■ Like the grasses of half-yang and half-eum, author Han Seung-won, a representative novelist of Korean literature, lives like the grasses of half-yang and half-eum in his hometown, Jangheung-gun, Jeollanam-do. It has been more than 20 years since he entered an ashen retreat to avoid the blazing sunlight, believing that if a writer becomes successful, poetry will die. Author Han Seung-won, who debuted in the New Year’s literary contest in 1968 with the short story “Wooden Boat,” is celebrating his 56th debut this year. He is one of the few remaining students of Kim Dong-ri and Park Mok-wol, and the father of author Han Kang, the first Asian to win the Man Booker Prize. His representative works include “Ajeajje Baraajje,” which was made into a film, as well as “Apsandodo Cheopcheophago,” “The Road to Haesan,” “The Wayfarer of the Beach,” and his recently published autobiography, “Raising a Sandol,” among hundreds of other works. Author Han Seung-won returned to his hometown of Jangheung, the foundation of his literature, in order to become naturalized. He decided to return home because he was sick from living in Seoul, but he says that he came to know the deeper truths of the world while living a life in harmony with nature. Nature has been a strong supporter and a plus alpha for the author, and thanks to it, the author of Manggu (望九) is still actively producing works. ■ 80% of my poetry and novels are the sea For author Han Seung-won, 80% of his poetry and novels were created by the sea. In his early works, the sea was a fierce scene of life and the extreme of humanism, but now for the author, who is approaching his 90s, the sea is a place of return to nature and the mother of a life in harmony with nature. About 20 years ago, when author Han Seung-won, who missed the sea, returned to his hometown and fell asleep, a goblin appeared in his dream and said, “I will lend you a huge amount of money in the goblin country, so buy everything, like the sea and the sky of Deukryang Bay.” Instead, it is said that the deal with the goblin was made with the condition that he should diligently write stories and share them with the world. It was even more special that the writer, a natural storyteller, became the owner of Deukryang Bay through the deal with the goblin. This is because, in the great nature that was the birthplace of his literature and the place where he helped his father grow seaweed during his school days, he could live as a living writer as long as he wrote, just as he said. ■ Living in Flowers Author Han Seung-won’s study is called ‘Haesan Togul’ (海山土窟). If you stand in the yard of the author’s cave with Mt. Handeok as a folding screen, you can see the Deukryang Bay sea at a glance. The garden is overgrown with small flowers and grass. As he gets older, he says that he leaves the flowers, trees, and even the grass as they are, if possible, untouched. This is because the nature in the garden also grows old and ripens together with the author, and lives together with him. Author Han Seung-won believes that since a blade of grass and a flower are universal beings, writing about them as poetry and novels is no different from reading the will of heaven and the order of the earth. That is why various flowers, bugs, birds, clouds, the sky, and the moon appear as main characters in his novels and poems that convey the ‘law of nature.’ The author, who says that writing each piece of work is like making and arranging a flower, comforts the world by saying that each person living diligently in their own place is also a sacred act that blooms a flower. ■ My old friend, Lee Cheong-jun, and raising a rock A rock that looks like a dinosaur egg catches the eye in the study yard. Author Han Seung-won brings a ladle of water and pours water on the rock carefully… Author Han Seung-won says that it is like a rock he raised as a child. ‘Raising a rock’ is a game that children enjoyed playing where they water a rock every day and have a good heart, and the rock grows. The saying that a rock grows big is a dream-like lie, but it is said that all children who raise sand pebbles do not lose their dreams even through experiences of failure and frustration. Although I have lived my whole life writing, the writer's life has also gone through countless times of failure and frustration. Nevertheless, the writer's 'raising sand pebbles', who wants to plant seeds of hope in readers, continues to communicate with nature and write every day without rest. ※ This video is [Philosophers of Nature - Novelist Han Seung-won, Like the Grasses of Half Yang and Half Eum] aired on August 5, 2022. #Han River #Nobel Prize in Literature #Nobel Prize #Novel ✔KBS Documentary KBS Official YouTube Channel [KBS Documentary] 🔔Subscribe👍Like➡️ / @kbsdocumentary 📝Contact: [email protected] Copyright ⓒ KBS. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, and use (including AI training) are prohibited. ∙Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, and use (including AI training) are prohibited. ∙The current situation and content may differ slightly depending on the broadcast time. ∙Defamatory or malicious comments may be deleted by the operator to protect the performers.