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  • Introduction
  • Yoon Jeong Oh (bio)

Kim Saryang (1914–1950?) is a bilingual writer from colonial Korea, but to most English readers he is best known as a pioneering figure of zainichi literature. In 1940, he was the first Korean nominated for the Akutagawa Prize for his short story, "Into the Light" ("Hikari no naka ni"). Since then, scholars have chiefly addressed his Japanese works in terms of their themes of estrangement and ethnic identity. Only a few of his Japanese texts have been translated into English. "Chigimi" is the first to be translated into English from Korean and thus will introduce the reader to Kim's bilingual literature; notably, it is one of the works that Kim later adapted into a Japanese version. First published in the Korean literary magazine Samch'olli in April 1941, "Chigimi" was rewritten in Japanese as "Mushi" ("A Swarm of Insects") and published in Shinchō in July 1941. Other works that were originally written and published in Korean and then translated or adapted into Japanese include his 1941 story, "Yuch'ijang esŏ mannan sanai" ("The Man I Met in Prison") and "Q hakushaku" ("Count Q," 1942); "San'ga se sigan" ("Three Hours at the Mountain House," 1940) and "Hidenchitai o iku" ("Going to the Fire-Fields," 1941); "Pukkyŏng wangnae" ("Beijing Street," 1939) and "Enameru kutsu no horyo" ("The Prisoner with the Enamel Shoes," 1939); and "Milhang" ("Smuggling," 1939) and [End Page 367] "Genkai nada mikkō" ("Smuggling Through the Genkai Sea," 1940). One should avoid claiming any authenticity or originality of the Korean language as opposed to Japanese in Kim's writings, but it is significant to examine closely Kim's bilingual practice because it is consistent with his commitment to the translation of Korean works for a possible non-national literature under the Japanese Empire.1

"Chigimi" shows untranslatable aspects of Korean that paradoxically stress the indispensability of the language. The titular character in "Chigimi" is a lonely opium addict named after the sound of his meaningless, habitual mumbling, as in "chigimichigimichigimi." It is a kind of idiomatic interjectory that sounds as if it were modified from a Korean dialect. Due to the uncertainly in meaning and origin, the word chigimi remains untranslated; yet, precisely due to the assumed familiarity of nuance attached to this nonsensical word, the name "Chigimi" speaks volumes about the character who lives in Japan as a lonely, destitute Korean. An old opium addict trying to take care of the tough Korean stevedores on the Shibaura coast at the edge of Tokyo Bay makes no sense to the hard laborers there, so the senseless mumble, chigimi, replaces his own name to the extent that the man himself no longer remembers his real name. The loneliness of the character resonates with his solemn efforts to prove the indispensability of his aimless being. Interestingly, in the Japanese version, "Mushi," Kim Saryang mentions how Japanese people living in colonial Korea often use the creolized word, chiebari, that is possibly related to an original form of chigimi.2 Making this connection, Kim reveals [End Page 368] the realm of language and existence that cannot be simply ignored through standardization or nationalization.

Narrated by another lonely character who finds Chigimi a special companion, "Chigimi" is written in short and unruly sentences often mixed with Japanese words. The narrator is also a poor man going around selling rags but is nevertheless an aspiring artist who claims to have left his home with great ambitions. Since the narrator identifies himself as an art student and "no speaker" (mal chaeju ka ŏmnŭn), I tried to revive the blunt unruliness in translation as much as possible, rather than smoothing it out in plain English. All the Japanese words used directly in Korean transliteration are also left untranslated to show the linguistic reality of Koreans living in Japan. Moreover, Kim intentionally spells the words spoken by Koreans differently in his Japanese works to show that they are Koreans speaking Japanese. For example, in the Japanese version, "Mushi," Kim marks Chigimi's way of saying the Japanese words "okiro" (meaning "get up") or "jikan" (meaning "time") by changing the consonants to voiced sounds (dakuon) with additional accents or hurigana, as...

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