Narrative
낙동강
Not translated into English
Cho Myeong-hui · 1927
Opening lines
낙동강 칠백 리 길이길이 흐르는 물은 이곳에 이르러 곁가지 강물을 한몸에 뭉쳐서 바다로 향하여 나간다. 강을 따라 바둑판 같은 들이 바다를 향하여 아득하게 열려 있고 그 넓은 들 품안에는 무덤무덤의 마을이 여기저기 안겨 있다.
The waters of the Nakdong, flowing on and on for seven hundred li, here gather the tributary streams into a single body and head out towards the sea. Along the river, plains like a chessboard open out into the distance towards the sea, and in the embrace of those broad plains villages lie nestled here and there in clusters.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from ko.wikisource.org
Synopsis
A fisherman's grandson and a peasant's son, Pak Seong-un, born on the banks of the Nakdong, campaigned for years for independence in Manchuria, Russia and China, before returning to Gupo, his native place, convinced that his place is among the poor of the river. With his companion Rosa, daughter of a baekjeong, the despised caste of butchers, he leads an education campaign in the villages. When the Japanese obtain ownership of the reed beds on which the riverside inhabitants live, he takes the lead in their resistance, according to the notice of the Literature Translation Institute.
Context
The narrative appeared in July 1927 in the review Joseon Jigwang, largely cut by the censor, whose cuts were replaced by crosses; a restored version appears in a Soviet selection published in 1969. The Korean institute in charge of translations sees in it a work that stands apart from the blind revolt of the other left-wing narratives: it shows collective resistance and carries poverty from the individual scale to that of the nation and the classes. The researcher Jeong Jong-hyeon regards it as the greatest achievement of the early proletarian movement.
Who it is for
A short narrative, of about eleven thousand characters in Korean, centred on an activist and on the young woman who shares his struggle.
Prizes and reception
The only recorded translation is a Russian version of 1966; the story exists neither in French nor in English.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.