What might the music of the late Goryeo sing of? This Translation Tuesday, we are transported to more than half a millennia back, as Seenoo Kim translates two songs from the Middle Korean that reflect the vicissitudes of exterior and interior landscapes. Representing a tradition of folk poetry independent of the Chinese-influenced elite literature, these poems also reflect the literary possibilities of writing in the hangul script. In Kim’s translation, these meditative and often melancholic poems exude a lyricism that resonates with the contemporary ear. 

Dong dong¹

            The First Month²

The stream-waters
How lovingly they freeze and melt³
Yet I—born in the middle of the world
Walk all alone.

            The Second Month

Under the full moon
Like the lanterns lit on high⁴
Your face is one
That shines on everyone.

            The Third Month

All blossoming
Full spring’s rhododendrons⁵
You were born to be
The envy of others.

            The Fourth Month

They didn’t forget the spring
The nightingales are coming back
Not my mister; whose fault is it
He’s forgotten the old me?

            The Fifth Month

On the fifth day
The morning herbs of Dano day⁶
I’ll give them to you
So you can live for a thousand years. READ MORE…