Flamenco in Emails, morning dew

  2. Morning Dew

 

 

Through the period between the 1970's and the 1980's 

when South Korea was put under the rule of a military regime.

During this hard time of darkness and turmoil ,

youths would express their feeling of oppression and 

resist against the dictatorial govement by singing Morning Dew 

in chorus

 

 'Morning dew'

 

Seeing the long night out
forming twinkling morning dew

prettier than pearl

on every blade of grasses.

when the sorrow in my mind
is forming kernels of itself 

drop by drop
like morning dew ,

I climb the mound in the morning
and learn to smile a little smile.

With the sun up right
on the grave
flaming red and fierce
the midday's suffocating heat
is to me a bitter ordeal

Now I go forward
to the harsh wildness
all the sorrows cleared off.
Now I  go forward. 

 

 

 

Portland, July, 2001

 Dear Lau:
buenos dias.
Charls Lamb once insisted that the healthy are inclined

to envy the convalescent with the latter's faces

turning remarkablly more beautiful than before.

The essayist said it is because the pain of illness

let them have their eyes getting purer .

I imagine that you would now startle in front of the mirror

at your smiling face, quieter and more brilliant .

Be happy meeting your dawn of convalescence  !

See you
Gohk
      

 

 

 

July 2001

 

Hi Gohk,

 I am feeling much better now after much rest and medication! 

I had many classes today with children and with adults--

I love to see children experience flamenco,

something that is so far from our culture.

I hope that you will come to class soon again. 

Your words are always so inspiring--

how I wish I had more time to write,

but I suppose that I am grateful to be able to express

myself through flamenco so many hours every day.  

 

Un abrazo fuerte y hasta pronto!

Lau

 

 

 

 

 

July  2001

 Lau!

 In relation with my idea emailed to you yesterday,

I am eager to know whether the song Morning Dews

can be arranged for the guitar and lau's dancing.

Is it possible for the song to be included in
the repertoire of your Sept.15 performance? 

This will be a surprisingly unexpected suggestion to you.

 

 In a sense, I don't want this suggestion to be burdensome

to Lau. Please forget it, if possibly so. And think that

it is no more than just a daydream of an idle traveller. 

Then he believes that this could be a great chance.

Now most Koreans are ignorant of flamenco,

so they may be indifferent to flamenco and even more to Lau,

a bailaora. However, if the song of Morning Dew were to be

danced on the flamenco stage, the situation would be changed.

You and flamenco would be an important news source.

To be sure, at the sight of you dancing the song most Korean

audience would come to be interested in flamenco.

 

I wish that this suggestion would not bother Lau. 
Gohk

 

 

 

 

July 2001

 Hi ,Gohk! 

Tomorrow I drive to Seattle to dance

with the others who will perform in September. 

I will ask them what they think!    

Would you sing or would the flamenco singer sing? 

 Nice to see you, as always. 

 

Un abrazo,

 Lau

 

 

 

 

 

July  2001

 Dear Lau

 Great!

 Which one, do you think, will be more attracting?

Sung by flamenco singer in Spanish or by myself in Korean? 

Or sung by singer and next I follow him(or her)?

Oh, I could sing it (though I am not a singer) to Lau's dancing!

It would be the most surprising .

 

In this regard this evening  contacting by phone

an editorial writer of  the branch office of Korea Times 

in LA  to inform of ' Aire 'performance, I asked him ,

"how about sending a reporter on that day here

to cover up your dancing to Morning Dews. I advised him

that it would be a creative fusion of two different types

of cultures, that is,Spanish culture and Korean one !

 

The copy of the song's musical score will be available

within the end of July. Now It is one month and half

before your performance,

 

 Heart-fluttered with excitement and getting elated

 un abrazo!

 Gohk

 

 

 

July 2001

Hi Gohk: 

Here is the reply from the singer.  

She can either sing it to the same tune as you, or she can

adapt the words to the tune of the flamenco form Soleares. 

She would like to know more about the origins and history

of the song, as you will see below. 

Hope you are well and see you soon! 

 

Un abrazo muy fuerte! 

Lau

 

<<< to Lau from Rubi:

I've been listening to the song, and I've translated it into Spanish. 

I think that the Korean words must be more compact than

either the English or the Spanish, as the lines to the song

appear short for the syllabication I would need in Spanish. 

The song sounds almost western in it's tonalities--

almost like a hymn.  It is very heroic.  I would like to know

more about the origins of the song and its lyrics. 

Below is my translation:

Viendo pasar la larga noche
Formandose en cada hoja de hierba
Mas bonita que perla ninguna
O rocio brillante la la manana.

Cuando mi pena se forma en lagrimas
Gota a gota, como el rocio
Voy trepando la colina de la manana
Y voy aprendiendo a sonreir un poquito.

Con el sol arriba
Encima de la sepultura
Rojo y feroz, en sus llamas
El calor sofocante del mediodia
Es para mi un amargo calvario

Ahora tengo que seguir adelante
a aquel desierto duro
Despejado de penas
Ahora sigo adelante.

Perhaps I could sing through the melody twice,

with the same number of words! 

Or, I could adapt it to a soleares.....>>>

 

 

 

July 2001

Hi, Lau!
 Flamenco artists are said to have a gift of improvisation for it.

 Pls advise Rub to follow her own imagination. Sure. She is right

in that the tune of the song sounds western. For it  was composed

by a Korean musician and intellectual familiar to western culture.

 

See you

 Gohk

 

 

 

July 2001

 

Dear Lau

 In relation with the origin of the song, I think that

it much helpful for you as well as Rub to read another

Korean poem of resistance in another period, that is, 

20 years earlier than that of Morning Dew.

You can see the raw translation of it below:

<as pure and pretty as the petals of a begonia>
  - before the spirit of the deceased boys-

On the main street
from the NansungDong policestand

 

toward the City Hall
or
on the main street
from the NamsungDong policestand

 

toward NorthMasan policestand,
did you see ......the scattered blooddrops
as pure and pretty as the petals of a begonia
on March 15, 1960

Did you see......the place which the countless bullets have
gone past to through your eardrum under cover of darkness,
on the main street
from the NamsungDong policestand

 

toward the City Hall
or
On the main street
from the NamsungDong police stand

 

toward the NorthMasan policestand
the raging billows of outcrying
on the flow,
connected and cut off,
did you see .....their boyish looks
as pure and pretty as the petals of a begonia >>>
     
At dawn 
Gohk

 

 

 

Portland, Aug. 2001

 

Dear Tom

 

 Re Morning Dew to be a flamenco piece of Aire.

Fyi ,I positively suggested to Lau in a email sent to her,
"How about dancing Morning Dew to the rhythm of flamenco guitar?".

And she and Rub accepted it. She already has known the music well,

for she was moved  to tears  by the song the other day.

Gohk