Comedian Yang Se-hyung, Who Published a Poetry Collection, Says "I Used the Most Beautiful Words I Learned as a Child"

Comedian Yang Se-hyung's Poetry Collection "Byeol-ui Gil" Published

Comedian Yang Se-hyung has published a poetry collection titled "The Path of the Stars." Although he had not openly shown his poetic sensibility before, he ended up releasing the collection after revealing the poem "The Path of the Stars" on a broadcast by chance. As a child, he enjoyed playing a game of clearly expressing raw emotions collected while roaming the fields, rice paddies, and mountains of Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, by combining words into writing. The poems he wrote on the back of wallpaper brought home by his mother, who used to do wallpapering work when he was young, were lost in a fire, but he included 88 poems he rewrote in the collection. The number 88 is also the score Yang Se-hyung received on the College Scholastic Ability Test?88 points out of 400. In the preface of the poetry book, he wrote, “It is still very difficult to find the answers to people and life,” and “I courageously present these 88 pieces of writing.”

At the publication meeting held on the 5th at the Francisco Education Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, Yang Se-hyung described poetry as “a fun game I played lying down in the starry alleys of Dongducheon during my childhood.” He said, “When beautiful, cool, and sad emotions arise, they were hard to organize in my head, but writing them down helped me sort them out well.” Although he never won a prize in writing contests, he shared an anecdote about being scolded by a teacher for “copying someone else’s work.”

Yang Se-hyung honestly confessed, “I don’t know much about poetry.” For him, poetry was both a game and a friend that comforted his life. The collection also includes poems written during difficult times. He said, “There is a poem I wrote while looking down from a high officetel when things really weren’t going well and my expectations turned into disappointment,” adding, “By acknowledging that I had a harsh heart through writing poetry, I experienced a sense of relief.”

Although the poems are very precious to him, he gathered them carefully and published them as a collection because he was afraid that exposing them online in fragments might make him fearful of writing poetry due to sharp criticism. He said, “These days, there is a mocking atmosphere when people say they write poetry, but I believe there is nothing better than writing (poetry) to feel emotions. I hope a culture where many people share stories through poetry will be revived.”

The poems express longing for his late father, the life of a comedian, and everyday life in simple language. Regarding the evaluation that the poems are easy to understand, Yang Se-hyung smiled and said, “I wrote them using the smartest words I know, and those turned out to be simple words.” He explained, “Actually, the words I learned as a child are the most beautiful. As you grow older, the words you learn become more difficult and heavy. In the poetry collection, I used words that even kindergarteners can understand.”

Among the poems written in memory of his father, he chose “I Want to Eat Samgyeopsal Kimchi Stir-fry Made by Dad” as his favorite. “Today, I think I have to cancel my plans / Because I keep wanting to see you / I can’t open my eyes // Did you close your eyes because you missed me so much?” Yang Se-hyung expressed his longing, saying, “If my dad were alive, he would probably joke, ‘This poetry book costs 13,800 won, but I’ll give it to you specially for 10,000 won.’ I don’t think he would have said ‘Well done,’ but he would have always kept my poetry book by his side.”

He plans to meet readers with essays in addition to poetry in the future. Yang Se-hyung said, “I don’t expect people to see me differently from my comedian image. I just hope they realize that I’m not only playful but also have a serious side.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.