A century of loving silence

Manhae Han Yong-un (1879-1944) was a remarkable man. He was a Buddhist monk, a thinker, a radical reformer of Korean Buddhism, a poet, a novelist and a major figure in the struggle for Korean independence. He cared passionately about younger generations growing up in a rapidly changing land, deprived of its true identity. He was born on Aug. 29, 1879. On Aug. 29, 1910, Korea was officially annexed by Japan. On Aug. 29, 1926, Manhae published the collection of poems for which he is best remembered, "Nimui Chinmuk."

His birth name was Han Yu-cheon. In 1905, when he became a Buddhist monk, his meditation master gave him the name Yong-un (Dragon Cloud). Manhae (Ten thousand seas) was his pen-name.

People pay their respects to the late Manhae Han Yong-un, a Buddhist monk and poet, to mark the 82nd anniversary of his death at HW Convention Center in Jongno, Seoul, June 29. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his famed poem "Nimui Chinmuk." Yonhap

"Nimui Chinmuk" was published just 100 ago this year. Celebrations have been organized, but we might wonder how many Koreans today spend much time reading its 88 poems, written in a language which is far removed from the Korean spoken or written today. But those who grew up reading it in Korean language textbooks in school never quite forget the resonance the poem of same title evoked. On the centennial of its publication, Koreans have been trekking to his last residence in Seoul, Simwoojang, to remember the poem and the writer.

The house Manhae Han Yong-un built himself and lived in for the last 11 years before his death in Seongbuk District, Seoul. Courtesy of Korea Heritage Service

In terms of the history of modern Korean poetry, there is only one other poetry collection of poems of the period that is equally familiar to Koreans. Kim So-wol’s "Azaleas" was published just one year earlier in 1925, while Manhae was composing his volume of poems in the remote Baekdam Temple near Mount Seorak in Gangwon Province. Kim's poems are deeply rooted in traditional Korean forms and are relatively easy to read, although their many words of Classical Chinese origin make it more challenging for young Koreans, who often have very little familiarity with Chinese characters.

Manhae, too, wrote with a deep knowledge of the older "Sinitic" vocabulary. He composed nearly 40 poems in the "sijo" form, as well as numerous "hansi" written in Classical Chinese.

However, the poems in "Nimui Chinmuk" do not belong to those poetic traditions. Readers in 1926 must have been amazed by the lengthy, free-flowing lines of many of the poems, far from the short, condensed lines of traditional Korean poetry. The main explanation lies in the 1923 publication of a Korean translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s "Gitanjali" by Kim Eok (1896-1950), who had previously published Korea’s first modern book of translated Western poetry in 1921. But it was Tagore’s sensuous voice that spoke to Manhae, who was also aware of Tagore’s involvement in India’s ongoing quest for independence from Britain. Tagore provided insight into a god-centered vision of life and love which provoked an opposing atheistic vision in Manhae.

The first edition of Manhae Han Yong-un's "Nimui Chinmuk." Courtesy of Kobay Auction

Meaning "song offering," the "Gitanjali" explores devotion as its central theme. Tagore’s meditative verses blend echoes of medieval Indian devotional lyrics with themes of human love, exploring tensions between material desires and spiritual yearning.

The supreme reality for Tagore was the ever-present, transcendent divine. The Buddhist monk Manhae was engaged in a practice which denied that divine presence, with its essential Buddhist quest for silence, the Buddhist vision of ultimate non-being.

Yet Manhae was clearly a man of feeling and passion. Many have tried to identify a particular person in Manhae’s life who might have served to inspire the poems, which seem so close to human love poems. In vain — such thoughts only betray a failure to grasp Manhae’s true quest.

Manhae writes in his preface, "Nim is not only a human lover but everything yearned for. All beings are nim for the Buddha, and philosophy is the nim of Kant. The spring rain is nim for the rose, and Italy is the nim of Mazzini. Nim is what I love, but it also loves me. If romantic love is freedom, then so is my nim."

The verses of the poem "Nimui Chinmuk" is shown on the left page Courtesy of Kobay Auction

Any who try to translate "Nimui Chinmuk" into English stumble over the first word. There is no word in English that corresponds to the Korean "nim." To tell the truth, today’s Koreans too do not often use the word in the way Manhae used it.

I recently asked Claude AI to translate Manhae’s whole collection and put the result online. The title Claude proposed surprised me at first, but I suspect that it is a valid translation. It takes us back to Tagore’s “I am here to sing thee songs.” We cannot use thou/thee/thy today in English, so perhaps Claude’s suggestion has much to commend it: "Your Silence."

And what about that famous opening line? Claude translates it as, “You have gone. Oh, my beloved, you have gone. Breaking through the light of blue mountains, heading toward the grove of maple trees, walking down the narrow path, shaking off hesitation, you have gone.”

I like that. Perhaps Manhae would have liked it, too.

Brother Anthony came to Korea in 1980. He has published translations of poems by many modern Korean poets as well as several novels.