Sang-Bin LEE

10.18399/acta.2021.24.2.002

The Korean Singer of Tales "The Song of Shim Ch'ong " p’ansori translation song translation hemistich

P’ransori is a genre of Korean music that deals with epic storytelling and that dates from the eighteenth century. It was designated a National Intangible Cultural Property in 1964 and inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. Despite its stature as a national cultural symbol, however, P’ansori has not been a major research topic in translation studies. Against this background, the present study analyzes ch’ang 卩昌(song) in Marshall R. Pihl’s “The Song of Shim Ch’ŏng” (Sim Ch’ŏng ka 沈淸 歌)—one of the few English translations of a full p’ansori work – and shows how p’ansori can be enriched in translation. Specifically, I analyze the prosodic and stylistic features of ch’ang passages in the following areas: segmenting hemistichs for balanced rhythm, making vague phrases more singable, adjusting idiomatic expressions, establishing formal correspondence between the original and translated texts, trimming previous translations, incorporating a master singer’s version, and providing visual clues. This study concludes with a brief discussion of findings, limitations, and implications.