Kim Sowol: Google doodle on Korean language poet on his 118th birthday

Happy Birthday Kim Sowol!!!

Google today celebrates the 118^th birthday of Kim Sowol with a beautiful doodle. Kim Sowol was a Korean language poet famous for his contributions to early modern poetry.

Kim Sowol was born Kim Jeong-sik on September 7, 1902 in present-day North Korea’s North Pyongan Province. Shortly after he was born his father became insane. This fact must have affected the poet's early life and eventually led to his own premature death. His grandfather taught him classical Chinese and entered him in the famed Osan Middle School (also the alma mater of Baek Seok and Kim Eok) at the age of fifteen.

In 1920, Kim Sowol published his first poems in a literary magazine, after which he assumed the pen-name Sowol, which translates into “White Moon.” While still a high school student in 1922, Sowol published his famous work “The Azaleas.” This melancholic poem of love and loss inspired the colorful burst of Azalea flowers that surrounds his portrait in today’s Doodle artwork.

Kim Sowol went on to compose over 150 literary works and in 1925 published his sole collection of poems, also named “The Azaleas.” Sowol’s lifetime of heartfelt compositions cemented his legacy as one of Korea’s most treasured poets, and to this day many Koreans can recite his poems by heart.  The annual Sowol Poetry Prize, established in 1987 in Kim Sowol’s honor, is considered one of the most prestigious awards in Korean poetry.

Kim Sowol wrote most of the poems contained in The Azaleas (1925), the only collection of poetry published in his lifetime, while he was still a teenager. After graduating from Paejae High School, he taught for a while in his home town and then went to Japan to study at a college of commerce. While there, he published several poems in Kaebyok and other literary journals. Poems by him continued to appear after his return in such journals as Yongdae until his sudden death.

Kim Sowol died on December 24, 1934 at the age of 32. Google today dedicates a mesmerizing doodle to him on his 118^th birthday.

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