Back in the 1980s David McCann, now a professor of linguistics at Harvard University began his studies into the Korean Sijo poetic form.  While similar to a haiku, a sijo poem is slightly more complicated. In his article found here on JSTOR, he outlines the structure in full.

The Structure of the Korean Sijo by David R.McCann

Korean Summer Poems for Rainy Season

With rainy season upon us these days I've been spending my leisure time back here in Thunder Bay Canada reading and drinking tea. Lapsang Souchong with milk is usually my rainy day tea, most especially when it's a bit on the cool side out.  

I have recently started a new venture doing tea ceremonies here in Thunder Bay a few times each month in various locations around town. Mostly outdoors in summer in local park where you can drop by and see and even sample some tea if you like. Details for which can be found at my Where Wisk Way Blog or better still on my FaceBook group page Travelling TeaTime also to be found in the sidebar on this page.  

Pondering the various parks in town and talking with my friends about their favorite park places and experiences I'm reminded of this poem below about this poem below written about a peach orchard high up in the mountains that a Korean poet had discovered :  

Only white gull and I

Know about the thirty-six peaks of Mount Chung-Ryang.

White gull will never tell anyone

But I am suspicious of you, peach blossom.

You might fall into the stream

And, floating by, tell the fishermen about our secret place.

--Yi Hwang  

Upon my moving back to Canada I had come across a Tea Ceremony water container online. I was window shopping :-) It reminded me of the poem below

When a shadow appeared on the water,

I looked up to see a monk crossing the bridge.

Stay, I said, so I could ask

Where he was going.

But, pointing at white clouds, he moved on,

Answering without words. 

--Anonymous

(Both the above from Sunset in a Spider Web Sijo Poetry of Ancient Korea Virginia Olsen Baron, Minja Park Kim)

Here are two poems for a rainy day : 

Rainstorm at a Mountain Temple

The gale howling in the valleys

tears out the trees by their roots.

The downpour washes over every peak,

loosening rocks to tumble down the slopes.

The boom of a temple bell

opens the air, in waves.

-- Cho Eun 1900-196?

It is Raining

It is raining, incessantly falling

like tears streaming over sorrow,

Thinking you will be coming

soaked in the rain,

I push my window open

and hold a potted plant in my arms.

It is raining, incessantly falling

while I am expecting you.

I imagine seeing you

smiling in the misty woods 

before I am sent to sleep

by the sound of rain dripping from the eaves. 

--Yi U-Chul 1923-1984

(Both of the above taken from Modern Korean Verse in Sijo Form by Jaihiun Kim)

Well now I'm off to sip more tea and read away until I drift off recalling the rain dripping from the eaves of the garage I'd seen earlier today.... Best wishes and until next time, stay youthfully minded : for that is where inspiration often comes.

Gisaeng Postcards near Seoul City Hall

Rose scented postcards featuring a Gisaeng on each! Each with a sijo poem in English and Korean and a short bio on each Gisaeng written by Brother Anthony of Taize a.k.a An Sonjae.

I found these right inside Deoksu Palace in Seoul. It's the palace near Seoul City Hall : Across the street from the Seoul library and Seoul Plaza. On the palace grounds they have a wonderful gift shop that sells many unique items that are rare and near impossible to find at other souvenir shops.

Brother Anthony's site may be found here and for those finding their way into the Korean way of tea / Korean tea Ceremony I highly recommend his book The Korean Way of Tea available via What The Book : (The Korean Way of Tea) or through Seoul Selection's The Korean Way of Tea

Here's a brief, but more detailed explanation that I wrote about Geisaeng here : Tales of a Gisaeng and all of my posts regarding Gisaeng.

Korean Shijo Poems : Book Reviews

Much like the more famous Japanese Haiku Korean Shijo poems (also spelled Sijo) are syllable based but are a bit longer and a tad more challenging than haiku. Shijo poems are like higher level haiku poems if you will. If you're in South Korea now the English bookstore whatthebook.com (located online as well as brick and mortar physical form in Seoul) has two sijo books on offer one of which is a children's book entitled Tap Dancing On the Roof by Linda Sue Park.


As Tap Dancing on the Roof @ WhatTheBook Bookstore's site explains :

"Sijo is a traditional Korean form of poetry. Sijo is syllabic, like Japanese haiku, with three lines of 14 to 16 syllables each: the first two introduce the topic, the third and fourth lines develop it, and the fifth and sixth lines contain an unexpected humorous or ironic twist. This collection contains 26 sijo, half on "Inside" and half on "Outside" themes, many humorous, all appealing to a child reader. The simplicity and accessibility of these poems will encourage children to try their hand at writing sijo".

I have heard only good things about Linda Sue Park's book as it is a good book to introduce Shijo to children. Haiku is taught in the west as a way of developing pronunciation through syllable counting. Well, Shijo is a more advanced version of this.

 One Sijo book I highly recommend is Sunset in a Spider Web. It contains poems by Chosun Dynasty writers (mostly Gisaeng, Monks and Yangban of that age). The illustrations by Minja Park Kim are wonderfully sublime ! So too are the fine and sometimes rare selections chosen for this volume.

Here are some excerpts :

Only white gull and I 
Know about the thirty-six peaks of Mount Chung-Ryang.
White gull will never tell anyone
But I am suspiciou of you, peach blossom.

You might fall into the stream
And, floating by, tell the fishermen about our secret place.
  -- Yi Hwang. 









Ten Years it took
To build my little cottage.
Now the cool wind inhabits half of it
And the rest is filled with moonlight.

There is no place left for the mountains and the stream
So I guess they will have to stay outside. 
  -- Song Soon.

Amazon.com has several copies for it for rather cheap as they are connected to the rapidly multiplying thrift / goodwill stores across the United States. Here's amazon.com's page for it
Also it may be found at Abebooks.com an online small bookstore aggregate. The link for Abe Books page for Sunset in a Spider Web is, well, you got it. It is a wonderful book that I often turn to every few months for inspiration. The excerpts I have shown you are not exceptions to the others in the book as all the poems in the book are well chosen gems making this a book very well worth its purchase.

"Songs of the Kisaeng" Chosun Dynasty Poems in English.

 My post "Tales of a Gisaeng" is almost over 1,500 pageviews versus the mere 100-200 page views for my other posts. Thus I bring you more Gisaeng poetry!

 During the Chosun dynasty Korean society was strictly Confucian; marriages were most often arranged and young ladies were not permitted to go out. There is the often told tale of girls on a swing set, swinging as high as they could, just to get a view over their courtyard wall.

In this context, where women had few freedoms, even that of expression, the Gisaeng may be viewed as a 'feminist' one. Although their lives were confined to their role as concubines, serving at the pleasure of the state, they did have the education and freedom to write with their most often form of expression being the shijo poem, many of which were made into songs. It is important to note that many of these poems express both their loves and longings as well as their complicated emotions they had for their clients. Being unmarried, the Gisaeng also had great financial freedom and many were known throughout the open air markets of Chosun Dynasty Korea.

From www.abebooks.com a used bookseller conglomerate I received a copy of Songs of the Kisaeng a collection of shijo poems by various Kisaeng translated by Constantine Contogenis and Wolhee Choe.

All of the translated poems come with the original Korean so it is a great source for English speakers wishing to expand their Korean vocabulary.

Many of the poems are by the famous Hwang Jini. Reviewer and author Sam Hamill aptly describes the poems as "courtesan blues from the Chosun Dynasty". Indeed many of the poems are of longing and loss while others are passionate love poems. Here are a few samples from the book:

Ah, What Have I Done?

Ah, What have I done -- as though I didn't 
know my feelings would remain.
I would not add the few
words that would keep him.

I want to understand the joy
I felt as I was letting him go.
     -- Hwang Jini.



An Anchor Lifts

An anchor lifts, a ship is leaving
he goes this time, when to return.
Far over the sea's vast waverings
one can see a going as return.

But as the sound of that anchor lifting,
the night could hear her insides turn.
     -- Anonymous Gisaeng. 
     


Iron, We Were Told

Iron, we were told; iron had arrived again
Sure I remember brittle pig iron,
but your close, cold surface told me iron
again that was hammered and annealed.

This time I will use a furnace of earth, bellows
of such breath you will not withstand the fire. 
     -- Chinok.

Overall I'd say this book is an excellent read providing much insight into the midset of the Gisaeng. There is a fine selection of poems: some love poems, some speak of longing and loss while others are of renunciation. Theirs is a poetry of passion whereas many of the poems written by the literati yangban at the time are of historical or of topical themes and tend to be rather dry overall. Perhaps this explains current interest in the emotional complexities found in Gisaeng poetry. Indeed, it is one of their more intriguing charms.

Gisaeng/Kisaeng Poetry: The sijo/Shijo

I have recently noticed that my Gisaeng post is up over 1000 readers now! So it seems I shall research and post more in that area, greater serving my readers out there in cyberland.

It is important to note, in the comparison between Japanese and Korean culture that Japan had both Geisha and Courtesans. The Geisha most strictly were the artists and entertainers while there was another separate group of courtesans who entertained sexually. There were strict laws definine each groups work ensuring that the Geisha would not encroach upon the courtesans area of expertise. (For reference I refer to Liza Dalby's well researched and footnoted work Geisha.
However, in Korea Gisaeng were both courtesan and artistic entertainer. Their clientele were the upper class yangban; the educated elite.

Love Poems From Old Korea in sijo form purchased at Yong-gwan bookstore in Someyeon (Busan) has many sijo, some of them written by Gisaeng.

I will cut into halves the waist

of the long mid-winter night;

roll it up to be placed

under the warm spring-breeze quilt

and I will unroll it in the night

when my beloved arrives.

-- Hwang Chini (1511~1541).

Sadly, this work only has the English and does not include the Korean. Regardless, it seems to be a good poetic translation in that the translation is still in sijo form. Other poems in this work are from the yangban though some purport to be from commoners. Were they educated to write sijo? It would be a rare occurrence for certain !

The bright moon in the blue heaven

shall be able to see my fair one's face.

Why can't I be like the moon

sailing across the skies?

Will my love ever think of me

while watching the moon?

---Won Wi

Recently from www.Abebooks.com a used bookseller aggragator I purchased Songs of the Kisaeng. I should have it by this summer. There are a few rare copies of it out there. I will review it as soon as I get it and rifle through it. Until then, may you stay inspired !

Sijo West

On http://www.abebooks.com/ I ordered several issues of the English journal Sijo West from which these two sijo poems come. If you can get your hands on any of these old issues I highly recommend them. For 3-4 years poets from across North America (many of them haiku poets) were writing sijo poems and sending them in to the journal. There are quite a few gems. Here's just two I dug up:

Natural Selection

A well-bred bride for the prince
    is what the emporor seeks
As he studies hopefuls sipping tea;
    the one the prince loves
Chews gum with a snap, and slants glances
    that make promises.

--- name obscured, From Sijo West #3 Fall 1997 pg.21.

Sorry I couldn't make out the author of that one, it was blurry on the copy I had, although I distinctly remember reading it in one of my sijo books as well.....
Here's one on a very modern theme bringing the ancient form of shijo into our times:

Space Waste

Since blasting free from earth
to travel in reaches of space,

a gang of astronauts gaze
on a cloud-clad Blue Marble

dump their pots of pee to streak
as icy shards in our communal void.

--Ronan, Eugene, of Oregon a noted writer of haiku and related verse.
From Sijo West #2 Summer 1996 p.9

As we can see demonstrated in this sijo, traditionally, a sijo should have a surprize or twist in the narrative in the last couplet. This one definitely fits the bill.

These days my blogging shall be a little infrequent; I'm busy giving and marking exams these next three weeks. I'm also attempting to recreate one of the earliest instances of tea recorded from 350 A.D. Its more of a soup than a tea using onion ginger and oranges. I call it Kuo Po soup after the man who wrote the dictionary in which a discription of it is found. You can read about it on my other blog http://www.aboutteabusan.blogspot.com/ in a few weeks time. --MWT.

Tales of a Gisaeng

Perhaps its the atmosphere of living next to Igigdae Hill/Park where two gisaeng jumped off the cliff with a Japanese general inspiring me. Old legends have a certain power that grows beyond what a real factual account would have. The story sounds suspiciously like another story "a patriotic kisaeng named Nongae in the late 16th century...while entertaining Japanese generals at the Choksongnu Pavilion that overlooks the Nam River in South Kyongsang Province, Nongae led Japanese general Keyamura Rokusuke to a cliff, embraced him and cast herself into the river, killing them both". I found the latter version of the story here @ Han Cinema. The story sounds more reliable than the Igigdae story which doesn't mention which general and gisaeng. Perhaps the Igidae story came from this one.

The story of the gisaeng taking out a general reminds me of the story of koreas ninja the Ja-gaek who were male acrobats trained to be assassins by a korean general of the Hwa-ryung warriors...but I digress...

Lately I've been reading up on all things gisaeng. Gisaeng were the Goryo and Choseon Dynasty entertainers. They were very much like the Japanese Geisha. Later this week I shall find myself in the comic book room beneath the Kyungsung McDonalds reading "Gisaeng Iyagi/Story" by Kim Dong-hwa.

One of the most legendary gisaeng was Hwang Jini. In part, due to the success of "Memoirs of a Geisha" back in 2005, interest in Hwang Jini sparked the production of both a Hwang Jini movie and TV series.
Of the gisaeng she was one of the more prolific, writing 60 shijo poems that still survive today, (I've got a book on order about gisaeng shijo poems, book review coming in a few months...).
Her beauty and talents became legendary as she charmed great scholars of the era, among them a Buddhist monk named Jijok who later was excommunicated because of her.

This picture entitled "7 girls" from the Franklin Francis Carpeter Library of Congress Collection shows 7 young girls who were gisaeng in training. Girls as young as 8 years old began training as gisaeng becoming actual gisaeng at 16 or 17 years old.  According to legend, Hwang Jini was the illigitimate child of a yangban and the gisaeng Heon Keum.  

Gisaeng girl 1890. Gisaeng went through 8 or 9 years of strict training in poetry, song, dance and tea ceremony.

In 2006 actress Ha Ji Won played Hwang-Jini in a TV series entitled Hwang-Jini.  I'm wondering what happened to the 2007 TV production entitled Haeauhwa  (해어화, 解語花) which is about another, though less famous, gisaeng. You can pick up some parts of the Hwang-Jini TV series with English subtitles on youtube. Though to watch the entire series you'll probably have to purchase it on DVD at Someyeon's DVD/CD store. The one with all the korean TV series' on DVD there.  

Actress Song Hye Kyo playing Hwang Jini in a movie (I'm off to rent and watch it this afternoon. Most video stores here have a copy of it. All you have to do is give the video store your phone number to start an account with them and maybe your foreign card which has your address. Videos are usually 2000 won each for 1-2 days.  

As Harvard Professor and shijo poet David R. McCann relates,  "some of the most famous kisaeng poems were composed to persuade prominent scholars to spend the night".

Here's one by Hwang-Jini below:










청산리 靑山裡 벽계수碧溪水야 수이 감을 자랑마라.
일도창해一到滄海하면 다시 오기 어려워라
명월(明月)이 만공산滿空山하니 쉬어간들 어떠리.
In this poem 벽계수/Byuk-Gye Soo is the name of the Yangban Hwang-Jini is addressing the poem to. Historical records show there was a man of royal birth of that name.
명월 (明月)or bright moon is Hwang-Jini's nickname. Thus the poem translates as:

Don't be proud, clear water/Byuk-GyeSoo of running free to the beach!
You will find it hard to go back, once the azure ocean you reach.
Take a break, while the moon is bright in the sky, I beseech.
--Hwang-Jini. Translated by Kim Young Nahg.

As part of the Hwang-Jini craze that has swept Korea, Korean Vogue brought a bunch of models to Paris and dressed them up like gisaeng for a photoshoot. Later I'll bring you more of Hwang-Jini and other gisaeng's shijo poems. Until then, I'm logging off so I can watch the Hwang-Jini movie. Till next time...
 --MWT.

More than just What The !? : Ordering books in Korea

As many of you may know, Amazon.com doesn't ship to Korea. Personally there are two main websites I use to order books here in Korea. The most famous here is http://www.whatthebook.com/ another lesser known site is http://www.abebooks.com/. Abe books is a site that connects thousands of used bookstores in the U.S and in Canada. Their prices are very low! I recently ordered a few books and journals on English shijo poems.

One particular gem was titled "Sunset in a Spider Web" a collection of Korean shijo translated into English. It is available from Abe Books only. That's why I use both sites; covers more ground. Abe books is the place for those rare hard to find volumes, though you can also get The Davinci Code there as well. Here's a few shijo from "Sunset in a Spider Web" shijo adapted by Virginia Olsen Baron :

Oh, do not pull yourself away

If I, weeping, grasp your sleeve.

You have a long way to go over the hills,

And it is almost dark.

In the lonely night ahead, you will understand,

When you must light the lamp alone.

-- Yi Myung-Han.

This next one seems to have been written by a gisaeng though we can't be certain...

When I think about why

You sent that fan to me,

I wonder if you meant

For me to blow out the fire in my heart.

How could I put out a fire with a fan

When teardrops failed ?

-- Anonymous.

I like this style: instead of the Korean style 3 lines of couplets, breaking them up a bit into 6 lines but putting the "twist" ending as a separated couplet.

Imjin River Poem.

This one, written by Yi Ki Ban is about the Imjin river. The river runs from North Korea into South Korea, at times forming the border between both. Occasionally North Korean farmers are found floating dead in its waters.

The River Imjin
The river is tongue-tied,
too full of sorrow.
Wrenched with the pain of parting
my heart has grown numb.
Insects in the grass rend the air
as if to grieve for the nation.

Smiles on the faces of those in white
once streamed there like flapping flags;
those hillsides used to be crossed freely
by all, hand in hand.
Now they have turned into guns
that glare at each other. O river of sighs!
--Yi Ki Ban (b. 1931).

Cold weather & Seoul Shijo.

With the weather at times turning cold (-1C a few nights ago!) I've decided to post an old poem of mine. A haiku, in the English, with Korean translation by me.

Early autumn green
wind whispering other colors in cold
trees lean nearer to listen.

이린 카을 녹
바람 다른 색으로 차갑에 속삭인다
나무들이 기대어 그 소리를 듣는다.
-- Matthew Thivierge.

I'll get my wife to check my spelling later. My spelling is usually terrible.
I do love the word 속삭인다: to whisper. Its a word you _can_ whisper more smoothly than 'whisper'.

Heres a Shijo from a poet who wrote mostly in the 60s. Sadly the book I'm taking him from doesn't have the original Korean. Still, its a great read. As the poems in the book have translated so well, I'm dying to get my hands on the original Korean for them! Suffice: here's one by Seo-Pol. I'm sure many visiting Seoul or foreigners living there can relate to this one:

Seoul
Today I've come up to Seoul
and purchased a thousand acres of loneliness.
I wish to scatter it like mist;
sprinkle it like drizzling rain.
Penniless are my pockets, but I have a friend's
name card in its place.
-- So Pol (b. 1939).

Shijo

Similar to a Japanese Haiku is the Korean Shijo poetry. Here's a sample Shijo below. More details on Shijo form later.

십 년을 경영하여 초려삼간 지어내니
나 한 간 달 한 간에 청풍 한 간 맡겨두고
강산은 들일 데 없으니 둘러두고 보리라.
-- 미상

I worked for ten years, and built at last a thatched cottage.
A room for myself, a room for the moon, and a room for the wind,
And no room for the hills and brooks; I'll view them standing around me.
-- Anonymous.
Translated by Kim Young Nahg.