(Translation) 2019 朴赫居世

장서각위키
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Original Script

“…髙墟村長蘇伐公, 望楊山麓, 蘿井傍林間, 有馬跪而嘶. 則徃觀之, 忽不見馬, 只有大卵, 剖之, 有嬰兒出焉. 則收而養之, 及年十餘歳, 岐嶷然夙成. 六部人以其生神異, 推尊之, 至是立爲君焉. 辰人謂瓠爲朴, 以初大卵如瓠, 故以朴爲姓. 居西干辰言王…” 《三國史記. 新羅本紀》


Translation

Student Translation : Olga


...Master Sobŏl, chief of Kohǒ village, was looking over the foot of Yangsan mountain. In the forest beside Najǒng [village] there was a horse [which was] kneeling and neighing. Then [he] went to look [at] it. Suddenly, there was no horse, only a big egg. [He] cut it. A baby came out of it. Then [he] took [the baby] and raised it. [When the baby] reached about 10 years of age, [he] was prodigious and matured early. His birth being mysterious and extraordinary, the people of six villages respected and promoted him. [They] set him as a king there.

The people of Chin[han] called gourds pak. At the beginning [he was found in/came out of] a big egg similar to gourd. So [they] took Pak as [his] surname. The word for king [in Chinhan language] is kǒsǒgan...


  • Discussion Questions:

1. I have added quite a lot of inserts in [] to this texts compared to other translations because I felt that when translated the text does not read clearly. Please, do not hesitate to suggest other ways to translate it with less inserts (they might be a bit to excessive now) or with more neutral ones.
(YO) I think it is a good practice when making a draft translation and one can polish it afterwards. I usually leave parts that are obviously required in English grammar, such as the "he" in "[he] was prodigious and matured early" above. I would perhaps add [ ] for parts that is not clear from the sentence but understood from the context (e.g., "[When the baby] reached about 10 years of age," as you did above.

2. One of the inserts I made, Chin[han], particularly interests me. Should we add han here to clarify which group of people the text is referring to?
(YO) I'd say yes. Chin by itself may have multiple referents, especially when its Chinese character is not given. One may even wonder if it is a Chinese or Korean people. Chinhan would give a little more information to narrow it down.

3. Should we call Najǒng a village? Should we just leave a name? Or call it Na village?
(YO) Najŏng is a place name as it is. It might have been a specific place/building rather than a village. Historians had assumed that it was a well (井) but an excavation research revealed that it might have been more than a well, perhaps an octagonal building. See http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0002839.

(YO) A couple of translation points:
-則徃觀之, 忽不見馬, 只有大卵: Then he went to see it but didn't find it--only, there was a large egg [instead]. (To make it more literal)
-十餘: (lit.) ten with excess, i.e., more than ten/ over ten
-居西干辰言王: Kǒsǒgan is the word for king in Chinhan language