[KS] Response: Request to the Members Regarding an Appropriate Translation, Etc. from Agnieszka Smiatacz

RiHwasu hwasuri at hotmail.com
Fri Mar 4 02:25:20 EST 2011


Dear Mr. Chaves, 
 
I think two characters in the first stanza are misplaced. 
 
The stanza should read  少年易老 學難成  (Youth gets easily old, [while] study is hard to accomplish.)
 
 
Hwasuri
 
 
The first 
 
From: fshulman at umd.edu
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2011 09:11:07 -0500
Subject: [KS] Response: Request to the Members Regarding an Appropriate Translation, Etc. from Agnieszka Smiatacz

Professor Jonathan Chaves of George Washington University, an expert on Chinese poetry and the author/editor of such works as "Mei Yao-ch'en and the Development of Early Sung Poetry" (1976) and the "Columbia Book of Later Chinese Poetry: Yuan, Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties" (1986), has kindly responded to the February 28th inquiry below from Agnieszka Smiatacz (Academy of Korean Studies).  He did so in response to the inquiry that I forwarded to him.  I am sharing Professor Chaves' response with the Korean Studies listserve in order that everyone may benefit.
 
Frank Joseph Shulman
 
March 1, 2011
 
Frank Joseph Shulman
Bibliographer, Editor and Consultant for Reference Publications in Asian Studies
9225 Limestone Place
College Park, Maryland 20740-3943 (U.S.A.)
E-mail: fshulman at umd.edu
________________________________________
From: Jonathan Chaves [jchaves at gwu.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 8:35 AM
To: Frank Joseph Shulman; magnesmerald at yahoo.co.uk
Subject: Fwd: FW: [KS] Request to the Members
 
This is the second half of a quatrain by the great Neo-Confucian (理學)  thinker, Chu Hsi/Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200), whose ideas exerted enormous influence in Korea and Japan as well as in China. Chu was a good poet as well, although this one is closer to straight-forward moral indoctrination than to poetry in the full sense:
 
 勸學      宋•朱熹
少年易學老難成,一寸光陰不可輕。未覺池塘春草夢,階前梧葉已秋聲。
 
In youth, studying comes easily,  in old age--hard to do!
 
Do not look lightly on even one moment of your precious time.
 
Before one has woken from a dream of spring plants beside a lovely pool,
 
Before the steps, paulownia leaves already make autumn sounds.
 
 
 
Note:  草 in this usage really applies to all plants, flowers included, "flora". There has been limitless talk about the wu-t'ung/wutong tree, with many claiming it really isn't the "paulownia," but I continue to use the latter as being a good poetic equivalent. . . .
 
 
Jonathan Chaves, professor of Chinese
The George Washington University
202--994-6474; fax 202--994-1512
703--472-3204 cell; jchaves at gwu.edu
 
http://chineseinjapan.blogspot.com/
 
 
 
 


--전달된 메시지 첨부--
From: fshulman at umd.edu
To: ssargent at stanfordalumni.org; jchaves at gwu.edu
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:42:53 -0500
Subject: FW: [KS] Request to the Members

Dear Stuart and Jonathan,
 
Given your expertise, might one of you be able to assist this member of the Korean Studies listserve?
 
Best wishes,
 
Frank
 
February 28, 2011
 
Frank Joseph Shulman
Bibliographer, Editor and Consultant for Reference Publications in Asian Studies
9225 Limestone Place
College Park, Maryland 20740-3943 (U.S.A.)
E-mail: fshulman at umd.edu
________________________________________
From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws [koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of Agnieszka Smiatacz [magnesmerald at yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 11:53 AM
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] Request to the Members
 
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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