와카(和歌)의 한국어역에 있어서 운율의 번역 단가(短歌)를 중심으로

Abstract

Waka poems usually have syllabic rules, whereby the words that form a verse of poem are arranged according to the number of syllables regardless of the pitch, rhythm, or dynamics in those syllables. This paper contains a careful consideration of the retention or loss of rhythm (and, by implication, meaning) in the Korean translation of a waka. The rhythms in Japanese poetry are syllabic meters based on the pentameter and heptameter, which are divided into the beat structures 5-7 and 7-5. Translation of the 5-7 beat structure is particularly challenging as it could create a rather awkward rhythm or lose stability resulting from a widening of the gap between the synthetic and phonetic meter. Furthermore, the faithful translation of the rhythmic beauty of original works containing harmonized synthetic and phonetic meters is only possible to a certain extent. The translation of Korean folk music is an exception in that the rhythmic patterns of the original lyrics were successfully converted by quoting a 7-5 beat structure. On the other hand, the melody of a waka is intended as a so-called Pa-Jo breaking rhythm, constructed by adding or subtracting the rhythmic numbers, based on 5-7 or 7-5. However, if the function of Pa-Jo is not given careful attention during the process of translation, the meaning will differ from that of the original work. This is because the rhythm is as much connected with the meaning as it is with the sound. Additionally, we might think that the syllabic rhythm of the waka should be transferred to 3-4 or 4 -4, which is the standard for lyrics of a sijo, i.e. a Korean ode poem. Even though the translation of the fixed syllabic rhythm of a waka is based on 5-7 and is therefore done literally, it is possible for this rhythm to have a natural flow. The translation would retain the fluid syllabic rhythm of a Korean ode poem, because of the variety of rhythmic meters and the flexibility of poetic transformation of Korean poems. That is, the direct translation of poetic rhythm should conjure feelings of familiarity rather than incompatibility and the effectiveness of the translation should be obvious.