2022-04-09 · 4분

Korean Poem — "Spring Snow" (Chunseol)

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As I open the door — a sudden chill!
The far mountain is cold against my brow.

Entering the Usu season,
on the very morning of the first day,

anew, I butt heads with the snow-capped peak —
a cool and shining brow-to-brow.

As the ice cracks and a new wind follows,
the white coat-strings turn fragrant on their own.

That I have huddled up and come back to life —
ah, like a dream, it is sorrowful.

Water-parsley pushes out fresh green shoots,
and the mouths of fish that would not stir now mumble;

in this unseasonal snow before the flowers bloom,
I long to shed my padded coat and be cold again.
                                                                                                              - **Jeong Ji-yong, "Chunseol (Spring Snow)"**

Chunseol (春雪): snow that falls in early spring

                    ↳ singing of spring's energy through the snow

Singing the vitality of the scenery (spring), a world of pure human lyricism

1. Content

- Usu (雨水) is one of the 24 solar terms, the mid-term of the first lunar month.

On a morning during the Usu season, at the speaker's house where the far mountain unfolds before their eyes, the speaker — seeing an unexpected cold and even snow piling up — thinks about what day it is, realizes it's the Usu season, imagines that spring will soon come, and feels the life-force of spring.

Stanzas 1~3

㉮ As I open the door — a sudden chill! (exclamation) / ㉯ The far mountain (visual) is cold (tactile) against my brow (synesthesia = transfer of the senses) tactilization of the visual

The shock of seeing the snow-capped peak in early spring (surprise at the unseasonal snow); the far mountain feels as if it comes and touches the brow.

㉯ Describes the far mountain's appearance concisely, expressing the feeling that the snow-capped peak seems to touch the brow (synesthetic | transfer of the senses)

㉮ Entering the Usu season / ㉯ the morning of the first day

㉮ Usu season: the seasonal setting (early spring)

㉯ Noun-form ending -> a concise presentation

㉮ anew, with the snow-capped peak / ㉯ a cool (tactile) and shining (visual) brow-to-brow. (synesthetic | tactilization of the visual)

㉮: [anew]: reveals the speaker's feeling about the unfamiliar scene of snow falling in spring

㉯: expressed as if directly butting brows with the far mountain -> removing the sense of distance between the speaker and the mountain and expressing the coldness of the snow on the peak as if the speaker felt it directly

Repeats and gives concrete shape to the content of stanza 1

Stanzas 4~6

Nature's change on greeting spring (the surrounding spring scenery and the flutter felt from it) -> various sensory images

㉮ the white coat-strings (visual) on their own turn **fragrant (olfactory) (olfactivization of the visual)
**

㉮ From the white coat-strings, the fragrance of spring is evoked.

+ the white coat-strings in a historical context, evoking the Korean people amid the rising oppression of Japanese rule -> connectable to the han (sorrow) of the nation (an available interpretation)

㉮ That I have huddled up and come back to life / ㉯ ah (exclamatory tone), because it is like a dream, it is sorrowful.

㉯: the meaning of "sorrowful"

the 'unfamiliar' sense: newly receiving the arrived spring.
the 'grieving' sense: the process of newly recovering life -> so wondrous it is almost grievous.

㉮ Water-parsley pushes out its fresh-green (color image | visual) new shoots / ㉯ the mouths of the fish that would not stir at all now mumble,

㉮, ㉯: presents the vitality of spring sensorially.

㉮: color image -> expressed as a vivid image

Stanza 7

The speaker trying to feel spring even more within the cold snow (expressing the wish to greet the vibrancy of approaching spring with their whole body)

㉮ in the unseasonal snow before the flowers bloom / ㉯ I long to shed my padded coat and be cold again.

㉮: [in the unseasonal snow before the flowers bloom]: reveals the speaker's feeling about the unfamiliar scene of snow falling in spring

㉯ interpretation of "I long to shed my padded (cotton) coat and be cold again"

1. If "I long to be cold" is sincere: the reluctance at winter leaving (wanting to feel the cold more) # not the main interpretation

2. Irony: wanting to feel something else through the cold (spring is welcome, so though it's cold, one wants to take off winter clothes) # wanting to feel spring

3. Paradox: "taking off clothes because one wants to be cold" is itself contradictory. One wants to feel the arrival of spring more surely through the last of the cold.

Theme: the vitality of spring felt in the scenery (nature) where spring snow has fallen

Development: centered on the speaker's gaze and imagination -> various images of spring emerge

2. Features

Free verse, lyric poem
Character: descriptive (sensory), exclamatory
Through short, concise expressions, it presents the image of spring snow and the scenery of spring.
It inherits the tradition of classical literature that sings of spring's arrival (cf. Sangchungok).
In most classical Chinese poems spring snow is portrayed as an obstructer; this poem (Chunseol) is not so. Rather, it welcomes it.
Various rhetorical devices -> vividly conveying spring's liveliness and freshness / (exclamation | irony | paradox)