GROUP 1: A MYRIAD OF REFLECTIONS

This activity allows you to enjoy reading short selections from Korea. Hopefully, this will allow you to embrace the
goodness of the Korean psyche and temperament.

The Tale of the Woodcutter and the Tiger

Korean folklore recalls the tale of a woodcutter who encounters a tiger in the woods. Fearing that he would soon be the
tiger’s dinner, he exclaimed: “You must be my long lost brother! Our mother cried for you when you left home. She had
dinner ready for you every night, waiting for your return. Sadly, out mother has just passed away. How happy she would
have been had she known you are alive and well!” The woodcutter took out his handkerchief and pretended to wipe at
his eyes. The tiger turned away, as tears fell down his cheeks, leaving the woodcutter unharmed.

Every year thereafter, on Chesa, the memorial day of the woodcutter’s mother’s death, an offering appeared on her grave
- sometimes a peasant, or even his mother’s favorite mountain berries. The woodcutter did not know where these
offerings came from.One year, the woodcutter noticed that the customary offering had not been placed on his mother’s
grave, and he wondered what had happened. Out from the bush, three baby tigers appeared, carrying offerings. They
approached the woodcutter and cried: “You must be our uncle! Mother tiger is gone now, and we know how important it
is for her to honor grandmother by bringing an offering to her Chesa table beside her grave. We are here to bring
offerings for our grandmother in loving memory of our mother.” The woodcutter noticed that his face had turned
suddenly warm and realized that it was his own tears streaming down his cheeks.

http://www.instrok.org/instrok/t_story.html

PROCESS QUESTIONS:

1. Identify the characters in the story. What roles do the characters play in the tale? What are the characteristics of these
characters that you admire/don’t admire?

2. What particular event or circumstance in the story has contributed to the Tiger’s way of looking at things in a different
way? How has this new way of looking at things being passed on to the next generation?

3. What kind of conflict led the woodcutter to “fool” the tiger? What would be your own way of saving yourself from
danger?

4. What would you do if that sense of duty and shared destiny passed on to you is in conflict with your own principles and
beliefs in life?

5. Could this tale be used as basis for you to have a glimpse of how the Koreans at present are coping with the
challenges of modernity? Explain your answer.

GROUP 2: WHEN WINE AT YOUR HOUSE IS RIPE

by YugGim
When wine at your house is ripe,
Please ask me to visit you.
When flowers at my cottage bloom,
I will invite you to come.
And then let’s talk of the things,
Forgetting worries, over a hundred years.

from: An Introduction to Korean Literature, by In-sob Zong Sam Young Printing Co., Ltd. (1970), Seoul, Korea
The author is trying to convince us to forget past prejudices and hatred and come together for a better life. Do the FALL
now as you answer the following questions:
PROCESS QUESTIONS:
1. According to the author, when should one invite a long-lost friend to his house?
2. When can two people speak as true good friends?
3. How are feelings of optimism, goodness and piety shown in the poem?
4. How are the words like wine, ripe, flowers, bloom, over a hundred years used to symbolize life’s realities?
5. What does this poem reveal about Korean character?
GROUP 3:
Shhh*
by Moon In-soo
I have been to his father’s funeral. He told me astory: he, who had passed his sixtieth year, heldhis father,
beyond 90 and helped him urinate.Even though life’s important controls had left the oldbody, his mind was still like a
lantern. Afraid that theold man might feel hopeless, he helped him, halfjoking and half playing the baby, saying “Father,
shhh,shhh, all right, all, right, you must feel good.”When heheld his father, it was as if he entered deep into thewhole
body. When he held his father like that asthough giving back to the body, how much might the old man have tried to
shrink himself to make himself smaller and lighter? His urine thread cut off frequently, but such a long thread that the son
again and again tried to tie it down to the earth pitifully, but the father with difficulty might sever it now. Shhh, Shhh!
The universe must be quiet.

*In Korean, this word refers to not only a way to make someone hush, but also is used as an onomatopoeia to help
children urinate.

1. How did you feel before, during, and after reading Shhh?
2. While reading, were you able to think about your own mother or father or even yourself when all of you would become
old? What scenario can you foresee?
3. Despite the challenges of modernity that all Afro – Asians have tried to cope with for many years, do you consider this
contemporary selection a good way of understanding the psyche (spirit) and the temperament (prevailing or
dominant quality of mind that characterizes someone) of the Koreans?

GROUP 4: The traditional poetry of a country takes several forms. Japan has the haiku;; the limerick originated in
England;; Italy produced the sonnet. In Korea, the sijo /’si – ho/ is a short lyric poem which sketches a picture, then tells
the effect of the scene on the beholder. Graeme Wilson, who lives in Hongkong, has published translations of Far Eastern
poetry. Some hundreds of his versions of sijo have been published throughout the English-speaking world.

Tree of Unhappiness
Kim Sang – yong (1592 – 1637)
(Translated by Graeme Wilson)

On broad leaves of pau-low-nia

The one and only tree
Whereon the phoenix will set foot
The rain falls heartlessly.

The rain’s sad tapping overhead

Compounds my weight of grief.
Who now could have the heart to plant
Trees of so broad a leaf?

http://www.google.com.ph/ imgres?q=pomegranates Trousset encyclopedia (1886 - 1891)

GROUP 5:
Pomegranates
Sin Hum (1566 – 1628)
(Translated by Graeme Wilson)

It rained last night,

The pomegranates
Red and orange-res
Have all burst into flower.

Not to be comfort,
I sit in this cool pavilion
Set in a lotus lake
And under its glass-bead curtains wait
For my closed heart to break.
GROUP 6:
Girl in the Rain
th
Anonymous (18 century)
(Translated by Graeme Wilson)

Her violet cloak clutched round her head,

As quickly as she can
She runs through rain-fall to the pear bloomed
Village and a man.

What blandishments, I wonder,

What whispers, what untrue
But wonderful promises
Have soaked that silly through.

http://weheartit.com/entry/22528897

PROCESS QUESTIONS for Group 4-6 poems:

1. Explain the underlined words. Then, answer the questions in complete sentences.
What blandishments does a mother use to make her five-year –old child stop crying? What blandishments does
a girl make to catch a boy’s attention?
What is the belief regarding the life and death of the phoenix? Why is it a symbol of immortality?
What is the local name of the pomegranate?
2. In “Girl in the Rain,” what is the girl doing? Why? In the last line, the word silly is a noun whose archaic meaning is
referred to. Refer to the glossary for the meaning of silly, then explain the last two lines of the poem.
3. In “Tree of Unhappiness”, the pau-low-nia is a Korean tree. What belief about the tree is mentioned in the poem? How
does the poet show that his grief is great? that it will last forever? What is implied in the last two lines of the
poem?
4. In Korea, the pomegranate is a symbol of happiness in love. What feeling is hinted at by the pomegranate being rained
on? The persona is sitting in the pavilion. How is he/she feeling?
5. From what you have heard others say, or from your own personal experience, what factors may cause unhappiness
between two young people in love?