Sijo Poetry
Sijo Poetry
Sijo Poetry
TRANSFORMATIONS
Kyong-geun OH
Institute of Linguistics
Department of Korean Studies
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
[email protected]
Abstract: Sijo is an original genre of short Korean poems with a strictly defined
structure reflecting the rhythm of a traditional Korean song. Sijo poems are the only
traditional genre of Korean poetry, which is still practised by contemporary Korean
poets. It gained tremendous popularity during the reign of the Joseon dynasty, espe-
cially among the Confucian scholars and noblemen who ruled the country. Sijo poetry
has undergone a transformation as far as the topics and structure of sijo poems are
concerned. Initially the authors of sijo belonged to the ruling class and were solely
men (Confucian scholars). But with the passage of time and the development of socie-
ty the representatives of the middle class started writing sijo poems as well. The sijo
transformations also included the linguistic changes, which may be observed through
the course of sijo history. The topics also changed as new types of sijo appeared be-
side traditional sijo devoted mainly to Confucian ideas formulated in a refined lan-
guage.
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1. Introduction
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es the changes of the format, topics and authors in the course of the
history of sijo development and transformation.
Sijo poems were first written at the end of the Goryeo dynasty (about
the 14th century). When the Goryeo dynasty became extinct, and a new
dynasty, the Joseon dynasty, was established with the Confucian ide-
ology, sijo had become the most popular type of poetry among the
ruling Confucian scholars and noblemen. It gained tremendous popu-
larity during the reign of the Joseon dynasty.
Sijo was primarily private poetry written in Korean as it was very
suitable for expressing one’s own feelings and thoughts. Additionally,
due to the rhythm, it was very easy to be sung. For a very long time
scholars and noblemen wrote poems called hansi. This poetic form
was written in Chinese characters and was not readily adaptable for
singing. Hansi was written by the social elite, who wished to empha-
sise their superiority over the other social classes (that it was the eru-
dite class of society able to read and write Chinese characters). Such
poems could be recited, as it was extremely difficult to sing them in a
foreign language. Therefore, sijo became the main genre of Korean
literature, also for the nobility (Gyojae pyeonchan uiwonhoe 1996:
70).
Generally one may distinguish two stages in sijo development,
that is to say: 1) till 1876 (the period of Korean isolation, when the so-
called traditional sijo was created), 2) after 1876 when the so-called
modern sijo was created.
Until the end of Joseon dynasty there was no one name for this
type of poetry. There were various names in use and each of them was
used depending of the situation in which the poems were sung: for
instance the song – ga (가, 歌), gagok (가곡, 歌曲), gayo (가요, 歌謠
), the short song – dan-ga (단가, 短歌), mode of singing this type of
poems – sijo (시조, 時調), sijeolga (시절가, 時節歌), sijeol-dan-ga
(시절단가, 時節短歌) etc. The name sijo was not used as a name for
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verse 1: 3 4 3 [4] 4
verse 2: 3 4 3 [4] 4
verse 3: 3 5 4 3
first verse: 4 4 // 4 4
second verse: 4 4 // 4 4 – repetition
third verse: 4 4+4 // 4 4 – change
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second verses has no specific poetic significance and does not transfer
any information needed to understand the ideas. Those concepts are
realised in the last verse so without it the reader cannot understand the
poem and the poetic concept of the author. This is the essence of the
specific structure of sijo.
The structure based on ‘repetition – change’ is not only the ex-
ternal scheme for sijo, but it is also the source of the artistic power of
creation. Because of that sijo, which is the shortest among Korean
poems, is also the best organised as far as its structure is concerned.
The structure is very useful for intense expression of the features of
objects described by the author and it also reveals the most character-
istic features of sijo.
verse 1: 3 4 // 3 [4] 4
verse 2: 3 4 // 3 [4] 4
verse 3: 3 5 // 4 3
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of syllables in a rhythmic unit may vary from 3 to 5, their recitation
length, as already mentioned, is the same. Because the longer or short-
er rhythmic units are sung or recited quickly or slowly to make them
of equal length.
4. Types of sijo
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Yeon-sijo
Example of yeon-sijo
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<강호사시가 – 맹사성>
Saseol-sijo
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Example of saseol-sijo
First verse: Spotted dog and black dog and shaggy blue hound — but this
yellow bitch is the wiliest in the pack.
Second verse: Comes an unwanted guest, she’ll wag her tail with pleas-
ure and follow behind his heels, but for a friend of mine she’ll stiffen her
legs and bare her teeth and bark her head off.
Third verse: You yellow bitch! Tomorrow if I hear that man outside
shouting “Any dogs for sale?” I will tie you and sell you straight for dog
meat.
(Translation from The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo edited by
Richard Rutt: 231)
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5. Topics of sijo
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why they generally sang about sorrow or suffering resulting from part-
ing with a beloved one, and love, which could not be continued.
Sijo poems written by them were devoted to love and the prob-
lem of burning, hopeless and forbidden love (misery of separation of
lovers, solitude, waiting for the beloved man, etc.)
The Confucians did not write about love as they considered the
topic improper. According to them sijo poems should be refined and
full of dignity. But gisaeng were not afraid to write about the taboo
topic and thus they enriched the range of topics of sijo.
As they were not ashamed to sing in public about love, which
was treated as a taboo topic by the noble scholars, they managed to
achieve the freedom and liberty of poetic tenderness in the world of
sijo. Writing about love, beauty and nostalgia, lingeringly they were
able to create a beautiful and artistic mood in their poems.
Sijo by gisaeng Hwang Ji-ni (her dates of birth and death are un-
known), who is the most famous gisaeng for her beauty, intellect and
artistic skills living in the times of Joseon dynasty:
I wish I could cut out the waist of this deep mid-winter night
And curl it softly, softly under the warm spring quilt
And slowly, slowly spread it on the night my love comes back
(Love in mid-winter night 1985: 37)
In the second half of the rule of the Joseon dynasty (at the end of
the 17th century and in the 18-19th centuries) sijo poems begin to de-
scribe the feelings of men and their contemporary life. The change in
the topics was mostly caused by the fact that among the authors of
sijo, next to the noblemen, one may also find the representatives of the
middle class.
In the second half of the 18th century there were numerous great
singers and poets such as Kim Cheon-taek and Kim Su-chang among
others who could sing and write sijo very well. There were also those
such as Lee Se-chun, who were professional singers of sijo. Sijo creat-
ed by them is called gagaek-sijo (가객시조). Due to the rapid devel-
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5. Summary
36
daily life of people, sometimes were even coarse or vulgar and were
written mainly by ordinary people.
A poem with a fixed form may have artistic beauty, which is
built in the course of long history. Sijo is a poem with such fixed form
making it sophisticated and beautiful. Therefore, it has its poetic value
and there are reasons why it exists as a poetic genre.
What is typical of sijo is the regular number of rhythmic units,
which are composed of syllables. Some poems of modern sijo fre-
quently omit that and as a result cannot retain the beauty of rhythmic
sijo. They focus on the revival of sijo, but claim that its traditional
fixed form cannot be preserved (Lim Jongchan 1996: 298). However,
a poem with a fixed form, contrary to free verse, must adhere to the
rhythm. Otherwise, it is no longer a fixed verse poem. Thus, sijo, even
a contemporary one, which does not obey the form, cannot be consid-
ered sijo.
What distinguishes a free verse from a fixed verse is the rhythm,
which constitutes a specific artistic beauty. So the real beauty of sijo
stems from its fixed verse form and harmony between its form and
contents. If sijo imitates the structure of free verse, it loses its artistic
beauty and the reason for its existence. To conclude, one may not
agree with some contemporary poets who claim that the traditional
form of sijo is too complicated and difficult to express poetic contents.
6. Bibliography
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