Susimga
Unknown (Pyeongan Oral Tradition)
Region
Pyeongan Province
Genre
Seodo Folk Song
Usage
Lyrical Song
True to its name, "Song of a Sorrowful Heart," Susimga is the signature folk song of Pyeongan Province, voicing deep longing for a departed love. Sung very slowly with no fixed rhythm, its long-held notes and trembling ornaments capture the distinctive melancholy of the Seodo singing style. This record is archive material collected to organize and preserve the representative lyrics and the transmission context of Susimga.
Commentary & Notes
Yaksa monghon haengyujeok (若使夢魂行有跡): "If the soul in my dreams left traces where it walked." The line comes from "Dream Soul," a classical Chinese poem by the mid-Joseon poet Yi Ok-bong: the singer has visited her love's gate so often in dreams that the stones would have worn to sand.
Hwayong (花容): A face as lovely as a flower.
When the singer holds a long note, the janggu drum marks a single stroke to carry the line forward. Upward-pulling vibrato and a nasal tone in the high register deepen the song's sorrow.
Cultural Background
One story says the song grew from the laments of people in the northwest, who were shut out of government office during the Joseon era; another credits Buyong, a gisaeng of Seongcheon, with first singing it during the Manchu invasion of 1636. Paired with Namdo's Yukjabaegi as one of the two great pillars of Korean folk song, it was designated National Intangible Heritage in 1969 as a masterpiece of Seodo singing.
Lyrics
약사몽혼으로 행유적이면
문전석로가 반성사로구나
생각을 하니 임의 화용이 그리워
나 어이 할까요
강산불변 재봉춘이요
임은 일거에 무소식이로다
생각을 하니 세월 가는 것 등달아
나 어이 할까요
If my dreaming soul left footprints as it went,
the stone path before your gate would be half worn to sand
Thinking of you, I long for your flower-like face —
what am I to do?
The hills and rivers never change, and spring comes round again,
but since the day you left, no word has come
Thinking how the years slip by, my heart grows restless —
what am I to do?
