Gandhi faced the empire with no weapon in his hands.
With a humble walking stick in his hand,
He faced an empire with the courage of peace.
Park Sung-jin (South Korea)
Poet Park Sung-jin is also active as a literary and cultural critic, composer, and jewelry installation artist. His literary work focuses primarily on the study of Yun Dong-ju’s literature as well as themes related to Korea’s division and reunification literature.
He holds an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Oikos University in the United States and serves as Vice President of the International Foundation for Human Peace and Service. He has received numerous literary honors, including the Yun Dong-ju Literary Award, the Literary Criticism Grand Prize, and the Literary Criticism Award. Currently, he works as a cultural critic for the online newspaper Culture & People.
Gandhi’s Walking Stick
Gandhi faced the empire with no weapon in his hands.
With a humble walking stick in his hand,
He faced an empire with the courage of peace.
Because he believed
That no sword is mightier than the human conscience.
Today,
Standing before the Demilitarized Zone, I think:
It was not steel, but the human heart,
That divided our people with barbed wire.
Hatred deepens division,
While love opens a path.
The wind from Mount Baekdu
Blows without rest all the way to Mount Halla,
So why are the hearts of one people!
Still closed to one another?
Mahatma Gandhi’s walking stick seems to whisper.
If peace walks ahead,
Reunification will follow in its footsteps.
Someday,
A fiery dawn
Will rise over the Korean Peninsula.
간디의 지팡이
간디는 총을 들지 않았다
작은 지팡이 하나로
거대한 제국과 맞섰다
칼보다 강한 것은
사람의 양심임을 믿었기 때문이다
오늘 나는
휴전선 앞에 서서 생각한다
철조망을 자르는 것은
강철이 아니라 마음이라고
증오는 분단을 키우고
사랑은 길을 만든다
백두산의 바람은
한라산까지 쉬지 않고 불어오는데
왜 한 겨레의 마음은
서로를 향해 닫혀 있는가
간디의 지팡이는 말한다
평화가 먼저 걸어가면
통일은 그 뒤를 따라온다고
언젠가 한반도에도
불같은 새벽이 밝아오리라
***
From Baekdu to Halla
The snowmelt from Mount Baekdu
Still make their way to the sea today,
Today, my heart too
Flows toward reunification.
The barbed wire tried to divide the mountains,
And even sought to hold back the rivers,
But the wind knows no borders,
And the clouds carry no permits.
One moon shines
Upon both North and South.
Yet only we, the people, have spent half a century
Turning away from one another.
Upon the broken railway tracks, only rusted time continues to gather,
While our longing, crossing half a century, still flows like a river today.
And at last, from Baekdu to Halla,
One flag will wave in the wind.
백두에서 한라까지
백두산 눈 녹은 물은
오늘도 바다를 찾아가고
내 마음도 오늘
통일을 향해 흐른다
철조망은 산을 가르고
강물마저 막으려 했지만
바람은 국경을 모르고
구름은 허가증이 없다
북녘의 달빛과
남녘의 달빛은 하나인데
사람만 서로를 향해
반세기를 돌아왔다
끊어진 철길 위에
녹슨 시간만 쌓여가고
그리움은 반세기를 넘어
오늘도 강처럼 흐른다
마침내 백두에서 한라까지
하나의 국기가 바람에 펄럭이리라.
____________________
Read: Cherry Blossom Lanterns – Korean Poetry
