Shin Dong-yup was born on August 18, 1930, in Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province, Korea. In 1944, he graduated from Buyeo Elementary School at the head of his class and then attended Jeonju Normal School. The tuition, room and board were paid by the Korean government. According to the book, National Poet Shin Dong-yup by the poet Kim Eung-gyo, his father, Shin Yeon-sun, discovered his talent for writing. Despite their poverty, his father taught him how to write when Shin Dong-yup was six years old.
School life
In 1948, Shin Dong-yup was expelled from the Normal School as a consequence of student protests against Syngman Rhee, and in particular for disagreeing with the South Korean president's land reform policy and inaction on liquidating pro-Japanese assets. He was transferred to teach at an elementary school in Buyeo, as he was already certified as a teacher. However, he quit his job and entered Dankook University, majoring in history. His father was a judicial scrivener, but he could not support his son financially with his low pay, so he had to sell his farm.
Shin Dong-yup had to return to his hometown when the Korean War broke out in 1950. The North Korean People's Army took over Buyeo on July 15, 1950. The North Korean People's Army intended to implement communist land reform. Shin Dong-yup was not interested in political issues, but he was employed by the Democratic and National Youth Alliance and worked there until late September 1950. The army exploited his knowledge of organization and business. He agreed with communist ideas regarding social reforms, although he was an anarchist. He was drafted into the National Defense Corps in late 1950. After the dissolution of the army, he caught liver distoma from eating crabs.
Debut as a writer
In 1953, Shin Dong-yup applied to become an air force candidate and passed. However, after graduation from Dankook University, he remained unassigned to a billet. He then moved to Donam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, and opened a secondhand bookstore near his home. At that time, Shin Dong-yup met his future wife, In Byung-sun, who was a senior at Ewha Girls' High School. He married In Byung-sun and they returned to his hometown. In Byung-sun opened a boutique in Buyeo to overcome poverty, and Shin Dong-yup was assigned to Joosan Agriculture High School in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province. He quit teaching because of tuberculosis, and fell into reading and writing after he sent his wife and children to stay with his wife's parents. In 1959, he won The Chosun Ilbo annual spring literary contest with The Talking Ploughman's Earth, and he made his debut as a writer under his pen name, Seok Lim. He recovered from tuberculosis and started working at Education Criticism Publisher in Seoul. He wrote Student Revolution collection of poems and protested in the April Revolution. This is why Shin Dong-yup is often referenced as the "April Revolution poet" by many writers. He was able to write "Who Said Who Looked Up At The Sky" and "Husk, Be Gone" based on his experiences in the April Revolution. In 1961, he was hired as a teacher for an evening section at the Myung-Sung Girls' High School, where he immersed himself in writing poems. He graduated from Konkuk University's graduate school with a master's degree in Korean Literature in 1964. In 1963, he published a poetry collection, Asanyeo, and an epic poem, Keumkang. His liver distoma worsened, and this eventually turned into liver cancer. He died at age 38 on April 7, 1969.
Shin Dong-yup published many poems such as "Husk, Be Gone", which criticized the opportunists swept up by democratic power and also "March", "Farm", and "The Sky We Saw". He wrote epic poems, including The Talking Ploughman's Earth, Woman's Life, and more than ten critiques. In 1989, his poem "On the hills and mountains" was included in middle school textbooks. The following is a Korean to English translation of his most famous poem, "Husk, Be Gone". The government prohibited the sale of the book immediately after it was published, as the poetry was symbolic of democratization.
