The Korean Sijo with David McCann

The sijo is a three-line vernacular verse form, a counterpart to the Japanese haiku. The history of the sijo goes back to the 14th century and continues into the present, and like the haiku, it seems to be a form that works well in English. Our workshop will explore the background of the sijo, examine two or three “classic” texts, and listen to two examples of the sijo song, in traditional Korean style and also with ukulele accompaniment. David McCann will read some of his own sijo poems from the book Urban Temple, published by Bo Leaf Books in 2010 and then in a dual-language, Korean and English edition by Changbi Publishers in 2013. The last portion of our workshop will be writing sijo and then sharing the results.

This event is brought to you by the Center for the Study of Asia and the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, as part of International Education Week, a university-wide celebration of BU's global engagement.