1958년 문리대 의예과 독일어 시간이었다. 제목은 Mignon이었으니, 내게 반가울 수 밖에 없었다.

여러해 전 중학교 시절에 한 번  보고 잊어버렸던 Mignon이 아닌가?

그 시는 말할것도 없이 다음과 같이 시작된다.” Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen bluehn,..”

이리하여 나는 이제야 이 시가 독일 시성 괴테의 작품임을 알게 되었고, 교수께서는 정렬적으로 미뇽의 이야기를 하여주셨다.

그리고 나는 그 원서를 보고 싶었지만, 그 당시 그런 책자가 한국에 들어 올리도 없었고, 또 독문을 내가 해독할 수도 없었다.

그래서 조금 알게 되었고 어느땐가 나도 그 원본이나 번역판을 읽게 되기를 기대하였다.

I am a bit confused.

I thought I actually sang, at least partially, the song of Mignon in "Korean lyrics" when I was young.

"그대는 아는가, 저 남쪽 나라를..."

However, the one you showed here is not even close to what I knew and sang.

Maybe, I am talking about a different song in the same or different opera ???

This is the same poem and song. This Korean lyrics were well known with "그대는 아는가 저 남쪽나라를?".

I tried to find the full transaltion without success. 

I did find some other translations by contemporary experts, and chose one version to my liking. 

If you find the full translation, please let me know.

However I have some reservation to the original one: Let me show this to see if it is appropriate or not.

그대는 아는가 저 남쪽 나라를.

Here this young and sad girl was talking to her master, Wilhelm. In Korean is it appropriate for her to say to her master with "그대는 아는가". Is that the right expression?

Next where is "저 남쪽나라".? I would translate it to "저 나라", or "그 나라". 

I want to know how you feel about it. 

Thanks for your comment. 

Steve, you are right!

The song Mignon, KwanHo listed is not the one you talk about.

The song you sang belongs to the Opera Mignon composed by Ambroise Thomas in French!

Hence, naturally, as I wrote/replied previously to KwanHo through Mignon-1 he shared, German, the worshippers of von Goethe didn't like the libretto written in French although whole story is based on same Lehrjahre of Wilhelm Meister with some modifications and rejected this beautiful Opera as one of von Goethe's poems and insist only German Lieds as legitimate (?) von Goethe's poems, as KwanHo posted. 

I am now at my daughter's weekend house but will be back home early tomorrow and check the lists of operatic arias in my music file stored in my PC to see whether I have Mignon operatic aria - I have a few different Mignon Lieds composed by different composers I mentioned previously- and if I have it, I will share with you.

All the best,

BB Lee

Believe or not, Steve, I found the "Connais-tu le pays?" of Mignon, my favorite mezzo-soprano,

Giulietta Simionato sang, thanks to my decaying memories!

Indeed, I knew I have a couple of arias of Opera Mignon but couldn’t figure out how to retrieve them

from my chaotic music file/library without knowing the title in French. I tried to use German title for its Lied,

” Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen bluehn,..” but failed.

Somehow, I looked through the file for mezzo-soprano and suddenly my brain kicked in to shine

the name of my most favorite mezzo, Giulietta Simionato, who sang this aria!

Voila, I have her singing this aria with the title of "Connais-tu le pays?".

So, I will attach her aria I taped in MP3 format and also another one by well known,

much younger Spanish mezzo-soprano, Teresa Berganza’s.

I hope you enjoy it as a reminiscence of good old days!

Have a good weekend.

BB Lee

P.S. I tell you how I learned about Giulietta Simionato! Back in my residency days,

as poor as a church mouse- 7,800.00 USD per year as salary, the second-lowest salary

throughout the country after Bill Scott’s Vanderbilt U surgery program, I was barely afforded to taking out

the family to have hamburgers once or twice a month as a treat!

But once a month I determined to go out to look for a couple of second hand cheapest LP to feed

my hungry brain.

One day, at one nearby cheap department store, named to 'Carousel' where they kept sellout discount LPs,

I found the collection of Giulietta Simionato's repertoire, whom I had no idea till I went to the library

to learn how great mezzo-soprano based on La Scala in Milan from 1936 until her retirement in 1966.

I also learned later she became such a closest friend of Maria Callas after she slapped Maria Callas

across the face once.

Indeed, she is such rare leading Italian mezzo-soprano with rich and cultivated voice-

no harsh metallic sound like Callas!-. I believe she lived near to age 100 if I remember correctly.

In so many times, when the western songs got translated into Korean,

the Korean translator sometimes was not loyal to the true meaning of the lyrics.

I think I can forgive such changes. After all, we are dealing with pieces of "artistic" materials.

There are some songs that have totally different Korean meaning from the original lyrics.

One example: 조용남의 "제비" in which he only used the melody.

I had LP of Mignon years ago, which was taken by my son, Jim, to his Manhattan apartment along with my collection of other LP's containing classic music, and my cherished MacIntosh stereo set, when I moved out of the lake home last August. 

Certainly Ambroise Thomas made a novel invention of happy-ending Mignon in this opera, which is very heart-warming, but had nothing to do with Goethe's Mignon. 

At the end of Volume Three, many attendants and visitors heard the full story of Mignon's life starting with the Marchese (Marquess), supposedly her grandfather, the visitng Marchese, her uncle, and an old harpist, her real father, and all of them were shedding their tears for a long time while the Abbe was telling this heart-breaking Mignon's story for the visiting Marchese. 

The soft-hearted Ambroise obviously wanted to console the deceased Mignon's soul and so many readers and fans of Mignon.

To convey the story vividly as much as possible, I will post parts of the translated script as needed. 

 Those Vinyl Records,--the  smells-- Thanks for the memories.

 Ah! What happened  to those "Sam Goody Stores",  "Tower Record" or  the cheap record  section in the Walgreens??

 Several  months ago, I was  strolling  청계천-황학동  고물상, where they were selling old records, even 해적판

 of 1970's.  I even saw a record which has "이미자"on one side and  "Beatles" on side 2---ㅎㅎㅎ

Well,those were the days!

 I almost purchased this unique piece,--- if my wife were not there.--

Not only the smell, Dr. Joh, but also the feeling to touch/hold its case/jacket of those vinyl LP records I miss dearly! The jacket of old vinyl LP is big enough to hold comfortably to read its repertoire on its back giving me much satisfaction. Even now, I seldom pull out those LPs from the book shelf and read the story on its jacket, rather than listening, only to satisfy my nostalgia!

Yes, the LP era was gone with my days of ‘passion to the classic music’ together. Indeed, I declared I belong to LP era so that I will go with the LP, refusing to join/get on the bandwagon named to CD, after I bought a few dozens of albums from going-out-of-business sales from Foggy Bottom store of Tower Records in Washington DC- 2006?-, soon after I got back home from Korea.

Indeed, it was one of my hobbies to stop over at Tower Record stores, one in Tyson’s corner, Northern Va and another in DC downtown whenever I have free moment and stay hours to listen to the sample music they displayed - I don’t play golf! -. Now, no more record shop like the bookstores. Yes, all gone, wiped out by Amazon! No fun, buddy! Long gone!

BB Lee

P.S. You are lucky to have청계천-황학동  고물상 having fun to rummage through old records. Heard Japanese still holds such old LP store to share the nostalgia!

During my young days of med school, I was not even close to 유성기 or 유성기판. 

In late 1970's I asked one of our junior alumni to help me find a good stereo, and upon his recommendation,

a set of MacIntosh with a pair of speackers, a turn table, and an amplifier was purchased. 

Since then I kept buying all kinds of quality LP's from Music Lover Shop in Rochester. 

I haven't used it for a long time, and finally the whole set and LP's have been taken to Jim's.

Only one of the speakers wasn't working, so he called a number of shops in the South Manhattan

and finally it's fixed. It is the only inheritance to Jim.