[KS] Request to the Members

[Dr. Edward D. Rockstein]

The quote is an incomplete excerpt from the Neo-Confucianist, Chu Hsi. It is a sort of a didactic carpe diem. [Time is flying waste not your opportunities to study![The full text of the poem reads:

少年 易老學難成
一寸光陰不可輕.
未覺池塘春草夢
階前梧葉已秋聲.

This is a translation in English and Korean  found on the web: 

It is easy for a boy to grow old. It is difficult for knowledge to be attained. 
You should be careful not to waste even the least time uselessly. 
Not awaking yet from the warm spring dream near the pond, 
the paulownia tree before the stone steps now makes a sound of autumn.

I'd render it something like the following:

Youth ages with ease; learning is difficult to attain.
One can't make light of the smallest bit of time.
Not awakening from dreams of a grassy spring pond,
Paulownia leaves before the steps make an autumn rustling.


Dr. Edward D. Rockstein 

ed4linda at yahoo.com   

”I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration ” — Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear


--- On Mon, 2/28/11, Agnieszka Smiatacz <magnesmerald at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

From: Agnieszka Smiatacz <magnesmerald at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [KS] Request to the Members
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Date: Monday, February 28, 2011, 11:53 AM


Dear List Members,
 
I kindly request information on where I can find an English translation/publication of the following poem:
 

未覺池塘 春草夢 ㅣ 연못가에 봄 풀이 채 꿈도 깨기전에

階前梧葉 已秋聲  ㅣ 계단 앞 오동나무잎이 가을을 알린다
 
The translation will be roughly as follows: 
 
Spring grass at the pond before I wake up from my dream/
In front of the stairs paulownia leaves are announcing autumn.
 
It is a fragment of a poem by a Chinese poet from the Song dynasty period, popular among the Koreans, too. In Korean the title is "Sonyeoniro Hannanseong".
I would be very thankful if some hanja experts kindly corrected my translation.
 
Regards,
A. Smiatacz
The Academy of Korean Studies
 
 
 




      


      
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