Poetry for Korean Letters

Something fun and entertaining about the Korean letters.


ㄱ
Angled for the tongue,
Yet guttural and gluttonous for one
So adept a g's and k's
Yet often unsure which
The immutable transgender giuk ㄱ,
It's ㄱㄱㄱ great! _ 객객 (gaek, gaek)

ㄴ
From right to left,
It angles tongue up, the tip thrust high
For words bereft of voice,
Letting the nasal n linger, oh my
Incessantly on in a never-ending ninny
ㄴㄴㄴㄴㄴ (ne ne ne ne ne)
The undeniable annoying niun ㄴ

ㄷ
Don't deign to decide about digut ㄷ
Until the letter's depth is revealed.
Tongue tipped on mouth - top put
Un-aspirated, yet plosive it peeled.
Two strokes, digut shoots out soft
Easily made for 디디 (daddy),
Yet doubly difficult in its double d
And ㄸㄸㄸ dangerous too.

ㄹ
Neither an R or an L in sight
What happened to riul's  might?
Initial R or L final,
Riul's ㄹ absence is a mystery
Missing in the pages of this site's history.
Few words begin with its ㄹㄹㄹ rolling sound
So skip to mium ㅁ and have another round.


ㅁ
Like two lips separating soundly
Making a mandible of Mium ㅁ roundly,
Mumbling a mantra as it stared
Into the madness of the storm squared
Ma-ma-ma 마마마 from the 마움 ma-um of heart and home.

ㅂ
A bit like the b of bat and ball,
And free to fall from puckered lips, pursed then parted
But abundant with bees
Back and forth ㅂㅂㅂ, the buzzing started,
Beware the biup ㅂ, but speak free...
Bbbb is the letter for me.

ㅅ
Slick like a snaky swish
Separate of lips, but scaly like fish
Shiut ㅅ sliding through clenched teeth
Touching and terrible from somewhere beneath
From sss to shhhh
Starting soft and seething then rising to a shoosh.
It's there a sec, then gone in a whoosh.

ㅇ
Oh what a lovely opening spread
The mouth wide, its sound unsaid.
To welcome the vowels soon to flow
Or round out the end with "ng" below.
From ing ing ing 잉잉잉 or begun as naught
Was the yin and yang of i-ung ㅇ wrought

ㅈ
Jammin' to a jiut ㅈ jingle:
To jaw the j right,
Just tip your tongue up and mingle it
With a jab forward in the night.
Don't jabbe on, just aspirate it.
J's judgelsss, so don't equate it
With any other letter, and yet
It's as close to a Z as Korean can get.
What's that? gg 지지 you say?
Fear not. The jingle will bring you back to J.

ㅊ
Less lazy than the jiut ㅈ above,
Chiut ㅊ gets your Chi charged with love.
Again with the teeth and aspirated to the hilt,
It can come from love, but be full of guilt.
If from an angry girl, chitu chimes
Pay attention or forget your rhymes.

ㅋ
Absolute in its aspiration,
Kiok's ㅋ keen mind crippled with ambition.
Crazily k'ed in a crucial moment
The big brother of g began in jest to foment
Somewhat of a snigger, then bellied and bold
Began to chuckle, mockingly clear and cold,
Kh Kh Kh ㅋㅋㅋ, as K's insanity took hold.

ㅌ
Tried and true, tiut ㅌ withdrew
From the public life it once knew.
An extra line across the digut ㄷ cut
To tell that it was tough enough for what
Was to come... Aspirated fully.
Separate and gruff, but it was no bully.
Voiced and vocal tiut ㅌ grew
Strong and bold, though somewhat askew.
"ㅌ, ㅌ, ㅌ," it uttered slowly, then a sad "adieu".

ㅍ
The perfect, playful piup ㅍ said
I might spit a bit, but I've shed
All pretense for a life of pleasure
As the aspiration of all aspirates treasure
Not a wimp like that babbling biup ㅂ
Piup ㅍ put it to all with proper power
Its purpose passion voiced, its eyes moist
As some characters cowered... and some rejoiced.

ㅎ
An end of alphabet comes
Happily with a hiut ㅎ, a soft wheeze
Devoid of drums and delicate hums
Aspirated in a breath of cold air ease
Hiut covers the gamut from hair to fair,
From ha ha 하하 happy to the ㅎㅎ sarcastic glare.
And forget "Fighting", cause in Korean it's "Highting!".
There's no F after all, so call it a hiut for all.

(By Peter Liptak and Siwoo Lee.)