Bak Inro 朴仁老

summer 1605 · Seven years after the Imjin War ended, sent at forty-five to guard the sea off Busan again

They send this old, sick body to the navy, and in the summer of the year eulsa I come down to the eastern garrison. On ground so vital to the frontier, shall I sit idle because my sickness is deep? A long sword slung at my side, I make myself board the warship

늘고 병(病)든 몸을 주사(舟師)로 보ᄂᆡ실ᄉᆡ 을사 삼하(乙巳三夏)애 진동영(鎭東營) ᄂᆞ려오니 관방 중지(關防重地)예 병(病)이 깁다 안자실랴 일장검(一長劍) 비기 ᄎᆞ고 병선(兵船)에 구테 올나

"Seonsangtan" (Lament Aboard Ship), the opening, in Nogye jip

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1611 · The evening he went to borrow an ox for ploughing and came home without one

"I'll lend you the ox some time," he had said, offhandedly, and I took his house for a kind one. In the moonless dusk I hurried there, stumbling, and stood alone in the dark outside the tight-shut gate, and coughed a loud "ahem" for a long while, until: "Well, who is that?" "It is I, who have no shame."

쇼 ᄒᆞᆫ 젹 듀마 ᄒᆞ고 엄섬이 ᄒᆞᄂᆞᆫ 말삼 친절(親切)호라 너긴 집의 달 업슨 황혼(黃昏)의 허위허위 다라 가셔 구디 다ᄃᆞᆫ 문(門) 밧긔 어득히 혼자 서셔 큰 기ᄎᆞᆷ 아함이를 양구(良久)토록 ᄒᆞ온 후(後)에 어화 긔 뉘신고 염치(廉恥) 업산 ᄂᆡ옵노라

The gasa "Nuhangsa" (Song of a Poor Alley), Nogye jip, book 3

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