Sijo: Korea's Answer to Haiku?

Professor David McCann wants an ancient form of Korean poetry to catch on the way haiku has.

Haiku is downright famous in the United States; American schoolchildren commonly learn its 5-7-5 syllable pattern. But for some reason, sijo, an ancient Korean poetry form with three lines of 14 or 15 syllables each, hasn't caught on the same way.

David McCann, Korea Foundation professor of Korean literature and director of Harvard's Korea Institute, wants to change that. As described in the June 30 Boston Globe, McCann is mounting a campaign to popularize sijo (pronounced shee-jo) that includes a nationwide contest for schoolchildren and creation of an online sijo journal in English. (The article page also features a lively audio interview with McCann, in which he explains sijo and then demonstrates how it was traditionally sung.)

The campaign also includes a sijo contest; enter through Friday (July 3) at https://www.boston.com/living.

The Globe article includes two samples, including this one that McCann, who first encountered sijo as a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea in the late 1960s, wrote in English at Charlie's Kitchen in Harvard Square two years ago:

All through lunch, from my table, I keep an eye on your disputes,

Green lobsters in the bubbling tank by the restaurant door.

Slights, fights, bites—whatever the cause, make peace and flee, escape with me!

and this one from the fourteenth century:

The spring breeze melted snow on the hills then quickly disappeared.

I wish I could borrow it briefly to blow over my hair

And melt away the aging frost forming now about my ears.

See McCann's faculty webpage for more information about him, including the courses he teaches.

You might also like

Off the Shelf

The wealth gap, shamanism, the life of David Nathan, and more

Making Money Funny

Matt Levine’s spunky Bloomberg column

Reconstructing the Berlin Wall

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

Most popular

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Remembering Tom Lehrer

The mathematician and satirist kept Harvard in his thoughts—and lyrics

Harvard Layoffs Continue, with More to Come

In the wake of federal government actions, several Harvard schools and institutes are cutting costs.

Explore More From Current Issue

A woman and a horse jump off a large platform into water

Scrapbooking a woman who rode horses into the sea

group of people with camera equipment above the fjords in Iceland

Filmmaker John Armstrong’s “outdoor adventures” find the human spirit.

An illustration of a green leaf being hit by a beam of light and bouncing off the leaf and then becoming a color prisim

Light-based analysis of botanical collections link plants to Earth’s changing climate.