Preface

Summary

NOT MUCH OF the literary heritage of Korea, a nation that takes pride in her extensive cultural history, has been introduced to the world readership. It is a pity that the image Korea has built up in the contemporary world is mainly that of a materialistically-oriented country rather doing well in the arena of economic development. It is sad, too sad, to witness the ignorance in Korean cultural heritage, especially of literature, on the part of the world population, with the possible exception of those few who are somewhat acquainted with it.

Having had a glimpse of the literary scenes in the English-speaking nations, I have undertaken a self-imposed mission—helping the English-speaking people to partake in the pleasure of reading Korean literature, in my translation. This volume is an outcome of the effort I have embraced in an attempt to fulfill my wish to introduce part of Korean classical literature to the English readership.

Reading literary works in translation, however, is not the royal road in getting acquainted with a literary tradition alien to one's own. In order to become fully immersed in the literary tradition nurtured by the culture unique to a nation, one has to learn and master the language that is its verbal medium. But, alas, it's only an ideal, and is not always feasible. So long as the lines in translation echo the original in verse rhythm and meaning, however, one can be satisfied, for then approximation to reading the original may be considered to have been attained, though vicariously. In presenting this volume, I hope this small wish of mine is being fulfilled.

This volume is not meant to be a textbook; but it can function as an introduction to Korean classical poetry and also as a tool for improving one's reading comprehension of the poetic lines composed in Korean in foregone times. It is in this spirit that I have added Commentaries and Notes at the end of the book. A book of poetry containing a considerable number of pages allocated for explanatory notes may look odd; but my intention is not to present this book with a scholarly façade but to provide the readers with an apparatus helpful for their understanding of the lines, both in the original and in translation.