2nd term group work -my text

Gong mu do ha ga
공무도하가(公無渡河歌)

Gong mu do ha 公無渡河 (공무도하)
-Dear don’t cross over the river

Gong kyong do ha 公竟渡河 (공경도하)
-Crossing over the river

Ta ha yi sa 墮河而死 (타하이사)
-you are drowning with the flow, died at last

Dang ne gong ha 當奈公何 (당내공하)
-What can I do for you

Background
It is known as the oldest Korean lyric poem. It is situated in transition period from public folk to personal poetry. In the background of this poem, there was a man who let down his white hair and walked through the river in the madness or ecstasy, holding a bottle of alcohol and his wife was trying to detain him. But he just died under the water, she sadly sang a song and died after her husband. Another man watched this on his way by chance, he said what he saw and listen to his wife. His wife was moved by that story and song, so she played Gonghooin(an ancient instrument similar with harp), singing that song. There is no one who didn’t feel sad and be impressed by that song because it was very sorrowful and beautiful.
There is an interpretation of this poem. One is about it’s periodical situation. The madman could be seen as a priest, and his madness and action which through the water could be understood that he is possessed by a spirit. This was in transition period from the unity of church and state to the separation of that. He might be loosing his power and there is no place for him, so he tried to transcend through death. In his point of view, that space ‘water’ could be explained as a place which surpasses life and death. Another interesting ides of this poem is interpretation in relation to western myth. In this case, Prof. Ahn(a scholar of Korean literature) explained that a mad man have a reference to Dionysus and his wife to a nymph.

公無渡河: Gong mu do ha: Dear don’t cross over the river
-It is the moment loving husband (beacksugwangbu) is about to run to the river. In this case, that river(water) could separate her with him forever, so she is trying to detain him by the sleeve desperately.

公竟渡河: Gong kyong do ha: Crossing the river
-Water means the end of their love and absence of her lover, so it can be seen as a symbol of death.

墮河而死: Ta ha yi sa: you are drowning with the flow, died at last
-Now it’s not just about absence of lover, extending a meaning to death. She would felt a sense of alienation profoundly through his death.

當奈公何: Dang ne gong ha: What can do for you
-She sigh for grief, lament for the death of her husband. At last burst out pathetic crying. This burst of the extremely tragic psychology cause her suicide in the background myth.
This kind of pathos is traditionally inherent in the prototype of traditional Korean women.


*one Korean singer(Lee Tzsche)compose about this theme with same title and lyric, and it is also very inspiring for me, so I put the webpage in which you can watch the music video of her song. I need to tell you that the English translation of this poem was quoted from her English version of song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQPtoqsj41s&feature=channel_page