Reading Korean Poetry: -으리라, -으리오, -디 (Sowol and Dong-ju)
Read Korean poems with three literary forms: -으리라 is the poetic 'I shall' of resolve (나는 잊으리라 — I shall forget), -으리오 is the rhetorical 'how could…?' (어찌 잊으리오 — how could I ever forget?), and -디 doubles an adjective for intensity (깊디깊은 — deep, so deep). We meet them in Kim Sowol and Yun Dong-ju.
Published:
Written by Alvin Lim Certified Korean Language Teacher (Level 2)
Korean poetry runs on forms you will rarely say but must be able to read. -으리라 is the literary ‘I shall’ of resolve (나는 잊으리라 — I shall forget), -으리오 is the rhetorical ‘how could…?’ that means the opposite (어찌 잊으리오 — how could I ever forget?), and -디 doubles an adjective for intensity (깊디깊은 바다 — a deep, so deep sea). These belong to poems, lyrics, and classic prose — recognize them, feel their weight, and translate. This is recognition Korean: the register of literature, not the café.
In persuasion and intent you read formal argument; now we read feeling. Two giants of modern Korean verse — Kim Sowol and Yun Dong-ju — both died before 1962, so their poems are public domain and we can study real lines. Start with the words that fill them.
Ten words for reading poetry
The poetic ‘I shall’: -으리라
Attach -으리라 (after a consonant) or -리라 (after a vowel) to a verb stem for a solemn, literary first-person resolve or prediction — ‘I shall, I surely will.’ It is the heightened cousin of -을 것이다, alive in poems, vows, and old narration.
나는 모든 것을 잊으리라 = I shall forget everything 반드시 다시 돌아오리라 = I will surely return 이 길을 끝까지 걸으리라 = I shall walk this road to the very end 그날까지 노래를 부르리라 = I shall sing until that day
In speech you would say 잊을 거예요 / 돌아올게요. Meeting -으리라 on the page should make you hear a vow, not a schedule.
The rhetorical ‘how could…?’: -으리오
Attach -으리오/-리오 to a verb stem and pair it with 어찌 (how) to form a poetic rhetorical question — it looks like a question but asserts the opposite with certainty.
어찌 그대를 잊으리오 = how could I ever forget you? (I never will) 어찌 이 은혜를 잊으리오 = how could I forget this kindness? 어찌 슬프지 않으리오 = how could I not be sad? (of course I am) 어찌 가만히 있으리오 = how could I just sit still?
Read 어찌 …-으리오 as an emphatic negation. The modern equivalent is 어떻게 잊겠어요? / 절대 못 잊어요 — same meaning, plainer register.
Intensifying with -디
Reduplicate an adjective stem with -디 to intensify it from the inside — ‘so very, intensely.’ It is a fixed poetic-literary device, not a free everyday intensifier.
깊디깊은 바다 = a deep, so deep sea 크디큰 나무 = a great, towering tree 쓰디쓴 약 = a bitterly bitter medicine 차디찬 바람 = a bitingly cold wind
Unlike 아주 깊은 (‘very deep,’ neutral), 깊디깊은 paints the depth with rhythm — which is exactly why it lives in verse.
Kim Sowol — 「진달래꽃」(Azaleas, 1925)
Korea’s most beloved poem of parting. The speaker promises to scatter azaleas on the path of the one who leaves — and not to weep. (Public domain; modern-Korean gloss and translation are our own.)
나 보기가 역겨워 / 가실 때에는 / 말없이 고이 보내 드리오리다
영변에 약산 / 진달래꽃 / 아름 따다 가실 길에 뿌리오리다
When you leave, / sick of the sight of me, / I shall send you off in silence, gently.
From Yaksan in Yeongbyeon / I shall gather an armful of azaleas / and strew them on the road you walk.
(Modern-KO gloss: 말없이 곱게 보내 드리겠습니다 · 진달래꽃을 한 아름 따서 가시는 길에 뿌리겠습니다.)
The poem’s archaic -오리다 endings carry the same vow-like weight as the -으리라 you just learned: a quiet, resolute ‘I shall.‘
Yun Dong-ju — 「서시」(Foreword, 1941)
The opening poem of his posthumous collection, a vow of conscience under occupation. (Public domain; gloss and translation are our own.)
죽는 날까지 하늘을 우러러 / 한 점 부끄럼이 없기를,
잎새에 이는 바람에도 / 나는 괴로워했다.
Until the day I die, looking up at the sky, / let there be not a single speck of shame —
even at the wind stirring in the leaves / I suffered.
(Modern-KO gloss: 죽는 날까지 하늘을 우러러보며 한 점의 부끄러움도 없기를 바란다 · 잎새에 부는 바람에도 나는 괴로워했다.)
Hold this line next to a rhetorical 어찌 부끄럽지 않으리오 (‘how could I not feel shame?’) and you feel how the poetic register turns private feeling into something vast.
Talking about a poem with a friend
Two students who just read Sowol in class — casual speech, but quoting the poetic forms:
Notice the split: the poems use 오리다 / -으리오 / 깊디깊은, while the friends translate them back into plain 절대 못 잊어. That gap — recognize the literary form, speak the plain one — is the whole lesson.
FAQ
Why learn -으리라 and -으리오 if I will never say them? Because Grade 6 is about reading and recognizing near-native Korean, not just producing it. -으리라 (the literary ‘I shall’) and -으리오 (the rhetorical ‘how could…?’) almost never appear in everyday speech, but they saturate poetry, song lyrics, classic fiction, speeches, and even dramatic dialogue. If you cannot decode 어찌 잊으리오, a famous poem becomes a wall. So the goal here is recognition: see the form, feel its solemn or rhetorical weight, and translate it — while in your own conversation you keep using 잊을 거예요 / 어떻게 잊겠어요. Knowing a form passively is a real, valuable kind of fluency.
What exactly does the rhetorical -으리오 assert? -으리오 is a poetic rhetorical question that asserts the opposite of what it literally asks. Paired with 어찌 (how), 어찌 잊으리오 literally says ‘how could I forget?’ but means ‘I will never forget — it is unthinkable.’ The form pretends to ask while actually declaring something with great certainty and emotion. This is identical in spirit to English rhetorical questions like ‘How could I ever forget?’ Modern speech reaches the same meaning with 어떻게 잊겠어요? or 절대 못 잊어요, but the poetic -으리오 lifts the line into a higher, more dramatic register. When you see 어찌 …-으리오, read it as an emphatic negation, not a real question.
How is -디 different from just saying 아주 (very)? -디 reduplicates an adjective stem to intensify it from the inside: 깊디깊은 (deep, so deep), 크디큰 (great-big), 머나먼 / 쓰디쓴 (a similar doubling pattern). It is a fixed, poetic-literary device, not a productive everyday intensifier — you cannot freely attach it to any adjective the way you attach 아주 (very) or 너무 (too). 아주 깊은 simply says ‘very deep’ in a neutral tone; 깊디깊은 paints the depth with rhythm and feeling, which is why it lives in poems, lyrics, and storytelling. Treat -디 forms as set expressions to recognize and enjoy, and keep 아주/너무 for your own descriptions.
Next: the 하게체 speech level in fiction — Hyeon Jin-geon. Previous: persuasion and intent — -는다고, -자면. Full path: curriculum hub.