The Cross by Yun Dong Ju

십자가
윤동주

쫓아오던 햇빛인데
지금 교회당(敎會堂) 꼭대기
십자가에 걸리었습니다.

첨탑(尖塔)이 저렇게도 높은데
어떻게 올라갈 수 있을까요.

종소리도 들려 오지 않는데
휘파람이나 불며 서성거리다가

괴로웠던 사나이
행복한 예수 그리스도에게
처럼
십자가가 허락된다면

모가지를 드리우고
꽃처럼 붉은 피를
어두워 가는 하늘 밑에
조용히 흘리겠습니다.

The Cross
Yoon Dong-ju

The sunbeams that followed me
Are now falling on the cross

At the steeple of a church.

How can one climb up there,

To the steeple so high?

Now the bell is not ringing,
I shall loiter awhile, whistling.

If the cross is to be granted me,

As it was once to Christ,

One who suffered gladly,

I shall quietly endure,

Drooping my head,

While my blood oozes like flowers

Beneath the darkening sky.

Une Croix
Yun-Dong-ju

Le soleil qui me suit,

Est accroche maintenant

A la croix du faite d'une eglise.

Comment peut-il monter

Sur une fleche si haute?

On n'entend meme pas les sons d'une cloche,

Mais allant et venant en sifflant,

Un homme qui etait console,

Comme Jesus heureux,

Si on lui permet la croix.

Offre sa vie,

Et fera, sans bruit, couler du sang

Qui s'epanouit comme les fleurs,

Sous le ciel ou tout devient sombre

About the Poet:

01 Life Yun Dong-ju was the eldest son among the 4 children of his father Yun Yeong-seok and his mother Kim Yong. As a child he was called "Haehwan" (해환, 海煥). On December 27, 1941, he graduated from Yeonhui Technical School, which later became Yonsei University.
In 1942, he went to Japan and entered the English literature department of Rikkyo University in Tokyo, before moving to Doshisha University in Kyoto six months later. On July 14, 1943, he was arrested as a thought criminal by the Japanese police and detained at the Kamogawa Police Station in Kyoto. The following year, the Kyoto regional court sentenced him to two years of prison on the charge of having participated in the independence movement. He was imprisoned in Fukuoka, where he died in February 1945.
The following month, he was buried in Longjing in Jiandao, his birth place[1].

02 After His Death He had been writing poetry from time to time, and chose 19 poems to publish in a collection he intended to call "Heaven, Wind, Stars, and Poetry" (하늘과 바람과 별과 시), but he was unable to get it published. In January 1948, 31 of his poems were published by Jeongeumsa, together with an introduction by Chong Ji-yong; this work was also titled Heaven, Wind, Stars, and Poetry.
In November 1968, Yonsei University and others established an endowment for the Yun Tong-ju Poetry Prize.

Self Portrait by Seo Jeong Ju

애비는 종이었다. 밤이 깊어도 오지 않았다.
파뿌리같이 늙은 할머니와 대추꽃이 한 주 서 있을 뿐이었다.
어매는 달을 두고 풋살구가 꼭 하나만 먹고 싶다 하였으나……
흙으로 바람벽 한 호롱불 밑에
손톱이 까만 에미의 아들
갑오년(甲午年)이라든가 바다에 나가서는 돌아오지 않는다 하는
외할아버지의 숱 많은 머리털과
그 커다란 눈이 나는 닮았다 한다.

스물세 해 동안 나를 키운 건 팔할(八割)이 바람이다.
세상은 가도가도 부끄럽기만 하드라.
어떤 이는 내 눈에서 죄인(罪人)을 읽고 가고
어떤 이는 내 입에서 천치(天痴)를 읽고 가나
나는 아무것도 뉘우치진 않을란다.

찬란히 티워 오는 어느 아침에도
이마 위에 얹힌 시(詩)의 이슬에는
몇 방울의 피가 언제나 섞여 있어
별이거나 그늘이거나 혓바닥 늘어뜨린
병든 수캐마냥 헐떡거리며 나는 왔다.

Father was a servant; he never came home till late at night.

My aged leek-root grandmother and the flowering date tree were all that stood for permanence here.
For months mother would go on about how she'd love a green apricot, just one ... lamplight on earthen walls,
this black-nailed mother's son beneath.
Grandfather went to sea, they say,

in the year of the Kabo Reform; he never returned.

I'm supposed to have his thick hair and big eyes.

For the last twenty-three years I've been raised,

eight tenths of me at any rate, by the wind.

The more I see, the more shameful the world appears.

Some read sinner in my eyes.
Some read imbecile on my lips.

But I rue nothing.

Blood drops mingled on my forehead with the dew of poetry

when morning cracked each brilliant new day.

Through light and shade I've come this far,

panting like a tongue-lolling sick dog.


Mon pere etait un serf. Il ne rentrait jamais, meme tard la nuit.

N'etaient plantes la que la grand-mere, blanche comme les racines

d'un poireau, et le jujubier en fleurs.

Ma mere, depuis un mois, revaitd'un miserable abricot vert...
Pres de la lampe a huile placee dansune niche du mur en terre, il y avait le fils de la mere avec desongles noirs.

On dit que le grand-pere paternel avait pris la mer, unjour, il y a bien longtemps, et n'etait jamais revenu, et que par cesgrands yeux noirs et ces cheveux epais, je lui ressemble.

Pendant vingt-trois ans, c'est le vent qui m'a eleve.

Plus j'avance dans la vie, plus je rencontre la honte.

Les uns lisent dans mes yeux un pecheur.

Les autres lisent sur mes levres un idiot.

Mais je ne me repentirai de rien.

Tous ces matins, quand l'aurore est splendide,

A la rosee de la poesie perlant a mon front

Se melent des gouttes de sang.

Et me voila marchant dans le soleil et l'ombre,

Langue pendante, haletant comme un chien malade.

About the poet:

Seo Jeong-ju(May 18, 1915 – December 24, 2000) was a Korean poet and university professor who wrote under the pen name Midang (lit. "not yet fully grown"). He is widely considered the best poet in twentieth-century Korean literature. He was nominated five times for Nobel Prize in literature.[ He published 15 books of poetry consisting of around 1,000 poems.
After his death, South Korean Government officially presented Gold order //
Biography
Seo Jeong-ju was born in Gochang County, Jeollabuk-do,[2] and received his primary education in the village Seodang until 1924. He had heard many traditional stories and stories of ancient times from his grandmother as he grew up. The stories from his grandmother, his primary education and his experiences of youth influenced his literatrary style. He went to Jung-Ang Buddhism College, but he dropped out of school in 1936 involved in demonstration.[3] In 1936, his poem, Byuk (Wall), was published in the Dong-Ah Ilbo newspaper.
He worked as a professor of literature at Dongguk University and other universities from 1959 to 1979. After his wife's death in October 2000, he barely ate or drank anything besides beer. He died on December 24, 2000.
Literary works
Seo Jeong-ju's early works were modernistic and also surrealistic, influenced mostly by foreign literature. His first collection of poems, Haw-Sa Jip (Flower snake), was published in 1941. The book explores humanity's feelings of guilt and folklore. His poem Jahwasang (Portrait) describes a young poet whose desire to learn was interrupted by the Japanese invasion in 1910. However, Midang wrote Japanophilic literature for the newspaper Mail Ilbo from 1942 to 1944 under the Japanese penname Datsusi Sijuo.
His influence on Korean poetry stems in part from the anthology The Early Lyrics 1941-1960. His later poetic style was Oriental and nationalistic, discussing self-reflection and redemption in Buddhism. His works have been translated into a number of languages, including English, French, Spanish, and German. According to translator Brother Anthony, he is the founding father of modern Korean poetry.[4]
In 1997, his poems were finalized the course of translation in Spain and France thanks to donation of Daesan Culture Foundation.[5]
Works translated into English
Early Lyrics 1941-1960, The Poems by SO Chong-Ju (Midang) (bilingual) Translated and Introduced by Brother Anthony of Taizé. 1998. (all the translations in this book are viewable at http://www.sogang.ac.kr/~anthony/Sojngju.htm.)
Poems of a Wanderer by Midang So Chong-Ju, Chongju So, Kevin O'Rourke (Translator), Chong-Ju So. 1995.
The Early Lyrics of So Chong Ju by Midang, Anthony of Taize (Translator). 1993.

http://www.klti.or.kr/TextApp?mode=7004
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seo_Jeong-ju

Commencement

Introduction to VANK

VANK stands for - ‘Voluntary Agency Network of Korea’, a civilian international exchange association in Korea. We work for the promotion of Korea's image all over the world by Internet. VANK was established in 1999 by volunteers, and now has over 12,000 members. Using email or internet we serve as cyber travel guides to overseas Koreans and foreigners so that they can understand Korean culture and language better, and at the same time we hope we build international friendships. VANK is a great chance for those who are interested in Korean language, arts, cultural education, history, geography, social studies, sciences to learn about our country, and we also welcome with open arms anyone just wanting to make Korean friends!


My Second Blog
I actually have my blog in NAVER(http://blog.naver.com/dependy), but I already have lots of other posts in my previous blog which didn't really match with newly posted ones, so I've decided to create my blog dedicated to Korean information. I've been working on VANK's cyber diplomat, as well as an ambasaddor since last year. These are the three main things I want to post:

• Informations about Korean culture
• Translated vergions of Korean literature in different languages
• Materials that might help you study Korean (i.e. grammar, structures..)

If I've got a chance I'll try more diverse topics, like food, history, ect. I'll be pretty busy with my studies this year---as a senior in competitive Korea---but I'll try to post as much as possible and let you know many interesting aspects of my country.

Happy new year! (Today, it's the New Year's Day in Asia!)