• Sijohaknonchong
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• v.42
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• pp.117-150
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• 2015

English sijo is the sijo poems written in English. This paper considered English sijo especially in association with its wit. In English-speaking countries, wit has been often emphasized as one of the main characteristics of the sijo genre, and it is often found in many English sijo poems. As a critical term, wit indicates a kind of "concord of discord", which consists of dissimilar images, paradox, irony, etc. This paper investigated how English sijo embodied this kind of critical wit and created three kinds of delight; those are intelligent, sarcastic, and humorous one. First, I examined old Korean sijo poems and the wit embedded in them, and then I compared them to the case of English sijo. Sijo was received in English-speaking countries in the context of the literary genre tradition such as the epigram and the sonnet, and of the literary concepts such as irony and wit. In this context, sijo, which has a three-divided semantic structure and a twist in the last part, often containing irony and wit, could be received and composed without much difficulty in Englih-speaking countries. Many English sijo poems contain wit, and they make abundant delight, which is intelligent, sarcastic, or humorous. Wit is found in Korean old sijo too, but the wit that catches humorous moments variously in everyday lives, rather than show acid sarcasm or exaggerated comic scene, is a remarkable characteristic of the English sijo. English sijo presents the possibility of the sijo genre as the poetry of everyday life, which presents various aspects of daily lives in a warm and delightful perspective.

• Sijohaknonchong
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• v.23
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• pp.33-48
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• 2005

In my paper, the discussion focuses on the fact that sijo is distinguished from free verse as a separate Identity in that it has its own formal beauty, and the works that deviate from this poetic rule are guarded against. In the past ancient sijo, in terms of both music and literature, was a major genre in harmony with chang(songs) ; and in modern times, sijo been created irrelevantly with chug. But my point is that it will not futile if sijo is accompanied with chang, and, therefore, the latter should be adjusted to a modern taste and go together with the former ; and that, to attain this goal, Korean musicans should cooperate with sijo writers. With English-version sijo works, there are some that are put in accordance with the formality of Engish poetry. This paper indicates that, in this case, foreign readers can't feel the nuances the source text of sijo works could produce, so it is not proper to translate sijo works in accordance with the formality of English poetry. But there are other translations where the 3-jang(statements)-6-gu(phrases) form of the original sijo text is reproduced within the limits of English expressions, with each of the two gu(phrases) in a ing(statement) having an almost equal number of syllables, so that each phrase could be recited within the same length of time. The conclusion is that the Korean-English translations of sijo works should begin with the reproduction of its original formal beauty; but, to do this, sijo writers should create works in accordance with it original formality first. Therefore for good translations of sijo works there should be a mutual efforts between sijo scholars and English poetry scholars.

• Sijohaknonchong
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• v.30
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• pp.53-90
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• 2009

This study discusses the aspects of Korean-American Sjjo writers' consciousness of sijo and its significance, focusing primarily on the Sijo-Anthologies of Korean-American authors, "The Moon of the Desert" (1989), "The Dandelion of the Desert" (1994), and The Stars of the Desert" (1996) published by the Sijo Society of America. For this purpose, I thoroughly examined "Notes of Writing Sijo' attached to the authors' works and some other sijos added at the end of the paper. They started writing sijos quite early. Sijo has been recognized as a typical traditional genre of literature, and even foreigners came to write them in English. The following is the summary of the view on sijo propounded by Korean-American authors. Firstly, they follow traditional view on the theory of sijo in terms of its nature and utility, and at the same time they emphasize the utility of katharsis through self expressions. Secondly, their recognition of the value of sijo boils down to its formal patterns. Lastly, they develop the idea of national literature through their significance of writing sijos. They think that they can contribute to the development of national literature as well as the expression of patriotism through writing sijos. Therefore, they recognize themselves as spreaders of Korean culture to the local residents, and as the main stream enhancing the status of Korean culture through the competition with other nations.