sijo

   The sijo is a Korean verse form that developed in the 13th and 14th centuries, toward the end of the Kory˘o period (935–1392), although it did not reach the peak of its development until the 16thcentury emergence of major poets in the genre like Ch˘ong Ch’˘ol. Previously, there was a distinction between the poetic forms used by aristocratic writers and those used by common people, but the sijo came to be used by all classes. The sijo has dominated Korean poetry since the late medieval period, somewhat as the TANKA form did in Japan—and like the tanka, its ultimate roots are probably in Chinese poetry. Still practiced in Korea, and imitated by poets in other languages, the sijo is probably Korea’s most important contribution to world literature.

   The term sijo means “melody of the times.” These poems were originally sung or chanted, probably to a well-known tune and with instrumental accompaniment. Thus the poems were originally part of performances, and were either memorized or composed spontaneously by the singer. Early sijo were not recorded in written form until the 18th century, and the music has been lost. Still, the basic conventions of the sijo are clear from the beginning.

   A complex verse form, the conventional sijo has three lines. Each line contains four phrases or groups of syllables. In each of the first two lines, the first phrase was made up of three syllables, the second of four, the third of either three or four syllables, and the last phrase of four syllables. Thus each of the first two lines might contain 14 or 15 syllables. The third line of the poem more strictly included phrases of three, five, four, and three syllables. Thus the entire poem comprised from 43 to 45 syllables, and there was a natural break in the poem after the first and the middle lines. Because of the groups of syllables within the lines, there was also a lesser break after the second phrase of each line (thus translations of Korean sijo are often printed as six lines).

   Typically the first line of the sijo will introduce a theme, while the second line will develop or will counter that theme in what is sometimes called a “turn.” The third line provides a resolution of the tensions introduced in the first two lines, or it introduces a judgment or a paradox, or a contrasting theme. Thus the third line gives the sijo a twist that provides a strong conclusion for the poem. This twist may take the form of a surprising twist of phrasing or of sound or tone, rather than simply of meaning—and such effects are very difficult to translate, but generally are the demonstration of the poet’s genius and originality. An early example of a sijo is the following late medieval poem by Hwang H˘ui (1363–1452). Like most classic sijo, it is untitled:

   Spring has come to a country village;

   How much there is to be done!

   I knit a net and

   A servant tills the fields and sows:

   But who will pluck the sweet herbs

   That grow on the back-hill?

   (Lee 1994, 774)

   Here the theme of spring introduced in line one (translated here as the first two lines) is developed with concrete images of specific tasks in the second line, while the twist at the end introduces a task that may be overlooked, and one that smacks less of frenetic activity than leisurely enjoyment of nature. While sijo might be written on a broad range of subjects, nature and love are by far the most common themes, as they are with Japanese tanka. Korean poets, occupying a kind of central ground between the more powerful Chinese and Japanese, make use of both Buddhism and Confucianism in their poems.

   Bibliography

   ■ Hungguyu, Kim. Understanding Korean Literature. Translated by Robert J. Fouser. New Studies in Asian Culture. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharp, 1997.

   ■ Kim, Kichung. An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature: From Hyangga to P’ansori. New Studies in Asian Culture. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharp, 1996.

   ■ Lee, Peter H., trans. Anthology of Korean Literature: From Early Times to the Nineteenth Century. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1981. Reprint in The HarperCollins World Reader: Antiquity to the Early Modern World, edited by Mary Ann Caws and Christopher Prendergast. Vol. 1. New York: HarperCollins, 1994, 774.

   ■ ———, ed. The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

   ■ McCann, David R. Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.