Sangju Mosimgi
Unknown (Sangju Oral Tradition)
Region
Sangju
Genre
Usage
Gyeongsang Farming Song
Work Song
The Sangju Rice-Planting Song was sung while transplanting rice seedlings across the broad fields of Sangju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and is best known for its opening line, "At Gonggal Pond in Hamchang, Sangju." It captures a playful exchange between a young woman picking lotus pods and a young man teasing her. This record is archive material collected to organize and preserve the representative lyrics and the transmission context of the Sangju Rice-Planting Song.
Commentary & Notes
Gonggal Pond: The great reservoir of Gonggeomji in Hamchang, Sangju, counted among the three great reservoirs of the ancient Samhan period. Records say its embankment was rebuilt in 1195, during the Goryeo dynasty.
Lotus pods (yeonbap): The seed heads of the lotus. The girl's busy hands and the boy's cheeky offers answer each other line by line.
Gyeongsang planting songs have no shared refrain: two groups trade paired couplets back and forth, and separate songs are sung for morning, midday, and evening.
Cultural Background
Sung in the fields of Sangju, the largest rice-growing area of Gyeongsangbuk-do, the song has eleven verses and is widely known as the representative Gyeongsang planting song. A sorrowful legend also surrounds Gonggal Pond: that a living person was buried in its embankment to stop it from collapsing. Behind the charming lotus song lies a reminder of how hard farming life once was.
Lyrics
상주 함창 공갈못에
연밥 따는 저 큰애기
연밥 줄밥 내 따줄게
요 내 품에 잠들어라
잠들기는 늦잖아도
연밥 따기 한철일세
At Gonggal Pond in Hamchang, Sangju,
O young maiden picking lotus pods,
I'll pick the lotus pods for you —
come, fall asleep in my arms
It's not too late for sleeping,
but lotus-picking lasts only a season
