The sijo is a Korean verse form that developed in
the 13th and 14th centuries, toward the end of the
Kory˘o period (935–1392), although it did not
reach the peak of its development until the 16thcentury
emergence of major poets in the genre like
Ch˘ong Ch’˘ol. Previously, there was a distinction
between the poetic forms used by aristocratic writers
and those used by common people, but the sijo
came to be used by all classes. The sijo has dominated
Korean poetry since the late medieval period,
somewhat as the TANKA form did in
Japan—and like the tanka, its ultimate roots are
probably in Chinese poetry. Still practiced in
Korea, and imitated by poets in other languages,
the sijo is probably Korea’s most important contribution
to world literature.
The term sijo means “melody of the times.”
These poems were originally sung or chanted,
probably to a well-known tune and with instrumental
accompaniment. Thus the poems were
originally part of performances, and were either
memorized or composed spontaneously by the
singer. Early sijo were not recorded in written form
until the 18th century, and the music has been lost.
Still, the basic conventions of the sijo are clear from
the beginning.
A complex verse form, the conventional sijo has
three lines. Each line contains four phrases or
groups of syllables. In each of the first two lines,
the first phrase was made up of three syllables, the
second of four, the third of either three or four syllables,
and the last phrase of four syllables. Thus
each of the first two lines might contain 14 or 15
syllables. The third line of the poem more strictly
included phrases of three, five, four, and three syllables.
Thus the entire poem comprised from 43
to 45 syllables, and there was a natural break in the
poem after the first and the middle lines. Because
of the groups of syllables within the lines, there
was also a lesser break after the second phrase of
each line (thus translations of Korean sijo are often
printed as six lines).
Typically the first line of the sijo will introduce
a theme, while the second line will develop or will
counter that theme in what is sometimes called a
“turn.” The third line provides a resolution of the
tensions introduced in the first two lines, or it introduces
a judgment or a paradox, or a contrasting
theme. Thus the third line gives the sijo a twist
that provides a strong conclusion for the poem.
This twist may take the form of a surprising twist
of phrasing or of sound or tone, rather than simply
of meaning—and such effects are very difficult to
translate, but generally are the demonstration of
the poet’s genius and originality.
An early example of a sijo is the following late
medieval poem by Hwang H˘ui (1363–1452). Like
most classic sijo, it is untitled:
Spring has come to a country village;
How much there is to be done!
I knit a net and
A servant tills the fields and sows:
But who will pluck the sweet herbs
That grow on the back-hill?
(Lee 1994, 774)
Here the theme of spring introduced in line one
(translated here as the first two lines) is developed
with concrete images of specific tasks in the second
line, while the twist at the end introduces a task that
may be overlooked, and one that smacks less of frenetic
activity than leisurely enjoyment of nature.
While sijo might be written on a broad range of
subjects, nature and love are by far the most common
themes, as they are with Japanese tanka. Korean
poets, occupying a kind of central ground
between the more powerful Chinese and Japanese,
make use of both Buddhism and Confucianism in
their poems.
Bibliography
Hungguyu, Kim. Understanding Korean Literature.
Translated by Robert J. Fouser. New Studies in
Asian Culture. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharp, 1997.
Kim, Kichung. An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature:
From Hyangga to P’ansori. New Studies in
Asian Culture. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharp, 1996.
Lee, Peter H., trans. Anthology of Korean Literature:
From Early Times to the Nineteenth Century. Honolulu:
University Press of Hawaii, 1981. Reprint
in The HarperCollins World Reader: Antiquity to
the Early Modern World, edited by Mary Ann Caws
and Christopher Prendergast. Vol. 1. New York:
HarperCollins, 1994, 774.
———, ed. The Columbia Anthology of Traditional
Korean Poetry. New York: Columbia University
Press, 2002.
McCann, David R. Early Korean Literature: Selections
and Introductions. New York: Columbia University
Press, 2000.