[KS] more Yi Sang questions

[kevin parks]

  Greetings.

I am looking at an English translation of a poem by Yi Sang entitled 
/*1931*/.

This translation appears in /Crow's Eye View: The Infamy of Lee Sang, 
Korean Poet/ by Myong-Hee Kim on pages 52-53.

I am trying to find the original Korean of this text, which I assumed 
would appear in  the poetry text of the multi-volume complete works. I 
used to have the green one from Moonhak Sangsa sa which suddenly I can 
not find, but I also have the new edition (the one with the white cover) 
of ?? ?? 1 ? from ????? ?.

This text should be from Yi Sangs "chibi" series. Yet I cannot find this 
poem anywhere in this book, which is odd since I presume that this is 
newer and more complete than the Moonhak Sangsa sa edition and should is 
a good complete collection of Yi Sang's poems. (?).

I would like to check the translations as well as verify there are other 
sections to this text. Perhaps it is best  if I simply reproduce the 
translation I have in front of me.

*1931*

     I.
     My lung was having appendicitis. I was admitted to the Fourth 
Hospital. The doctor had been stolen, rumor has it he was exiled.
  I saw the butterfly that stayed out past its season. Obtained a nurse 
doll. Made a faults appendix, placed it behind thing glass to make a 
counter point. Tried all the best home remedies. In all due course, the 
stomach went bad, the face turned pale. Anemic.

     II.
     No one knew where the heart was located. Some said it was in the 
stomach, others said chest. Opinions proliferated beyond control.
     A quantity of blood was lost. Analysis show the contents of my 
blood to be a mixture of inorganic substances.
     Discharged. A great memorial shaft was erected to the white youth. 
I collapsed from heart failure before it.

     VII.
     Because I stood upside down on the Earth, I was beaten up by the 
members of the Third International Party. For that reason I was tossed 
into the sky in an unmanned airplane. They laughed at my cruel 
punishment. At that moment I was afforded the opportunity to inspect 
behind the scene of the Earth's finance scheme in great detail.

     X.
     Suddenly, the clock in my room struck 13. At that moment, the bell 
that announces a special edition rang announcing my escape from prison.
     Suffering from insomnia and narcolepsy, I am stuck in the middle 
between right and left.
     Towards my interior, the monument of my virtue, crumbling, 
collapses. Serious injury. The world reports and error:
     12+1=13. From that day forward, my clock had three hands.


Additionally.... I am curious to source the opening text from this 
volume of translations. I am going to guess that this is in one of the 
other volumes (stories or essays) of the Moonhak Sangsa sa? While I am 
typing up a storm I might as well reproduce this as well:

*Self-Portrait*

  I have no idea where this is. There is terrain, a land passed on from 
time immemorial. This is a wasteland. There is the pyramid-like nose.  
Holes through which the infinite comes and goes. The air never fades. It 
is the same air breathed by my ancestors, by my past lives. The 
sky-ingrained eyes reveal the brief frame of an age-old phantom. No 
memories have been bequeathed. The clutter of civilization passes by the 
ears, wornout worlds on an old tombstone. Someone said this is a 
deathmask. Someone else said the death mask has been stolen. Like frost, 
death forms. The beard won't grow, it grows course like dried grass, and 
the mouth cries out loud as the weather changes ---like a water spout.

Anyone recognize either of these texts? Apologies for the very long post.

Best,
Kevin Parks

PS. Anyone have any thoughts on these Yi Editions? The Moonhak Sangsa sa 
-vs- the Moonhak Edition BBul? I'll be back in Seoul in a couple weeks 
and wonder if I should try to get find a store that has the old Moonhak 
Sangsa sa edition, or if this new edition is just arranged differently. 
I guess these poems are public domain and that the Moonhak Edition BBul 
is just another edition, not meant to supersede the Moonhak Sangsa sa 
edition? I know that Yi Sang poems are still coming to light from 
various sources.








-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20100914/710c4a0a/attachment.html>