HOW DID JÓZSEF ATTILA END UP IN THE SEOUL METRO?

Professor Jin Kyoung Ae is currently a lecturer at the ELTE Korean Department and the Deputy Director of the ELTE Sejong Institute in Budapest. She first visited Hungary in 1995 as a Hungarian major at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, where she became acquainted with the poetry of Attila József.

In József Attila’s works, she not only discovered the imprints of 20th-century Hungarian life but also Hungary’s historical and cultural values, as well as differences and points of connection with Korea. Drawing on her academic background in Hungarian language and literature, she translated and published Attila József’s poetry collection Nagyon fáj (너무 아프다) in Korean in 2021, which was the last volume published during the poet’s lifetime.

On January 22, in celebration of Hungarian Culture Day, two of Attila József’s poems translated by Professor Jin—Mama and Nyár—were exhibited at Seoul metro stations. The poems are displayed both in their original Hungarian version and in Korean translation on the safety walls at Euljiro 1(il)-ga Station (Line 2) and Itaewon Station (Line 6), offering Seoul commuters an opportunity to engage with Hungarian poetry.