Poetry Is Painting with Words

As a bit of follow-up to my previous post, I thought I'd add some pictures of the watercolor that Yuna painted to go with the poem. But first, to clear up a few misunderstandings...

1) I didn't write the poem "Green Delight." I just translated it. So unfortunately I can't take credit for the images therein.

2) The link that I included on the post simply has the original text of the poem - the image on that site in no way pertains to Yuna or her illustration project.

And now to our main event.


This sign says: "Intoxicated with 'spring,' poetry // Illustrated poems and contemporary Korean poetry // 100 years of source material on display!"


Here is Yuna's illustration. You can see the Korean on the left and my translation on the right.


And here's a closeup of my translation! Of course, if you actually want to read it without squinting, it's available in the previous post.

The delight is in the making

Me and Sung-Cheol on our trip to Goje Island, Thanksgiving 2007

About a week and a half ago I went on a date to Coex Mall (I posted my impression of this place a while ago). While there, I watched a movie that involved a lot of gruesome deaths, ate a meal that involved a lot of ramen noodles, and walked a kilometer or two underground.

Also, and with more relevance to this post, as I shared a waffle bathed in ice cream with my girlfriend Yuna, I translated a Korean poem into English. Yuna had undertaken a project to illustrate a poem called Green Delight, written by one Hyeon-Jong Jeong. Yuna's illustration of the poem included, of course, a version of the original inscribed in beautiful calligraphy, but she also wanted to add a version in English. Initially, I was just going to check her own translation, but I ended up retranslating it myself.

I would recommend you attribute any felicities in the translation to the grace of the original, any false steps in the translation to the immaturity of the translator.

---
Green Delight (in a Forest in the Spring)

by Hyeon-Jong Jeong

tr. by David Carruth

The sun sinks down in waves
of light, overflowing with its own light.
The sun becomes the crown
of all greens and all flowers,
and it beams on the greens and flowers,
which are its crown.
Like the father of allegory,
like a spring of green,
it beams across all the blue expanse of heaven.
The whole of heaven is pure delight-
it is a temple.
Sun, blue heaven,
green delight of the branches
swaying and drunk on the light and air,
on their own sap,
like water floating in the sky.
So also is the dirt, and in deep places
its fragrant eyes search,
and in secret it gives and receives,
and it smiles.
This fragrance,
this fragrance of the smiling dirt,
it seems to be pouring into my nose.
Fragrance of heaven!
Fragrance of the trees!

---
If by chance anyone would like to compare my translation with the original, you can find it here. Of course, unless you're relatively proficient in Korean, it may not be very interesting to you...

Proverbs the World Over

A few days ago in class, we were learning about proverbs. For the most part, we studied the proverbs that are used commonly in Korea, but for a speaking activity the teacher asked us to think of a few proverbs used in our home countries and translate them (into Korean of course) for the other students in class.

My proverbs were
1) Every cloud has a silver lining.
2) A watched pot never boils.
3) You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Curious about the proverbs provided by my rather international class? Just as I expected! Fortunately, I recorded as many as I could from the discussion. Hope you enjoy them.

*Note: some of these are not so much proverbs as idioms. However, the line between the two is a little blurred, so be a little generous.

Name: Seh-yeon
Country: Uzbekistan

1) You can't catch a fish in a lake without trying.
Meaning: do your best.
2) Measure the cloth seven times and cut it once.
Meaning: if you plan carefully, you won't waste your time.
3) No one prays until lightning strikes.
Meaning: People are more religious when they're scared.

Name: Hyo-jyeong
Country: China
1) Even if you keep studying until you die, you can't learn it.
Meaning: some things take a lot of time to master.
2) If you're stupid, get up earlier to go to work.
Meaning: what you lack in intelligence you can make up for in effort.

Name: Masaheh
Country: Japan
1) For every meeting there is also a farewell.
Meaning: No one can stay together forever.

Name: Lim-pang
Country: Taiwan
1) It's better to give your parents a bean while they're alive then a pig's head (=traditional at funerals) when they die.
Meaning: a dutiful child cares for his parents while they are with him.
2) Steal a pumpkin as a child, steal a cow as an adult.
Meaning: bad habits start young; petty crimes tend to get worse
3) As a watermelon has a lot of seeds, so does a wicked person have a lot of words.
Meaning: Quit blabbing.

Name: Sayuri
Country: Japan
1) Put a cat on.
Meaning: put on an act; hide your true feeling
2) Wrap something long around your neck (?)
Meaning: follow orders; obey your superiors
3) A duck brings onions on its back.
Meaning...?

Name: Mio
Country: Japan
1) Pearls in a pig's ear.
Meaning: The same as English.
*The Korean is "A pig wearing a pearl necklage"
2) Do it fast while the ghost is away.
Meaning: While the cat's away the mice will play.
3) Blue came before dark blue, but dark blue is better.
Meaning: The apprentice has bested his master.

Name: Jiaying
Country: Singapore
1) Go fly a kite.
Meaning: beat it. get out of here.
2) To arrow someone.
Meaning: to pass the buck, to shift the blame
3) Got eye see no Tarzan.
Meaning: to show off in front of an expert.

There's something comical about this ad

Now we return to our featured program...

The other day I went to COEX, the biggest mall in Seoul and most likely in all of Korea. Actually, it's kind of disappointing, despite all of the hype. One would expect that a mall of this caliber would be stunning and slick. In fact, when I visited Fukuoka, a fairly large city in Japan (but nowhere as big as Seoul), I was quite taken with Canal City, a five story shopping complex and one of the major tourist attractions there. Canal City has an innovative design, comprising several buildings connected by walkways that leap across space and separated by fountains and winding waterways below.


COEX, however, is vaguely futuristic in the most boring possible sense. As you roam the confusing halls, you can't help wondering whether you've strayed onto the set of a seventies sci-fi thriller. And sadly, it's rather hard to stray off. If it weren't for the occasional signs, the halls look almost identical and lack any distinguishing features to indicate which part of the mall you happen to be in.

While in the mall, I found a striking advertisement for one of Nike's most recent products - the Dunk line of shoes. Perhaps this has become trendy lately, but I'd never seen the like - an advertisement disguised as a comic book, or better yet a comic book whose theme and purpose are advertisement. Not product placement so much as comic replacement. I've translated one page for your commercial edification.

Have you seen marketing of this sort before? It's strange because it doesn't seem to really work either on an artistic level or on a commercial level. The story - dull; the advertising - ignored. The only plus I can find is that it gave me a chance to do a bit of (admittedly simple) translation.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

It's about 7 AM here, just before sunrise, and I'm getting ready for my last day of work this Christmas break.

Watching the weather report on TV in Korean - and understanding it - I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride.

Watching the weather report on TV - and understanding it - I feel a sense of gloom descend as I prepare to step out into a wind chill of 14 F (-10 C).

Transposing Plato into a New Key

Here's a translation I attempted of a passage from Plato's Republic (which I came across on a forum). The passage had previously been translated into Korean, so I was essentially taking the text even further from the original. Anyway, read my attempt below, and then compare it with an English version I found online.

[My Translation]
Music and art education are of great importance because it is rhythm and melody, more than anything else, that go down deep into the soul and give the soul firm guidance. Anyone who learns music properly can achieve gracefulness; otherwise, the exact opposite will result. In addition to this, let us consider someone who has been properly instructed in music. Presuming nothing has gone wrong in his education, he will be able to instantly recognize what is not beautiful. Naturally, such things will be unpleasant for him, but he will also be able to praise the beautiful. As he willingly accepts beauty into his soul, he will be nurtured by it and will himself become beautiful and good.
(Plato's Republic)

[A Translation from the Greek, NOT mine]
"...Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful; and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good..."
(http://www.galileolibrary.com/ebooks/eu05/platorepublic_page_39.htm)



Me outside the Van Gogh Exhibit at the Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art

All Words, No Action

I'm well into my second week of level 5 at Sogang University. Maybe I should explain what the program is like for those of you who, um, aren't within driving distance of Korea. Which, presumably, is all of you.

1) Location - The tenth story of the highest building on the Sogang University campus. I'm not technically a student of Sogang, since I'm attending the affiliated language program, but I do have a student card and have access to the various facilities there, including the gym and the library.

2) Schedule - I take classes four hours a day, five days a week, making it a pretty intense schedule. This doesn't take into account the homework, of which there's a considerable amount. There are also additional classes available to those who are interested and ambitious (I suppose I may fall into category) like a pronunciation class that I took today.

3) Material - The first hour of the day is a writing class. We review the material covered in the other classes and implement it in our own free writing assignments. Next is a video class, which focuses on improving our listening skills. Right now we're watching a movie called "Christmas in August." Finally is two hours of reading and speaking, which is where we get most of the new material, including vocab and grammar. Perhaps needless to say, all these classes are taught in Korean. Since I'm in level 5 out of 6, this isn't surprising, but even level 1 is taught entirely in Korean. I really can't imagine how that works...!

I'll add some more topics when they occur to me. For now, another picture - pretty good looking, huh?