양주동의 번역문학과 향가 인식

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reveal the relationship between Yang Joo-dong’s perception of hyangga and his interpretation of its English counterparts. Yang Joo-dong provided commentary on the body of 19th- and 20th-century English poetry and translated over 1,000 English poems into Korean. He was especially interested in the religious poetry of T.S. Eliot. Since hyangga were also religious poems, the experience of translating Eliot's work into Korean would have formed the basis of Yang Joo-dong’s interpretation of poetry. Yang Joo-dong's translations are still used in research and education because his renderings read well as poetry and remain faithful to lyricism. He went beyond simply deciphering hyangga to the level of translating them so they could be read as literary works. No matter how high-minded the religion in hyangga was, it would be impossible for us to understand the superiority of today's philosopher if Yang Joo-dong did not have a deep understanding of the poetry of religion. Eliot had deep insight into two religions, one western and the other eastern: Christianity and Buddhism. He explored religious topics such as joy through despair and resurrection through martyrdom and death through various poems and literary reviews. In addition to classifying the lower genres of religious poetry, he also attempted to create an innovative approach to the concept of tradition. Eliot considered tradition not to be limited to his own country and Europe, but to encompass all of world culture. This idea led Yang Joo-dong to place value on the Asian tradition in world literature. The myths and epics that appeared in Eliot's poems became clues for understanding the background of. This meant that Yang Joo-dong’s perception of hyangga was closely related to the experience of translation in religion.