with a juniper tree, food stamps with a poplar tree, wedding gifts with a ginkgo tree, and bathroom directions with a mulberry tree and a holly tree.
The bride's makeup was like azalea, the lighting was like fireflies, and the clapping was like maple trees until the palms of the hands turned red... ... No matter how much I thought about who should officiate the wedding, I couldn't come up with an idea.

--- From the text