始課

姜靜一堂

三十始課讀
於學迷西東
及今須努力
庶期古人同

Starting My Studies

by Gang Jeong-il-dang

My studies at the age of thirty start
To West and East confusion does unfold
If yet I should but strive with all my heart
May I yet emulate the sage of old.

#poetry #translation

Huh, turns out Jeong-il-dang's mother-in-law, a lady from the house of Cheonan Jeon, was also a renowned scholar and writer. Coincidence?? It seems the art name Jeong-il-dang itself was in part a tribute to her mother-in-law's art name Ji-il-dang (只一堂, House of the Sole One).

Gang Jeong-il-dang was 20 at the time of her marriage, fully old enough to display the qualities of quiet virtue and desire for learning that would eventually make her name, so it seems very plausible her future MIL selected her based on such traits. It was unlikely to have started out as a love match at any rate since Jeong-il-dang's husband was a boy of 14 when they married, though they turned out to be Perfectly Matched over the years.

So the bride was certainly well-chosen if Ji-il-dang's intent was to have an intellectual and literary daughter of the spirit to guide her son! Or maybe it was Jeong-il-dang who strove to emulate her husband's mother, starting with her art name. There are few remaining records or writings of Ji-il-dang other than her renown as a scholar/writer, but a very touching poetry exchange between mother- and daughter-in-law survives showcasing both the close relationship between the women and the difference in their poetic styles.

原韻

全只一堂

春來花正盛
歲去人漸老
歎息將何爲
只要一善道

Original verse [which became the basis of an answer]

by Jeon Ji-il-dang [Gang Jeong-il-dang's mother-in-law]

Though spring is here and flowers do abound
The passing years but age us day by day
What does it help to sigh and give lament?
I only seek to walk the one Good Way.

敬次尊姑只一堂韻

姜靜一堂

丁巳

下學須敦倫
慈幼且安老
直轡從此行
自是坦坦道

In respectful answer to my honored mother-in-law Ji-il-dang's verse

by Gang Jeong-il-dang on a Year of Red Snake*

A humble learning must needs build commune
Of care to young and old in day by day
Hold fast the reins to follow that straight path—
From there but wide and solid is the Way.

* This dates the poem to 1797 when Jeong-il-dang was 25 years old, five years into her marriage when she and her husband were living with Ji-il-dang. Fun fact, the next Year of Red Snake will be 2037, the first of this century.