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Poems of a Wanderer
English (translation)
Original Korean
Original Korean
- GenresPoetry
Paperback
First published December 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 5, 2018
A reading in a literary text.
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The Leper .
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" The sunlight from the sky,
filled the leper with sorrows.
He gobbled up a baby.
when the moon rose over the barley field.
All night he cried scarlet cries like flowers.".
(The Leper by Seo Jung-ju (1915-2000)
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Prologue :
By review of the Korean heritage, people thought that leprosy is a dangerous and infectious disease and may spread among people quickly. Consequently, people were afraid of the abundant bodies and, as a result, they sent the bodies away to a faraway island called “So Rok Do”. There was no treatment for leprosy and people depended on the legend that said “if a leper eats a particular part of the human body, leprosy can be treated. Hence, when caravans passed some lepers, they lost their children as those lepers kidnapped some children and ate them seeking cure.
It was mentioned in an ancient Korean medicine book that a man found the rest of his son’s body in another village together with many bodies. A family kidnapped that man’s son and cooked its body to feed their leprous son, so that man killed the whole family ahead there leprous son. Subsequently, that man felt that he committed a horrible offense, so he took the leprous child and admitted him to a nursing home and turned into a religious monk.
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Text Analysis
“ The sunlight from the sky
filled the leper with sorrows.”
Leprosy was a big problem in Korean society and a leper was a miserable person hated by all people who sent lepers away to a faraway island. In order to cast light on such suffer a poet called "Sio Jong Jo said “lepers feel more grief when they see sunlight and the sky.
He gobbled up a baby,
when the moon rose over the barley field.
But the evening is terrifying to families and children when children’s kidnapping increases after nightfall in wheat fields as lepers are able then to kidnap children and eat them, so fear prevails.
“ All night he cried scarlet cries
like flowers “.
Is this description fine? I don’t think so. When poets depicts tears, they usually liken them to flowing falls or a well of tears. A poet says “ I wept due to my lover’s departure till the sea outflowed! But the poet here compares flowing tears to red flower. There are many senses of this expression. The poet may mean that tears of a leper turn into something like red blood because of the extreme misery and pain. Weeping and tears may indicate the family’s grief when they lose their children on account of lepers’ hunger.
One critics said : “As Baudelaire attempted to explore beauty coming from the place of darkness, Seo, too, explored human desire for life through leper’s perspective as he committed an unspeakable crime.”
Footnotes
1- Seo Jeong-ju (1915 – 2000)
He was born in Gochang, Jeollabuk-do. He is considered the founding father of modern Korean poetry. Under the pen name Midang, he published at least 15 collections of poetry. He was also nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in literature. His grandmother’s stories and his interest in Buddhism had a strong influence upon his writing. His works have been translated into a number of languages, including English, French, Spanish and German.
2- There once was a myth in Korea that if lepers ate a baby’s liver,
they would be cured.
------
The Leper .
--------
" The sunlight from the sky,
filled the leper with sorrows.
He gobbled up a baby.
when the moon rose over the barley field.
All night he cried scarlet cries like flowers.".
(The Leper by Seo Jung-ju (1915-2000)
-----
Prologue :
By review of the Korean heritage, people thought that leprosy is a dangerous and infectious disease and may spread among people quickly. Consequently, people were afraid of the abundant bodies and, as a result, they sent the bodies away to a faraway island called “So Rok Do”. There was no treatment for leprosy and people depended on the legend that said “if a leper eats a particular part of the human body, leprosy can be treated. Hence, when caravans passed some lepers, they lost their children as those lepers kidnapped some children and ate them seeking cure.
It was mentioned in an ancient Korean medicine book that a man found the rest of his son’s body in another village together with many bodies. A family kidnapped that man’s son and cooked its body to feed their leprous son, so that man killed the whole family ahead there leprous son. Subsequently, that man felt that he committed a horrible offense, so he took the leprous child and admitted him to a nursing home and turned into a religious monk.
------
Text Analysis
“ The sunlight from the sky
filled the leper with sorrows.”
Leprosy was a big problem in Korean society and a leper was a miserable person hated by all people who sent lepers away to a faraway island. In order to cast light on such suffer a poet called "Sio Jong Jo said “lepers feel more grief when they see sunlight and the sky.
He gobbled up a baby,
when the moon rose over the barley field.
But the evening is terrifying to families and children when children’s kidnapping increases after nightfall in wheat fields as lepers are able then to kidnap children and eat them, so fear prevails.
“ All night he cried scarlet cries
like flowers “.
Is this description fine? I don’t think so. When poets depicts tears, they usually liken them to flowing falls or a well of tears. A poet says “ I wept due to my lover’s departure till the sea outflowed! But the poet here compares flowing tears to red flower. There are many senses of this expression. The poet may mean that tears of a leper turn into something like red blood because of the extreme misery and pain. Weeping and tears may indicate the family’s grief when they lose their children on account of lepers’ hunger.
One critics said : “As Baudelaire attempted to explore beauty coming from the place of darkness, Seo, too, explored human desire for life through leper’s perspective as he committed an unspeakable crime.”
Footnotes
1- Seo Jeong-ju (1915 – 2000)
He was born in Gochang, Jeollabuk-do. He is considered the founding father of modern Korean poetry. Under the pen name Midang, he published at least 15 collections of poetry. He was also nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in literature. His grandmother’s stories and his interest in Buddhism had a strong influence upon his writing. His works have been translated into a number of languages, including English, French, Spanish and German.
2- There once was a myth in Korea that if lepers ate a baby’s liver,
they would be cured.
July 19, 2019
Two stellar poems. A few good ones. Quite a few that I really didn’t enjoy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews