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My pony and I

My pony and I go to Songdo,
where Koryo reigned five hundred years.

The landscape seems unchanged,
but those great leaders I knew are gone.

Only a dream they seem now,
those days of peace and glory.






Notes


Poem Origin: Korea, about 1418
Poem translation © 2005 by Dr. Larry Gross
This translation is not in the public domain.

Kil was a noble and a scholar in the latter days of the Koryo dynasty, After several years of conflict, a general, Yi Songgye, toppled the regime and took the name of King Taejo in the newly founded Choson dynasty (1392-1910).  The Koryo dynasty had ruled for about 500 years from their capital, Songdo (present-day Kaesong), but Taejo moved the government to Seoul.  Kil had been a high government official under the Koryo, but resigned rather than take a position under the new ruler. He spent the rest of his life as a recluse. Near the end of his life, Kil made a long journey  to revisit the old capital; this sijo is the result of that trip.

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Comments

  • Young Black Woman
    September 1, 2005
    Edit | Reply
    Wow this is a really good poem and I am glad to be one of the first ppl to comment on it.....you seem to know a lot on this subject so I have to give you your props....

    Love the one and only never phony,

    xXHotnSexyMamaXx