The Chinese quote preceding part IV of "Notes From the Divided Country" is from an 8th century Chinese poet, Li Po, who is widely recognized as one of the most important Chinese poets of all time. I originally wanted to analyze this quote and how it relates to the remaining section, but I found something interesting when I researched the quote.
"We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains." Translation by David Hinton
My reading of this quote as it relates to the chapter is that human life is not necessarily insignficant, but is inconstant. Nature remians, but people are mortal and nobody lives forever. This definitely makes sense with the earlier images of death and destruction during the Japanese occupation of Korea.
In "On Sparrows", Kim, while admiring the ocean, says "Now I am afraid my listening will erase all that is not you." (pg 56) While the message in this quotation is slightly different, we still this message of inconstancy, and that things can wash away with time.
Interestingly enough, I discovered an alternate translation by Sam Hamill
"We never tire of looking at each other -
Only the mountain and I."
I read this translation as the complete opposite: here we see a message of constancy and immortality. In "Levitations", Kim's great-aunt comes back from the dead to appear before her and explain that being dead is not easy. Aside from this brief passage, I admit that it was difficult to find other examples that support this alternate translation. In the end, the fact that there exists an alternate translation that has the potential to completely change the interpretation of the text is very interesting.
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