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    Azaleas: A book of Poems
    Azaleas: A book of Poems
    Azaleas: A book of Poems
    Ebook194 pages1 hour

    Azaleas: A book of Poems

    By Kim Sowol

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    About this ebook

    Available for the first time in English, Azaleas is a captivating collection of poems by a master of the early Korean modernist style. Published in 1925, Azaleas is the only collection Kim Sowol (1902-1934) produced during his brief life, yet he remains one of Korea's most beloved and well-known poets. His work is a delightful and sophisticated blend of the images, tonalities, and rhythms of traditional Korean folk songs with surprisingly modern forms and themes. Sowol is also known for his unique and sometimes unsettling perspective, expressed through loneliness, longing, and a creative use of dream imagery-a reflection of Sowol's engagement with French Symbolist poetry.

    Azaleas recounts the journey of a young Korean as he travels from the northern P'yongyang area near to the cosmopolitan capital of Seoul. Told through an array of voices, the poems describe the young man's actions as he leaves home, his experiences as a student and writer in Seoul, and his return north. Although considered a landmark of Korean literature, Azaleas speaks to readers from all cultures. An essay by Sow?o's mentor, the poet Kim Ok, concludes the collection and provides vital insight into Sowol's work and life. This elegant translation by David R. McCann, an expert on modern Korean poetry, maintains the immediacy and richness of Sowol's work and shares with English-language readers the quiet beauty of a poet who continues to cast a powerful spell on generations of Korean readers., reviewing a previous edition or volume

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherColumbia University Press
    Release dateApr 6, 2007
    ISBN9780231511452
    Azaleas: A book of Poems

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      Book preview

      Azaleas - Kim Sowol

      azaleas

      WEATHERHEAD  BOOKS  ON  ASIA

      Weatherhead Books on Asia

      Columbia University

      Literature

      David Der-wei Wang, Editor

      Ye Zhaoyan, Nanjing 1937: A Love Story, translated by Michael Berry

      Makoto Oda, The Breaking Jewel, translated by Donald Keene

      Han Shaogong, A Dictionary of Maqiao, translated by Julia Lovell

      Takahashi Takako, Lonely Woman, translated by Maryellen Toman Mori

      Chen Ran, A Private Life, translated by John Howard-Gibbon

      Eileen Chang, Written on Water, translated by Andrew F. Jones

      Amy D. Dooling, editor, Writing Women in Modern China: The Revolutionary Years, 1936–1976

      Han Bangqing, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai, first translated by Eileen Chang, revised and edited by Eva Hung

      Aili Mu, Julie Chiu, and Howard Goldblatt, editors, Loud Sparrows: Chinese Short-Shorts

      Hiratsuka Raichō, In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun, translated, with an introduction and notes, by Teruko Craig

      Zhu Wen, I Love Dollars and Other Stories of China, translated by Julia Lovell

      History, Society, and Culture

      Carol Gluck, Editor

      Takeuchi Yoshimi, What Is Modernity? Writings of Takeuchi Yoshimi, translated by Richard Calichman

      Richard Calichman, editor, Contemporary Japanese Thought

      azaleas

      A BOOK OF POEMS

      KIM  SOWŎL

      Translated, with an introduction, by

      DAVID  R.  McCANN

      COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  NEW  YORK

      This publication has been supported by the Richard W. Weatherhead Publication Fund of the East Asian Institute, Columbia University.

      This book is published with the support of the Sunshik Min Endowment for the Advancement of Korean Literature, Korea Institute, Harvard University.

      COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

      Publishers Since 1893

      NEW YORK CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX

      cup.columbia.edu

      Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press

      All rights reserved

      E-ISBN 978-0-231-51145-2

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Kim, Sowŏl, 1903–1934.

      [Chindallekkot. English]

      Azaleas: a book of poems / Kim Sowŏl ; translated, with an introduction, by David R. McCann.

      p. cm.—(Weatherhead books on Asia)

      ISBN 0-231-13972-1 (cloth: alk. paper)

      ISBN 0-231-13973-x (pbk.)

      ISBN 0-231-51145-0 (electronic)

      I. Kim, Sowŏl, 1903–1934—Translations into English.   I.  McCann, David R. (David Richard), 1944–   II.  Title.   III.  Series.

      PL991.415.C5C513 2007

      895.7'13—dc22

      2006029591

      A Columbia University Press E-book.

      CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-ebook@columbia.edu.

      Fleurs de la Montagne

      Fleurs sur la montagne fleurissent,

      Les fleurs fleurissent.

      Automne, printemps, été jusqu’à la fin

      Les fleurs fleurissent.

      Haut sur la montagne,

      Là-haut sur la montagne

      Les fleurs sont fleurissantes

      Si éloignées, si loin.

      Un petit oiseau

      Haut sur la montagne chante.

      Ami des fleurs,

      Sur la montagne il demeure.

      Fleurs sur la montagne

      Tombent, fleurs se laissent tomber.

      Printemps, été, automne jusqu’à la fin

      Les fleurs tombent.

      Translation of Flowers of the Mountain in loving memory of

      Helen Louise Summer McCann (1917–2006)

      by her husband, Richard V. E. McCann

      CONTENTS

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction: Sowŏl’s Poetry and Place in Korean Literature

      1. For My Love

      Someday Long After

      Plucking Grass

      The Sea

      On the Mountain

      The Old Stories

      Love’s Song

      Untitled

      Love’s Words

      For My Love

      On a Dry Riverbank

      2. Spring Night

      Spring Night

      Night

      Long Ago in a Dream

      One Who Came in a Dream

      3. Two People

      Snowy Evening

      Purple Cloud

      Two People

      Cock’s Crow

      Unforgettable

      I Did Not Really Know Before

      Sleeping or Waking, Sitting or Standing

      Though the Sun Is Sinking at the Mountain Crest

      4. No One Lone Mountain

      Dream

      Day of Worries

      Sky’s Edge

      Ant

      Swallow

      Owl

      The Great Wall

      Buds

      5. One Time, One Time

      Cigarettes

      Untitled

      Mom and Dad

      Parents

      Remarried

      Lost Heart

      Spring Rain

      Silken Mists

      Memory

      Impatient Love

      Terrible Dream

      Dream Visit

      Woman’s Scent

      Powdered Face

      Wife’s Body

      Seoul Night

      6. Half-Moon

      Autumn Morning

      Autumn Evening

      Half-Moon

      7. The Cricket

      This Thought of Meeting

      Familiar Faces

      Deeply Held Belief

      Dream

      Sweethearts and Friends

      Paper Kite

      Falling Snow

      Lump of Grief

      Optimism

      Wind and Spring

      Snow

      Pledge Deep as Deep

      Red Tide

      Some Other Country’s Land

      Thousand, Ten Thousand Ri

      Life and Death

      Fisherman

      Cricket

      Moon Color

      8. If the Seacoast Changed to a Mulberry Grove

      If It Wasn’t for Bad Luck...

      If the Seacoast Changed to a Mulberry Grove

      Wax Candle Lamp

      Should We Just Say Whatever Words Are in Our Minds

      A Later Day

      Man and Wife

      My House

      Dawn

      Cloud

      9. Summer’s Moon

      Summer’s Moon

      Approach of Spring

      Water Plants

      10. Forsaken

      Our House

      Picnic

      Forsaken

      Solemnity

      Only Think, If We Had Our Land, Our Own to Plow

      By the Furrow

      Evening

      Hands Together

      Meditation

      11. Alone

      Delight

      Grave

      Prayerful Spirit

      Cold Evening

      Invocation

      12. Loneliness of the Journey

      Loneliness of the Journey I

      Loneliness of the Journey 2

      13. Azaleas

      Song of the Stream

      Road

      Stream

      Road Away

      Wangsimni

      Mandarin Duck Pillow

      Detachment

      Mountain

      Azaleas

      Sakchu Kusŏng

      Seesaw

      Ch’unhyang and Yi Toryŏng

      Cuckoo

      Thought of Home

      Flowers of the Mountain

      14. Lighting the Flower Lamp at Night

      Lighting the Flower Lamp at Night

      Riches and Honor, Wealth and Fame

      Repentance

      Insincerity

      Dream Path

      Human Beings Live to Die

      Right to Seek to Die

      Hope

      Panoramic

      I Have Lived Not Knowing Life at All

      15. Golden Meadow

      Golden Meadow

      River Village

      First Skirt

      New Moon Celebration

      O Mother, O Sister

      16. Rooster Cock-a-Doodle-Doo

      Rooster Cock-a-Doodle-Doo

      Afterword: Remembrance of Sowŏl Kim Ŏk

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I have used primarily two sources for the translations in this collection: Kim Yongjik’s Kim Sowŏl chŏnjip (Complete Works of Kim Sowŏl), published by Seoul National University Press in 2001, and an unpublished edition by my friend and colleague Professor Kwŏn Yŏngmin. I am grateful for Kwŏn Yŏngmin’s advice, learning, and friendship over the years, as I am to so many others, from riders met on trains between Andong and Seoul in the 1960s to students, colleagues, and others who have not only endured my questions and my enthusiasm about Sowŏl, his poetry, and his times, but also provided information and encouragement.

      I wish to formally express my gratitude for a translation grant from the International Communication Foundation, which helped me keep going with the project during a difficult passage. I was able to explore some of the ideas for the introduction at the University of California at Berkeley in presenting the 2004 Tompkins

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