• Journal of Korean Classical Literature and Education
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• no.34
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• pp.149-191
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• 2017

This study examines Korean language translations of traditional Chinese hansi in the 1910s and 1920s. In the $20^{th}$ century, many poets translated Chinese and Korean traditional hansi into Korean. In the early $20^{th}$ century, Korean language began to be used as a national public language. At that time, not only hansi but also poetry from several other languages had been translated into Korean. Choi Nam-sun in the 1910s and Kim So-woel, Kim Eok, and Lee Kwang-su in the 1920s translated Chinese traditional hansi, focusing on famous Dang dynasty poetry from Tu Fu and Li Bai, etc. Choi Nam-sun's translation in the 1910s aimed to consider poetry as a written literature. On the contrary, Kim So-woel, Kim Eok, and Lee Kwang-su believed that Korean modern verse literature should be songs as well as poetry, and their translations in the 1920s aimed to create songs as spoken literature by focusing on orality and universality. Though Korean is now the language, the literary history of hansi continues in modern poetry.