Untamed
Untamed
Prologue
Spirit, form the Koryo Dynasty, enters. Plays Buk & dances: cleansing the space. Exits (5 min.)
I. Facing the Past
Flowering Tree / 꽃나무 On an open field a flowering tree stands with no other like it nearby the flowering tree blossoms with a burning heart as if thinking of another flowering tree burns its heart. The flowering tree cannot reach the tree flowering in its thoughts I wildly fled for the sake of one flowering tree I truly did such weird mimicry.
벌판한복판에 꽃나무하나가있소. 근처(近處)에는꽃나무가하나도없소. 꽃나무는제가생각하는꽃나무를 열심(熱心)으로생각하는것처럼 열심으로꽃을피워가지고섰소. 꽃나무는제가생각하는꽃나무에게갈수없소. 나는막달아났소. 한꽃나무를위(爲)하여 그러는것처럼 나는참그런이상스러운흉내를내었소. (Yi Sang Translated from the Korean by Jack Jung.)
Wild plays various weird imitations: pontification man / elder / pregnant woman / mother ... discovering buk - rides buk to ecstasy … survives a flood from the haunting past …
When I dug the ground for history, I took out a big stone, and it looked as if I was somewhere, but the shepherds took it and drove it away, so I chased it out, and it was a dangerous road. I had a lot of it that night, so I was going to wash it clean, but on the other day, I didn't go. What kind of person came and took the stone? I made the same writing from this kind of thought. You, the one I loved so much, I can't forget you all my life. Even though I know that I love nails in my own, I will keep thinking about it. You look pretty all the time." It's like a person squashed my face, so I don't want to tear it away.
이런 시
역사를하노라고 땅을파다가 커다란돌을하나끄집어내어놓고보니도무지어디서인가 본듯한생각이들게 모양이생겼는데 목도들이 그것을메고나가더니 어디다갖다버리고온모양이길래 쫓아나가보니위험하기짝이없는큰길가더라. 그날밤에 한소나기하였으니 필시그돌이깨끗이씻꼈을터인데 그이틀날가보니까 변괴로다 간데온데없더라.어떤돌이와서 그돌을업어갔을까 나는 참이런처량한생각에서아래와같은작문 을지었다.「내가 그다지 사랑하던 그대여 내한평생에 차마 그대를 잊을수없소이다.내차례에 못을사랑인줄은 알면서도 나혼자는꾸준히생각하리라. 자그러면 내내어여쁘소서」어떤돌이 내얼굴을 물끄러미 치어다보는것만같아서 이런시는 그만찢어버리고싶더라.
(10 minutes)
II. Stealing
Wild remembers and plays out a specific childhood moment from the past …
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Text: Yi Sang 04
I was always planning on stealing
If not, at least it was begging.
The small is the opposite of the subtle, and
The ordinary was the opposite of the extraordinary
My nerves wanted a virgin more virtuous than a whore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wild whipping head
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Text: Yi Sang Who are you
Who are you Who knocks at the door shouting to open the door even without looking for me. Although I don't know you, I can't bear to leave you. I try to open the door. The door is locked not only from the inside but also from the outside, that which you don't even know. If I open the door from the inside, what is it for? Who are you, who dare to be born at the closed door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stumbles to submission sings Song Blue Bird.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blue Bird
flapping bird
I like the blue sky
I flew high
why did you grab the wings
Even if I want to fly
can't fly
Even if I want to cry
A bird that can't cry
unfinished love
an unfulfilled promise
I feel sorry for my unfinished youth
The blue bird will cry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wild returns to Buk cries out.
Spirit returns. Frightened Wild hides disappearing into the scrim.
Spirit dances. Wild drawn out as Spirit exits
(15 min.)
III. Mortal Man
Wild emerging from scrim plays game of hide & seek.
Returns to Buk performs planting ritual with water & paper face.
(10 min.)
Epilogue
Wild pulls cloth over the space. Exits,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Text: W.B. Yeats
Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven
Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths
Enwrought with golden and silver light
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (3 min.)
End. (43 min.)
Notes:
1. Texts by Yi Sang & W.B. Yeats are used as fragments and placed throughout the action in divergent and different contexts
2. Wild’s actions are blotted in places with incomprehension.
Where the dream grows she kept only to herself,
Her dry lips, a soft joy, the deep white path,
She will love more than herself —
these are where the dream blurs
3. Materials: Buk, gong, white face mask, sheer white hanging scrim, long sheer white fabric & long shimmering pale gold fabric.
4. Costume: rehearsal skirt with black & white top, socks, white dress.
5. The sky, earth & flowering tree sound. Live music.
6. Sometimes a true story becomes a fable as you walk the words.
“The murmur of an inner voice evokes the untamed beauty of a land to be discovered, a space to drink in with all our being, it’s breath to be woven into the days and nights to come. Suddenly we’re happy.”
(from Blue Bear Woman - Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau trans. Susa ouriou & Christelle Morelli)
A work that approaches a poem rather than a story
But there is a story… The untamed, perhaps even called the 'soul', sets out in search of the past. Leaving Korea alone, Wild, wanders the horizons of foreign countries, new horizons of perspective and perception.
I cry out with all my strength to release the haziness that the wounds of the old past have lingered, and to threaten the still bitter pain.
In early autumn, when you return to Seoul, which you called your hometown, and face those times, what did Korea mean at that time? And what does it mean now?
The round moon of harvest beckons me before winter dreams.
Tread lightly, I will not stop this journey ...
::Note:: ... a work in progress ... edits may appear as time goes on ...
Some audience responses:
One-line impression of the performance: Wonderful!
I went there because my college junior was doing her first performance after returning home.
When she was in college, I loved her shining like a star. A researcher, professor, and true theater artist who learned, taught and researched for 25 years in Europe and the Americas.
After all that, I thought the artist is great.
When she appeared in her white cloth, I thought the college student girl, her round, bright sparkling eyes would appear in front of me. What appeared was an old man born anew. I was surprised she looked so much older than when we lived together for a month when she came to prepare her doctoral thesis.
But Jesus, it was because she was playing characters in a play. From an old woman without makeup to a bird, to a woman more enchanting than a peasant, to a divine shaman, to something else beyond - a free spirit. Can I say that the cry and resonance of her soul were shown through a body which was nothing more than a shell? Her eyes were astonishing, like the lions of the night seen in the Serengeti. The overwhelming feeling of being an old soul from the future pulling out the spirit of a previous life of an animal from the distant past. The power to dominate the stage alone. I shuddered for a moment as she seemed to be engulfed in the energy.
From Yi Sang’s poems to the song "Bird", which is probably also a poem, a strange structure developed in which the various texts to even a nursery rhyme somehow unexpectedly connected and a story was created. It was intense. It was wonderful.
After the performance, she returned to the girl-like Ae-ran I knew, not the grinning old woman. How was it? I was relieved when asked. She didn't give herself to the old woman!
it was a sunday afternoon
Among the old, low-roofed industrialist buildings a small sign
#Weekend Theater placed under the stairs like a small nest
A performance by AeRan Jeong
untamed, untamed...
After living abroad for 25 years, her gestures, facial expressions, and voice sound like a bird waking up in the wilderness, a sad deer, a wolf, a girl, a bewitching woman, an old man who tasted bitter and sweet water. It was like dripping tears, but returned to the innocence that permeates the white cloth again, and it made my heart pound as if I had put a heavy, heavy bond in my heart as a silent sister.
untamed, seemingly
The restrained self of time and space, the footprints of a long departure
You’re so small, you’re sublimated on a darkened stage
Like white flames and ashes.
I woke up, this October autumn, to the alleys of industrial history of Mullae-dong - hip and untamed!
AeRan
It would have been a waste if I missed it.
I was surprised that Yi Sang’s poems have such a meaning... how the meanings and feelings of a poem can be so different depending on how you read it.
Of course, how can I express - so many emotions. It was painful and sad. Tears are coming out …Thanks to your performance the lump in my chest that has been clogged up for a while is flowing down little by little.
I've been working hard all this time.
And it was nice to see the traditional Martial Art Gicheon after such a long time!
I, too, practiced that art form
길들여지지 않은 Untamed Korean Text
이런 시
역사를하노라고 땅을파다가 커다란돌을하나끄집어내어놓고보니도무지어디서인가 본듯한생각이들게 모양이생겼는데 목도들이 그것을메고나가더니 어디다갖다버리고온모양이길래 쫓아나가보니위험하기짝이없는 큰길가더라. 그날밤에 한소나기하였으니 필시그돌이깨끗이씻꼈을터인데 그이틀날가보니까 변괴로다 간데온데없더라.어떤돌이와서 그돌을업어갔을까 나는 참이런처량한생각에서아래와같은작문 을지었다.「내가 그다지 사랑하던 그대여 내한평생에 차마 그대를 잊을수없소이다.내차례에 못을사랑인줄은 알면서도 나혼자 는꾸준히생각하리라. 자그러면 내내어여쁘소서」어떤돌이 내얼굴을 물끄러미 치어다보는것만같아서 이런시 는 그만찢어버리고싶더라.
When I dug the ground for history, I took out a big stone, and it looked as if I was somewhere, but the shepherds took it and drove it away, so I chased it out, and it was a dangerous road. I had a lot of it that night, so I was going to wash it clean, but on the other day, I didn't go. What kind of person came and took the stone? I made the same writing from this kind of thought. You, the one I loved so much, I can't forget you all my life. Even though I know that I love nails in my own, I will keep thinking about it. You look pretty all the time." It's like a person squashed my face, so I don't want to tear it away.
04
언제나도둑질할것만을계획하고있었다
그렇지는아니하였다고한다면적어도구걸이기는하였다
소한것은밀한것의상대이며또한
평범한것은비범한것의상대이었다
나의신경은창녀보다도더욱정숙한처녀를원하고있었다
04
I was always planning on stealing
If not, at least it was begging.
The small is the opposite of the subtle, and
The ordinary was the opposite of the extraordinary
My nerves wanted a virgin more virtuous than a whore.
너는누구냐/
그러나문(門)밖에와서문(門)을두다리며/문(門)을열라고외치니/
나를찾는일심(一心)이 아니고/
또내가너를도무지모른다고한들/
나는차마그대로내어버려둘수는없어서/ 문(門)을열어주려하나/
문(門)은안으로만고리가걸린것이아니라/
밖으로도/
너는모르게 잠겨있으니/
안에서만열어주면/
무엇을하느냐/
너는누구기에/
구태여 닫힌문(門)앞에탄생(誕生)하였느냐
Who the hell are you/
But they came outside the door and waited for the door / shouted to open the door /
It's not the one heart that is looking for me/
And those who said I didn't know you/
I can't leave it alone, so you want to open the door/
The door is not only hooked on the inside,
out of/
Because you are secretly locked
If you only open it inside
what do you do/
who are you/
Were you born in front of a closed door?
Who are you
Who knocks at the door shouting to open the door even without looking for me. Although I don't know you, I can't bear to leave you. I try to open the door. The door is locked not only from the inside but also from the outside, that which you don't even know. If I open the door from the inside, what is it for? Who are you, who dare to be born at the
closed door.
Song: 파랑새
퍼덕퍼덕 거리는 새
푸른 하늘 좋다고
높이 높이 날더니
왜 날개 잡았을까
퍼덕퍼덕 날고 싶어도
날 수가 없네
울고 싶어도
울 수가 없는 새야
못다한 사랑이
못다 이룬 약속이
못다한 청춘이 애달퍼
파랑새는 울어예으리
Blue Bird
flapping bird
I like the blue sky
I flew high
why did you grab the wings
Even if I want to fly
can't fly
Even if I want to cry
A bird that can't cry
unfinished love
an unfulfilled promise
I feel sorry for my unfinished youth
The blue bird will cry
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven(천상의 천) /
예이츠 William Butler Yeats
내게 금빛과 은빛으로 짠
천상의 천이 있다면,
어둠과 빛과 어스름으로 수놓은
푸르고 희뿌연 검은 천이 있다면,
그대 발 밑에 펼쳐드리련만
나는 가난하여 가진 것 오직 꿈뿐이라
내 꿈을 그대 발 밑에 깔아드리니
사뿐히 밟으소서, 그대 밟는 것 내 꿈이오니
Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths
Enwrought with golden and silver light
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
<길들여지지 않은 untamed>
: 이야기가 아닌 시로 다가가는 작품
그러나 이야기도 있다… 길들지 않은 이, 어쩌면 ‘영혼’이라고 부를 수도 있는 이가 과거를 찾아 나선다. 길들여지지 않은 채, 홀로 한국을 떠나 이국의 지평, 새로운 시야와 인식의 지평을 배회하다.
오래된 과거의 상처가 머물렀던 몽롱함을 해방하고, 아직 쓰라린 고통을 위협하기 위하여 있는 힘껏 입술로 부르짖는다.
초가을, 고향이라고 불렀던 서울로 돌아와 그 시절을 마주하니 그때의 한국은 어떤 의미였을까? 그리고 이제는 무슨 의미인가?
수확기의 둥근 달은 겨울 꿈보다 먼저 나에게 손짓한다.
사뿐히 밟으소서, 나는 이 여행을 멈추지 않을 터이니…
