[KS] Daechuri and the US bases

[Ruediger_Frank]

Dear list members,

a fascinating document indeed. I think the whole matter of U.S. troop relocation is not as simple as it may seem, but I really don't want to start a political debate here. 

What I would rather like to highlight is a technical issue of coding. If you take your time to compare the Korean lyrics with the English subtitles, you find some interesting, subtle deviations. The song reminded me of my time at the Kodae campus, where similar ones were sung on Mayday etc. to demonstrate the student's solidarity with the working class. Interestingly, the English translation seems to carefully avoid using Marxist terminology. Jabonga (capitalist or bourgeois) is simply "rich", nongmin haebang (peasant's liberation) is translated as "justice and dignity for all farmers" (and so is nodong haebang, worker's liberation), i sesang juindeuri ireona (owners of this world, rise) reads "the powerless shall rise", and "saengsaneui gibbeum" (the joy of production) is translated as "the joy of harvest". At one point the translation goes further as the original, when yangju is translated as "American wine". A very good idea, in my opinion, is the translation of bureun giwajib (house with blue roof tiles) simply as "capital", at least in the given context; Blue House might have left non-Korean listeners clueless. 

This is what I found after listening to the song twice, so there might be more to discover; if I had to teach a Korean class, this would make a timely and interesting example. 

Cheers,

Ruediger Frank


on Mittwoch, 14. März 2007 at 00:21 you wrote:

>  
>  
>  Fellow List members,

>  The following URL takes you to a  short video shot by Bum Lee, a
> young American film maker in Seoul that he shot at Daechuri, the
> farming village under eviction for a US
>  base expansion: 

>   http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/buml/artofdaechuri/

>  I found it creative both in film making and social commentary, and
> revealing in how the farmers use folk art and events to promote their cause.

>  
>  Regards

>  David Kilburn
>  
>    
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