Homeplace
(고향)

Despite its similar title, the sentiments exuded by Homeplace (고향) is radically different from the author's other famous work Home Longing (향수). While the other work was all about the warm, nostalgic feelings one has toward one's roots, this poem is a quiet brooding of a young man who can't have such feelings at all. It depicts a person who returned to his home, as Jeong Ji-yong did after his studies in Japan, where he just can't feel at home. Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the verse, the reason is rather obvious: it is the despairing reality that his home is now under control of a foreign country, the imperial Japan at the time. He couldn't claim his homeland as his own, which changes everything.

The mood is bleak and somber, but it still moves you in its sad way. The protagonist finds nature the same as he knew it, but his own heart cannot accept the place as before. He broods, climbs a mountain, tries the grass whistle he played with as a boy, but in the end he only finds the soaring old sky the same as before.

Chae Dong-seon's tune is every bit as sad and subdued as the words of the poem. The words and music are made for each other here, escalating the pathos which seems to have a purifying effect on your heart. It is one of the best loved works, and my personal favorite, of Jeong Ji-yong.