Zenith (Translation)
Aug. 5th, 2012 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ljwritesZenith
by Lee Yuk-Sa*
On the whiplash of a bitter season
I am swept up to this utmost north.
Up where the sky in its exhaustion ceases
I stand on the bladed edge of frost.
I cannot know where I am to kneel
Without a foothold, driven to the edge.
Thereby what but close my eyes and think
Truly winter is a rainbow wrought of steel.
* Independence fighter and poet. Born in 1904 as Lee Weon-Rok, he joined an independence activist organization in 1925 and attended military academy in Beijing. He returned to Korea in 1927 only to be jailed for three years in connection to a bank bombing. His pen name, Yuk-Sa, is from his prisoner number 64 ("six-four" read as "yuk-sa" in Korean). He went back and forth between China and Korea studying, working for the independence struggle, and publishing poetry, academic papers, and scenarios. Died in a Beijing prison in 1944, a year and a half before Korea achieved independence.
하늘도 그만 지쳐 끝난 고원(高原)
어디다 무릎을 꿇어야 하나
이러매 눈 감아 생각해 볼밖에
Lee Yuk-Sa is one of my (and Wishsong's) favorite modern poets along with Han Yong-Un. I guess that should be cool since these guys were badass independence fighters as well as acclaimed poets, but I'm afraid my reasons were less noble than that.
I stumbled into liking Lee's and Han's works in middle school. That was when my Korean teacher asked me which poems I liked among the ones we had learned. I said immediately, "The one with the grapes and the one with the sword and jade."
My teacher was, I am ashamed to say, pleased that I showed such patriotism and indomitable will in being drawn to the works of two poets who were also active in the struggle for Korean independence. I didn't tell him that I just liked the pretty pictures they drew with their words.
The "one with the grapes" was Green Grapes by Lee Yuk-sa, and "the one with the sword and jade" was an untitled poem by Han Yong-Un which is, um, very easy for fourteen-year-olds to like. I may give Grapes a post of its own but probably not the Han Yong-Un one, so I'll just translate it here:
Edit: The poem was originally in Chinese, since Manhae was a well-trained classicist in addition to his accomplishments in modern literature. The poet gave this verse to a student in Seodaemun (West Gate) Prison, and it greatly moved all the inmates. An artist who was imprisoned there remembered the last line many years later. The Korean translation of the original Chinese is the better-known version and is faithful to the original meaning, so I translated from the Korean.
Lift your blade and cut the brambles 'cross the sky
Whistle long and see how bright the moon above.
치사스럽게 사는 것은 오히려 치욕이니
옥같이 부서지면 죽어도 보람인 것을!
칼들어, 하늘 가린 가시나무 베어 내고,
휘파람 길게 부니, 달빛 또한 밝구나.
I mean, you've been fourteen, haven't you? This isn't completely awful, I guess, but I like to pretend it's not by my Manhae who wrote about love and loss and strength and will in such sensitive and truthful touches. At least he was badass enough in real life to justify these lapses into macho verse. I'm sure he was once fourteen, too. I have it on good authority he was, since that's when he was married for the first time.
Speaking of poetry to flex your muscles to, Lee Yuk-Sa is another real-life hero who would take any preconception of poets being weak and effeminate and crush it in his manly hands. He was active in both resistance and literature, and his poetry remains a ringing tribute to the despair and resilience of a people in adversity. The North referenced in "Zenith" is both Manchuria where numerous freedom fighters took refuge away from Japanese-controlled territory, and also the extremes of the situation forced upon Korea.
Instead of a lengthy translation note I'll substitute a literal translation to show where I took filthy, filthy liberties with the text. The parentheses indicate words that are not in the original but are necessary for the translation to make sense.
Highland where even the sky stops in exhaustion
Where must (I) kneel
There is no space to place even a foot.
Therefore what can (I) do but close (my) eyes and think
by Lee Yuk-Sa*
On the whiplash of a bitter season
I am swept up to this utmost north.
Up where the sky in its exhaustion ceases
I stand on the bladed edge of frost.
I cannot know where I am to kneel
Without a foothold, driven to the edge.
Thereby what but close my eyes and think
Truly winter is a rainbow wrought of steel.
* Independence fighter and poet. Born in 1904 as Lee Weon-Rok, he joined an independence activist organization in 1925 and attended military academy in Beijing. He returned to Korea in 1927 only to be jailed for three years in connection to a bank bombing. His pen name, Yuk-Sa, is from his prisoner number 64 ("six-four" read as "yuk-sa" in Korean). He went back and forth between China and Korea studying, working for the independence struggle, and publishing poetry, academic papers, and scenarios. Died in a Beijing prison in 1944, a year and a half before Korea achieved independence.
절정
이육사
매운 계절의 채찍에 갈겨
이육사
매운 계절의 채찍에 갈겨
마침내 북방(北方)으로 휩쓸려오다.
하늘도 그만 지쳐 끝난 고원(高原)
서릿발 칼날진 그 위에 서다.
어디다 무릎을 꿇어야 하나
한발 재겨 디딜 곳조차 없다.
이러매 눈 감아 생각해 볼밖에
겨울은 강철로 된 무지갠가 보다.
Lee Yuk-Sa is one of my (and Wishsong's) favorite modern poets along with Han Yong-Un. I guess that should be cool since these guys were badass independence fighters as well as acclaimed poets, but I'm afraid my reasons were less noble than that.
I stumbled into liking Lee's and Han's works in middle school. That was when my Korean teacher asked me which poems I liked among the ones we had learned. I said immediately, "The one with the grapes and the one with the sword and jade."
My teacher was, I am ashamed to say, pleased that I showed such patriotism and indomitable will in being drawn to the works of two poets who were also active in the struggle for Korean independence. I didn't tell him that I just liked the pretty pictures they drew with their words.
The "one with the grapes" was Green Grapes by Lee Yuk-sa, and "the one with the sword and jade" was an untitled poem by Han Yong-Un which is, um, very easy for fourteen-year-olds to like. I may give Grapes a post of its own but probably not the Han Yong-Un one, so I'll just translate it here:
Edit: The poem was originally in Chinese, since Manhae was a well-trained classicist in addition to his accomplishments in modern literature. The poet gave this verse to a student in Seodaemun (West Gate) Prison, and it greatly moved all the inmates. An artist who was imprisoned there remembered the last line many years later. The Korean translation of the original Chinese is the better-known version and is faithful to the original meaning, so I translated from the Korean.
'Tis naught but dishonor to live in shame
What beauty in death when it shatters like jade!Lift your blade and cut the brambles 'cross the sky
Whistle long and see how bright the moon above.
(Original Chinese version)
瓦 全 生 爲 恥
瓦 全 生 爲 恥
玉 碎 死 亦 佳
滿 天 斬 荊 棘
長 嘯 月 明 多
(Popular Korean version)치사스럽게 사는 것은 오히려 치욕이니
옥같이 부서지면 죽어도 보람인 것을!
칼들어, 하늘 가린 가시나무 베어 내고,
휘파람 길게 부니, 달빛 또한 밝구나.
I mean, you've been fourteen, haven't you? This isn't completely awful, I guess, but I like to pretend it's not by my Manhae who wrote about love and loss and strength and will in such sensitive and truthful touches. At least he was badass enough in real life to justify these lapses into macho verse. I'm sure he was once fourteen, too. I have it on good authority he was, since that's when he was married for the first time.
Speaking of poetry to flex your muscles to, Lee Yuk-Sa is another real-life hero who would take any preconception of poets being weak and effeminate and crush it in his manly hands. He was active in both resistance and literature, and his poetry remains a ringing tribute to the despair and resilience of a people in adversity. The North referenced in "Zenith" is both Manchuria where numerous freedom fighters took refuge away from Japanese-controlled territory, and also the extremes of the situation forced upon Korea.
Instead of a lengthy translation note I'll substitute a literal translation to show where I took filthy, filthy liberties with the text. The parentheses indicate words that are not in the original but are necessary for the translation to make sense.
Lashed by the whip of a harsh season
Finally (I am) swept to the North.
Finally (I am) swept to the North.
Highland where even the sky stops in exhaustion
(I) stand there upon the bladed frost.
Where must (I) kneel
There is no space to place even a foot.
Therefore what can (I) do but close (my) eyes and think
Winter must be a rainbow made of steel.
