Paying a tribute to genius artists

A couple under the moonlight. It doesn't matter if the woman is either a gisaeng or an ordinary girl. What is timeless is people in love try to see each other whatever blocks them. 
The man is about to take out something from his coat. The woman is shy and look down quietly, which was required for a woman back then.
월침침야삼경 양인심사양인지 (달빛이 침침한 한밤중에 두 사람의 마음은 두사람만이 안다)
Is the artist a woman as a TV drama suggested? Otherwise, how could he notice and catch such subtle and detailed female traits? I really wonder how he led his life and what he thought of. 

John Atkinson Grimshaw (circa 1837)

I got out of the college library to get fresh air. It was a cold winter night. The trees surrounding the building all lost their leaves and looked bare. The moon hangs between skinny branches. The street lights down in the city looked sparkling. But no one was beside me sharing the sad reality that I had belatedly realized. Only the moon was up there to console me. My thought: nothing changes and the world still revolves around just the way it is even if I'm dead here. I felt like a speckle of dust among millions of people and what is the meaning of my life? I was no longer the center of the world. I was just another peripheral being. This was the time when the sorrow and confusion in my twenties reached its peak. 


겸재 정선 <압구정> 1741년

Sosu Academy & Seodaemun Prison Memorial

I got bored and tired with the work at the publishing company, and began to consider studying architecture. The Buddhist temples and traditional buildings I went to with a group of architects healed my soul. 
Sosu Academy is the very place I've longed to visit again. It's already been more than a decade. The pine trees look the same, and make me feel so good. I almost cry. The pavilion 취한대 on the opposite side of the academy looks like a good place to meditate and relax, overlooking the slow flow of the stream. What a languorous day! The old buildings and the peonies in the sun. 
I've struggle to keep my faith and you, pine trees, stay there and welcome me. I want to live a life of integrity. Please behold me if I go in the right direction. 


국보 제180호 1844년
'날씨가 차가워진 뒤에야 송백만이 홀로 시들지 않음을 안다'고 했듯이 사람이 어려움에 처했을 때 그 사람의 진정한 모습을 볼 수가 있다
Only after it gets cold, one knows it is pine trees that don't wither away. When you are in trouble, you get to know who is on your side and who isn't. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Don't be a fair-weather friend. 

I felt very grateful for what independence activists/patriots did to liberate my country during the Japanese rule at Seodaemun Prison Memorial. It was heartwrenching to look at the execution building. It is said that the executed stopped by the tall poplar tree right in front of the entrance and left their last words. I will read some books written by 리영희.

Romeo and Juliet in the Chosun Dynasty (공주의 남자 2011)

What makes this drama special is the scenes, angles, and acting. I still don't forget beautiful nature including summer sky, trees, and falls depicted in the drama. Those are exactly like the scenes in traditional calligraphy paintings. Nature stands the test of time and keeps an eye on our lives. 



환아심하여 위니심하니 시지상억심이라
내 마음을 바꾸어 네 마음이 되고 보니
비로소 서로 그리워함이 이렇게 깊었음을 알겠네

정이란 대체 무엇이냐 세상을 향해 묻습니다
나는 대답할 것입니다
우리로 하여금 아무런 망설임도 없이 삶과 죽음을 서로 허락하는 것
그것이 바로 정이라고

<눈물어린 눈으로 꽃에게 물어도> 김병기

만휴정: 경북 안동시 길안면 묵계리

묵계서원 입구에서 우회전하여 다리를 건너면 한적한 시골마을이 나온다.

마을 끝에 작은 주차장이 있고, 여기서 조금만 걸어가면 만휴정이 나온다. 

Which came out of the door--the lady or the tiger?

I've been reading Life of Pi up to page 60 or so which is  full of Hindu names and this and that stories I find hard to follow. While I was googling for some information about the book, I come across this story.

This was the king's semi-barbaric method of administering justice. Its perfect fairness is obvious. The criminal could not know out of which door would come the lady; he opened either he pleased, without having the slightest idea whether, in the next instant, he was to be devoured or married. 


A princess, who is the apple of the king's eye, fell in love with a good-looking young man. This love affair moved on happily until the king happened to know about it. He was immediately imprisoned, and soon the day of his trial would come in the king's arena. 
The princess got to know the secret that behind which door the tiger/lady was. The lady was one of the fairest and loveliest, and the princess had seen the lady throwing glaces of admiration upon his lover and these glances sometimes were returned. 
The appointed day arrived. When he turned and looked at her sitting in the royal seat, their eyes met and he cast a quick, anxious glance asking the question: "Which?"
She raised her right hand. He turned and with firm, rapid steps walked toward the door on the right and opened it. Did the tiger come of of that door or did the lady?