[Poetry] My Life is ~

After retirement in 2018, I used to search and translate noteworthy poems about life in order to post them in the related articles on KoreanLII, a Wikipedia-style encyclopaedia on the Korean law and culture.[1]

* Note: 필자는 온라인 영문 법률백과사전을 운영하고 있기에 평소 영어로 글쓰는 연습을 한다. 여기 실린 영역시는 AI 번역기에 전부 맡기지 않고 직접 번역한 것이며, 본문과 똑 같은 내용이 한글로 이곳에 게재되어 있다.

 

Its list is somewhat long enough to put in one or two pages.

The first one is Longfellow's famous poem, A Psalm of Life. The next is Emerson's What is Success, Charlotte Bronte's Life, and so on. A Korean poet named Chun Sang-byeong gave us a beautiful poem, Back to Heaven (귀천), in which he described his life as a picnic even though he had experienced hard times.

 

* Blessed are those, who regard living a life as a picnic.

It is not surprising to find a number of poems which show all sorts of human emotions while we play games either as an actor or as a spectator during our life.

Here is the list of poems focused on 'life'. You may see their original texts and its translations by clicking each underlined title.[2] 

 

* Ra Heeduk, 오분간 (Five Minutes)
* Noh Cheon-myeong, 구름같이 (Like Clouds)
* Moon Byeong-ran, 희망가 (Song of Hope)
* Bok Hyo-geun, 명편 (名篇, Masterpiece)
* Seo Hong-kwan, 인생은 짧고 예술은 길다 (Life is Short, Art is Long)
* Lee Eo-ryong, 생명! (Life!)
* Chung Bong-ryeol, 인생사 (What is Life)

* Kim Si-seup, 乍晴乍雨 (잠깐 갰다 잠깐 비 오고, Transience of Life)
* Mencius, 告子章句下15章 (큰 인물론, How to be a Great Man)
* Joseph Kipling, If (만약에)
* Alexandr Pushkin, Should this life sometime deceive you (삶이 그대를 속일지라도)
* Nazim Hikmet, A True Travel (진정한 여행)
* Sung by Frank Sinatra, My Way (마이 웨이)

 

Each time when I hear of the death of friends of mine, most of whom passed away at the age of seventy or so, I feel very sorry and sorrowful.

Some day, a poet friend of my middle school days sent me several Korean poems originally posted on his personal blog titled "A Man's Poetry and Mind" (한사람 시와 마음). I found some of them make a resemblence of decalcomanie with my mind and sentiment about life.

So I put some of them into English with brief comments, as follows.

 

Life Poem    by Yoon Seong-taek

 

In the morning when
Warm sunbeam is stuck to the window glass,

 

An old man prepares himself for going out
By putting a pain relief patch on his knee.

 

A bundle of pain relief patches in a medicine box
Disseminate mint-like fragrance.

 

As one piece of stamp has
A letter delivered to its addressee,

 

One piece of pain relief patch would
Make him stand up and walk painlessly.

 

Upon his body inscribed with history of his life,
He wears a coat like an envelope,
Ready to go anywhere.

 

Presumably, for a beautiful lady in his youth,
He was willing to seal the envelope filled with longing.
And I guess he put many pieces of stamps on it.

 

He wears a felt hat and holds a stick in his hand,
With a piece of pain relief patch becoming effective.

 

On a warm spring day, from a bright alley,
A gentleman walks out in a stately manner.

 

In the above poem, you can find a metaphor or analogy of image. For example, a piece of pain relief patch for an old man is just like a stamp on the envelope in that they enable the person or the letter to reach the destination. Then, our clothes are like the very envelope which represents our whole life. I was quite impressed by a kind of allegory that the said letter could contain the longing for my beloved in old days.

 

One morning, I happened to listen to the opening poem of KBS Classic FM written by poet Kim Kyung-mi, whose title is Getting abord the Train for Chuncheon (경춘선을 타다).

 

* Autumn scenery at Yongdam Lake. Source: Haeorabi Garden Tistory.

As poet Kim said in her poem, why am I supposed to think as if some one is waiting for me at this time of the year in Chuncheon?

I think it's Me in my youth, presumably in the early 20s. At that time, I used to go to Chuncheon by train. I was standing at the side of a lake looking at the wet fog arising out of the lake as well as the changing colors of trees and forest around the lake. I was almost at a loss with the opaque and unstable future of my life.

 

Now, 50 years have passed since then. How much have I achieved in knowledge and wisdom?  How can I give Me of a half century ago remarkable pieces of advice about life? 

One thing is for sure. That is what we will cross the river of Hades running neck and neck each other as if the most wanted are eventually put into jail. Long time ago, an American poet Bryant said in his sensational poem, Thanatopsis (죽음에 관하여) that "By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,/ Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch/ About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

 

* What if an attractive woman is Wanted? Source: Popappstic App.

 

Glancing at Wanted Poster    by Yoon Seong-taek

 

On the way home, I saw a Wanted Poster on a bulletin board.
It’s said that they are still at large at so many places.
Their wrong life histories are written in red ink.
How can they ask their notorious life stories
to be seen and watched in public?
Some angry eyes often glare at
lookers-on at various strange places.

 

Maybe I would also be
posted by name on the Wanted Poster.
By means of notices with due date thereon, or
by ten-digit telephone numbers,
a formidable dragnet seems to be closer than before.

 

While criminals on the poster disappear one by one
with red circles on those arrested, I’m curious
where my chaser hides himself.

 

My remaining days are close to the grave.
Until the untouchable hope becomes
prey to a roundup,
to certain hiding places wherever,
I come back home everyday.

 

* Anna German, Song for Autumn. Captured from her music video.

As October came to the end, my friends and colleagues sent me several seasonal songs in sad tones.

At the top of the autumn song list, there was the Song for Autumn (Osennyaya Pesnya, 가을의 노래") sung by Anna German (Анна-Виктория Герман-Тухольская, 1936~1982), who was very famous in Korea for Russian Romance including Alone I set out on the road (나 홀로 길을 가네), I felt sorry because such a nice singer died too young leaving her Polish husband and a son behind.

 

The aforementioned poet friend of mine sent me again another very seasonal poem (계절에 맞는 시).

The unknown poet confessed he had once a splendid love affair between the lines of the poem.

He said the cool wind in the morning reminded him of the almost forgotten love in old days.

Such a sentiment may be described by means of an English-Korean haiku in 17 syllables like this: 

 

Autumn, fallen leaves,
Our life stories were
More beautiful than those leaves!

가을, 낙엽 / 꽃처럼 화려했던 / 우리의 이야기!

 

 

To the Seasonal Cool Wind of This Morning  by Unknown Poet

 

When flowers were falling down,
At first, I guessed it was 'cause of wind.
Later, I found out it was the days gone by.

 

When I felt cool outside,
At first, I guessed it was 'cause of autumn.
Later, I found out it was longing.

 

When I embraced it hard,

Longing was almost forgotten.
Later, I found out it was tears.

 

When I embraced the days gone by,

I sheded tears of longing.
Ah, I found out it was the splendid love.

 

* Kusama Yayoi, Yellow Pumpkin displayed at Incheon Paradise Hotel. Courtesy: Park Young-chol.

* At the East Coast near Gangneung. Courtesy: Park Young-chol

 

When I Pass Away  by Chung Hyeon-jong

 

When I pass away,
I'll leave
the Sun behind.
No more heaps of words,
nor whatever names,
nor a so-and-so memorial,
the Sun will be left behind.
Therefore, when the Sun rises,
the Sun stays high up in the sky, or
the Sun goes down
as if it finishes with a last breath,
It must be the remains of mine.
Please, remember me like that!

 

Note

1] Initially, KoreanLII, Wikipedia style encyclopaedia on the Korean law and culture, was established for the purpose of teaching foreign students in the LL.M. course at the Korean law schools, not yet authorized to open. Now KoreanLII contains sufficient law items and articles up to the level equivalent to any kind of law dictionary. In view of the current situation that the number of foreign readers are more than that of local users, KoreanLII is increasingly in need of brand-new and useful contents similar to cultural aspects like K-pop and K-drama. Its good example is an ancient history book, the Heritage of the Three States (삼국유사/三國遺史), which includes the myth of Dangun, ancient lyric songs, folklores, etc. eventually to become the National Treasure of Korea. That's why Korean LII has exerted itself to find and translate law-related poetry in Korea and abroad.

In this context, KoreanLII editors have found out there are so many beautiful poems and lyric songs in Korean, and those to be necessarily read by foreigners.  Accordingly, KoreanLII has an increasing number of poems, directly or indirectly related with law, in Korean and other languages.

In this regard, Persian Rubaiyat is a good example. More than one hundred of Rubaiyat written by Omar Khaiyyam were translated into the English quatrains by Edward FitzGerald, which created a great sensation in the Western literature community in the 1860s. Out of question, it's an appealing but difficult job for the KoreanLII editors, but it will become worth of such efforts.

 

2] Further readings :

⇒ Rest in Peace lamenting for the Itaewon incident victims.

⇒ If you want to read the original poems in Korean, see "My Life Poems (내 일처럼 여겨지는 人生 詩)" at a separate blog.

⇒ A number of beautiful Korean poems and lyrics, other than life poems, are also available in English. Please  click here.