A. A.Guryeva.Gasapoem «SangsaByeolgok»...
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be easily explained by the real opposition of Korean society: a woman’s
space is a house, and aman’s space is outside. This concept is reflected in
contemporaryKorean language in such expressions as “jip saram”
㰧㌂⧢
(namely “a house person”) meaning a wife and “bakkat saram”
₻G㌂
⧢G
(namely “an outside person”) standing for a husband. The association
“aroom-space-female”maybealso traced
10
through theNaturePhilosophical
conceptsofancientChinawhichwereborrowedbyKoreanswhere thefemale
element
蜭
yin
(Korean
eum
) is associatedwith dark and closed, secluded
space. A similar visionmay be found also in archaic concepts of Koreans
whosemythological cognition thatmadeacorrelationbetweensecludedand
discrete space and female
11
.
In thecasewhen the femalenarrator isoutside thehouse theouterspace
she is in is still discrete and cut out from the rest of theworld:
䂮㼧☯㎪G㼪Ⰲ♮㡂G
⧒⽊┞G㧊G㔖ἶ
Chi and cheok stretching to the east and to thewest,
Turn into hundreds of li.
If I take a look at it—my eyes tear.
ˎ
㌆㦖G㠊㧊GἶṲG㧝ἶG
ⶒ㧊G㠊㧊G㌂㧊G㰚ἶ
Why domountainsmake passes?
Why dowatersmakemarshes?
Or:
Ⱒ㼷㼻㌆G✺㠊Ṛ✺G
㠊│G㤆ⰂG⌃ῆ㧊G⋶G㹾㯞Ⰲ
㌆㦖G㼷㼷G䞮㟒GἶṲG♮ἶG
ⶒ㦖G䁯䁯G䦮⍞G㏢㧊G♲┺
But here I am— as if in the deepmountains in 10 000 layers.
Willmy beloved look forme?
Themountains layer on and on andmake passes,
Abrook flows andmakes amarsh.
10
We are grateful toAlexeyA.Vasiliev for pointingour attention to this connection.
11
NikitinaM. I.
DrevnyayaKoreiskayapoeziyav svyazi s ritualom Imifom. (Ancient
KoreanPoetry inRelationwithRitual andMyth).Moscow: “Nauka”, 1982.
