Sijo II

From “Songs of Five Friends”

How many friends have I? Count them:
water and stone, pine and bamboo–
The rising moon on the east mountain,
welcome. It too is my friend.
What need is there, I say,
to have more than five?

-Yun Sondo (17th century), trans. Peter Lee

Sijo is a short Korean poetic form. I’m putting up some verse from Peter Lee’s The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry.  In my amateur opinion there are a lot more opportunities to find Korean literary prose in English translation than for poetry, but this book is a nice introduction to older verse.

(No) Thank You!

Giving gifts is an important part of Korean culture, and the kids I teach are no exception.  No doubt many foreign teachers here have enjoyed the occasional necktie or bottle of fancy skin cream that comes to us from parents on holidays (notably Teacher’s Day).

However, with the kids it gets a little sketchy.  The afternoon kids coming from their Korean schools often have some sort of a snack with them, and while I appreciate their generous spirits I think I’ll barf if another kids shoves a half-eaten, pestilence laden cookie or apple in my face when I’m not expecting it.

It’s kind of cute but mostly gross, as little kids tend to be.

Classy As Always

When your political ideology pushes you towards slurring Elie Wiesel, and your sheer ignorance makes you think he’s a woman, then you and your teabagging friends should probably take a break.

Sijo

Until the duck’s short legs
grow as long as the crane’s–
Until the crow has become white,
white as the white heron–
Enjoy enduring bliss
forever.

–Kim Ku (15th century), trans. Peter Lee

Pwnage

Markos Moulitsas, an actual American military veteran, tells chickenhawk and virulent bigot Tom Tancredo that our socialist military health-care system is doing just fine.

In true form, Tancredo runs away.

ROK Rock

Metafilter post on Korean rock of the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Tons of great clips, but this one stood out for me — the legendary Shin Jung-hyeon getting down with the crowd Hendrix-style.

From the wiki:

In 1957 he began playing for the U.S. army in Korea, using the stage name “Jackie Shin”.  He continued performing for the U.S. troops for the next decade. Shin claims that the U.S. Army bases are where Korean rock was born. “At that time, Korean clubs only played ‘trot,’ tango, music like that,” he remembers.

Culture moves in mysterious and fascinating ways.

Like Marvel Comics “What If?” But Kind of Ridiculously Terrifying

Excerpts from the victory speech Sarah Palin would have given.

Jobs of the Future

For Americans, they’ll be in health care and to a smaller extent education.

Contingency

South Korea and the U.S. have gone public with their contingency plans in case of a North Korean collapse:

“It dictates how to respond case-by-case to such emergencies in North Korea as a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, Yonhap said.

Under the plan, the United States assumes the role of eliminating North Korea’s WMDs, including its nuclear weapons, while South Korean troops play a leading role in most other parts, it said.”

A huge number of refugees?  That’s certainly worth preparing for.  A civil war?  That’s a harder scenario for me to understand.  It would be nice to think there was some sort of organized group opposed to the Kim Jong-il regime within North Korea, but I really doubt it.  Not a viable opposition that hasn’t been murdered or imprisoned at any rate.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

On the one hand, I admire the Korean government’s commitment to halting the vectors of H1N1 (swine flu).  However, this could be completely undermined by the tendency of Korean parents to send their kids to school when they are obviously quite sick.