<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>[KS] KSR 2005-01: _Vision of a Phoenix: The Poems
of</title></head><body>
<div><font color="#000000">_Vision of a Phoenix: The Poems of Hô
Nansôrhôn_, by Yang Hi Choe-Wall. Ithaca: Cornell East Asia
Series, 2003. 130 pages. ISBN: 1-885445-17-2.</font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
Reviewed by Younghee Lee<br>
The University of Auckland<br>
yh.lee@auckland.ac.nz</font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Hô
Ch'ohûi, (pen name Nansôrhôn, 1563-1589) is recognized as one of
Korea's great poets. Her surpassing literary talents were
recognized even during her brief lifetime of 26 years, and her
surviving work of 211 Chinese poems has earned her continual
admiration over the centuries up to the present day. The
mystique surrounding her life, of which little is known, has
contributed to what some might call her "legendary" status,
by which her poetic gift is described as "divine" and the
qualities of her persona as "unworldly."<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Hô
Nansôrhôn is almost always included among the major influential
figures in Sino-Korean literature and/or women's literature of the
Chosôn period. Numerous traditional Korean literature and
poetry anthologies in English translation contain one or more of her
more celebrated poems. In<i> Vision of a Phoenix: the Poems of Hô
Nansôrhôn</i> by Yang Hi Choe-Wall, however, we now have in
English an entire volume devoted to the poet and her work.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>This book includes a sampling of 53 translations from
every style and theme in which Nansôrhôn chose to compose. Each
translation is accompanied by the original Chinese text (to which Dr.
Choe-Wall has added symbols denoting rhyme and tonal schemes) and
extensive commentary. The book also includes a discussion of sixteenth
century Sino-Korean literary trends (a contextual discussion of events
in China and Korea that influenced Nansôrhôn's choice of theme and
style), a brief biography of the poet, and a presentation of the
"authenticity" issue, in which questions of plagiarism
and/or misattribution in relation to some of Nansôrhôn's work are
discussed.<br>
Because so little is known of the poet's life the author's
biographical treatment of Nansôrhôn is necessarily brief.
Much that is commonly understood about her is derived from careful
speculation on what her familial, social, and intellectual environment
must have been.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Nansôrhôn was one
of "three [literary] jewels" in the immensely
prestigious and illustrious Hô family. The other two were elder
brother Hô Pong and younger brother Hô Kyun (best known today for
his reputed authorship of "The Tale of Hong Kiltong").
Her family quickly recognized Nansôrhôn's literary talents, and
she was strongly encouraged, especially by her brothers, to study the
Chinese classics and to compose Chinese poetry. Of course, such
privilege for women, especially for those of the elite classes, was
forbidden in Chosôn's rigidly patriarchic Confucian society.
Thus, despite her unique talents and the strong support of her
illustrious brothers, it was a foregone conclusion that she would
never be allowed to freely flourish as an accomplished scholar and
composer of great poetry.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>This state-imposed
social restriction is just one of many enduring issues in the poet's
life that may have contributed to her early demise at the age of 26.
The melancholy and despair reflected in so many of her compositions
and which earned her the sobriquet "Poet of Tears" is also
attributable to her unhappy marriage to a reputedly philandering
husband who was rarely home and who, for all that, was clearly her
intellectual inferior. Perhaps the greatest hurt of all was the
death in successive years of her two children, which was closely
followed by her own passing a year later.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Dr. Choe-Wall writes that in the
late 1500s many Koreans followed contemporary trends in Ming China by
turning away from the highly stylized and more ambiguous expression of
the Sung literary tradition (exemplified by the eleventh century
luminary Su Shih) to once again embrace the simplicity and more
natural expressiveness of eighth century T'ang poets such as Li Po and
Tu Fu. The majority of Nansôrhôn's poems are, therefore, inspired
by the same dominant characteristics that define T'ang poetry.
As a result her poems tend to be intensely personal compositions.
Their emotive power is further strengthened by her attention to the
requirements of T'ang verse forms, which placed a premium on succinct
and highly polished expression.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Though she
is perhaps best known for her intensely melancholy poems, many others
reflect Nansôrhôn's strong interest in the fantastic world of the
Taoist immortals and in the alchemy that is associated with the Taoist
search for immortality. Dr. Choe-Wall suggests that this
interest was sustained, in part at least, by Nansôrhôn's wish to
escape the unhappy constraints of her fettered life. In this
way, perhaps, the Taoist world of fantasy offered a "substitute
for the world around her" (p. 35). But Dr. Choe-Wall also
notes that, after many decades of steadily declining influence, Taoism
was enjoying resurgence in Korean literary circles of the late
sixteenth century; a time precisely coinciding with Nansôrhôn's
brief life.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The
greatest portion of this volume is devoted to detailed presentation
and extensive commentary of the translated poems, and it is here where
Dr. Choe-Wall's study is most valuable and important. Few indeed
among us possess a thorough knowledge of traditional Chinese poetry,
its great traditions, its vast treasury of metaphor and allusion, and
the outward beauty and simplicity of its mechanics, but to fully
appreciate Nansôrhôn's literary genius these are precisely the
intellectual tools required. The vast majority of contemporary
Koreans and non-Koreans alike hoping to acquaint themselves with
Nansôrhôn's work can only faintly glimpse the true power of her
compositions without such accompanying knowledge. Dr.
Choe-Wall's book seems designed to help bridge this gap by providing
us with a tutorial that guides us through the poems' "formal and
non-formal structures, taking into consideration sound, syntax and
meaning" (p. 44). Dr. Choe-Wall elaborates further that in
"regard to the phonetic features, each character has been checked
against a tonal table to define the tone of each rhyme and the tonal
pattern of each verse" (p. 44).<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>For example, her first translated poem "Song of
Youth" is identified as a "five syllable<i> koshi</i> which
changes its rhyme during the course of the poem at the end of each
couplet: level tone at the first couplet, deflected tone at the
second, and then back to the level tone at the third" (p. 47).
She identifies a caesura in each line between the second and third
syllable. Numbers and symbols that help to illustrate her commentary
accompany the original Chinese text. The author's intention in
providing this visual scheme is evidently to convey to the English
reader some understanding of T'ang verse dynamics, by which
Nansôrhôn's genius and careful attention to syntax, rhythm, and tone
can be more fully appreciated. <br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>At first glance one may protest the
clutter brought on by the numbers, asterisks, and "at" (@)
symbols that accompany each translation, but with a little patience
their importance to Dr. Choe-Wall's overall presentation becomes
apparent. This is because Dr. Choe-Wall has sought
"compromise" in her translations between the "literal"
and the "literary". Wherever possible she has sought
to "convey parallelism and antithesis as in the original text"
(p.44). Dr. Choe-Wall risks presenting a less literary and
aesthetically pleasing translations in order to highlight
Nansôrhôn's mastery of T'ang verse requirements. <br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>At times the risk pays off.
We can occasionally glimpse and appreciate the highly refined and
compressed expression of classical Chinese poetry when, for example,
we see two English words that convey much the same sentiments as two
Chinese characters in the corresponding original. Overall,
however, the translations fare less well on an independent footing.
Indeed, the accompanying commentary and visuals are so helpful to an
expanded appreciation of the poem that one could be excused for
rushing through the translations to get to them. The commentary then
leads the reader back to the original Chinese text and from there to a
rereading of the translation.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The book
could also benefit from an expanded discussion (with illustrative
examples) of T'ang poetic forms. Dr. Ch'oe-Wall only briefly discusses
T'ang modern style verse (<i>chin-t'i shih</i>, Kor.<i>
kûnch'eshi</i>) and old style verse (<i>ku shih</i>, Kor.<i>
koshi</i>) and the requirements of each, leaving the reader with
precious little material with which to clearly follow and fully digest
her commentary accompanying each poem. This is a surprising omission
in a volume that in every other respect effectively brings the English
reader closer to the creative literary environment of a late sixteenth
century Korean poet.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Such
criticisms should not detract from the overall very positive
contribution this volume represents to the study of Nansôrhôn in
English. Dr. Choe-Wall has performed a great service to the
academic community that is entirely in keeping with the stated mandate
of the publishers of the<i> Cornell East Asia Series</i>. For
those hoping to discover in English translation Hô Nansôrhôn's
great poetic gift, this volume may disappoint. As a thorough
academic treatment of the poet's artistic legacy and her social and
literary milieu, however, the book delivers a great deal
indeed.</font><br>
</div>
<div><font
color="#000000"><x-tab>
</x-tab> <br>
Citation:<br>
Lee, Younghee 2005<br>
_Vision of a Phoenix: The Poems of Hô Nansôrhôn_, by Yang
Hi Choe-Wall, (2003)<br>
_Korean Studies Review_ 2005, no. 01<br>
Electronic file: http://koreaweb.ws/ks/ksr/ksr05-01.htm</font></div>
</body>
</html>