Merry May

[tarigwaemir]

Lowell House, on the Feast of St. Joseph

This morning, I got up at 5:55 AM to go to the May Day Waltz with my roommates. The May Day Waltz is yet another one of those fancy Lowell House traditions that give us an excuse to dress up and pretend we're English. So we walked to the bridge, shivering in our dresses, where we had sparkling cider and strawberries and watched our fellow Lowellians waltz to Strauss and sing madrigals. Meanwhile, below on the bank, the local Cantabrigians, dressed in cloaks and wearing wreaths, had Morris dancers and a genuine Maypole. (Now I finally have a visual reference for whenever Morris dancing pops up in Pratchett's novels.) After they finished, we came back down the bridge to "greet the other people" as one of our Masters put it. Isn't that just typical of town-gown relations at this university? But Harvard snobbery aside, it was actually kind of fun except for having to get up at the crack of dawn.

(I went straight back to sleep after breakfast of course.)

Yesterday, I read my poetry in public for the first time, as part of the Writing Asian Poetry course I'm auditing. I don't get stage fright, so I wasn't nervous about the actual reading part, but I did feel a little silly at first about sharing my attempts at composing sijo and haiku in English. But my roommates said that they liked what I read, and a complete stranger came up to me afterwards and said she enjoyed my poetry. It's a bit strange how I ended up investing so much time in a class that I'm only auditing, but this course has really been the highlight of my semester.

The azaleas are in full bloom today. There's a famous poem by Kim So-weol called "Azaleas" that all Korean students are supposed to learn by heart. (I haven't, of course, although I've heard it recited at least twenty times by now.)

진달래꽃

나 보기가 역겨워
가실 때에는
말없이 고이 보내 드리오리다.

영변에 약산
진달래꽃
아름따다 가실 길에 뿌리오리다.

가시는 걸음걸음
놓인 그 꽃을
사뿐히 즈려 밟고 가시옵소서.

나 보기가 역겨워
가실 때에는
죽어도 아니 눈물 흘리오리다.

-- 김소월

And here's one of several possible translations I took from this page:

Azaleas

When you say goodbye
turn aside and walk away
I'll say farewell
and not ask you why.

I'll gather flowers for love of you
azaleas from some springtime hill
and scatter them beneath your feet
as you walk away.

Then go
crushing with your parting steps
my humble offerings of flowers.

When you say goodbye
turn aside and walk away
I tell you now that on that day
I'll not shed a tear.

-- Kim So-weol, trans. An Sonjae

How would I translate it? Hmm...

When you grow weary of the sight of me
and leave me behind,
I will let you go without a word.

But from Yeongbyeon's slopes
azalea blooms
will I gather and scatter on your path.

With every step as you walk away
let those flowers
crush beneath your light tread.

When you grow weary of the sight of me
and leave me behind,
I will shed nary a tear.

A little like the folk song "아리랑" in theme, isn't it? "나를 버리고 가시는 님은 십리도 못가서 발병난다."

Yours &c.