Part literary translation and part language workbook, video documentary, and musical performance (provided on accompanying DVDs), each volume in Songs of Thorns and Flowers: Bilingual Performance and Discourse on Modern Korean Poetry, orchestrated by Chan E. Park, reflects the various aims of this new series: to make a pedagogical contribution to the study of Korean language and literature, to “explore the performativity of modern Korean poetic language” (In the Tree, p. 14) to provide a lens through which to understand Korean history and culture, and to honor the legacy of the poet Ku Sang (1919–2004). The first two books to emerge from the collaboration between the Ku Sang Memorial Association and Ohio State University's National East Asian Language Resource Center sometimes fall short of these ambitions, but as entire performances they are inspired attempts to create a space where Korean poetry can be appreciated as an instrument...

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