DACHEUNG, a literary magazine published in paper form since 1999, is the only quarterly literary magazine of Jeju Island, the southernmost part of Korea
By Ashraf Aboul-Yazid, Egypt
DACHEUNG is a literary magazine published in paper form since 1999, and is the only quarterly literary magazine published in Jeju Island, the southernmost part of Korea. Sungrye Han, Poet, Translator (Japanese-Korean), has translated a Collection of Poets’ poems from around the world, and published in the 99th issue of the Korean literary magazine “DACHEUNG”, last fall issue.
Sungrye Han sent her thanks to the poets who sent their poems of peace to the “70th Anniversary of the Korean Peninsula Armistice Agreement”(World Artists’ Korean Peninsula Peace Declaration) event, expressing her respect to poet Byeon Jong-tae, the weekly editor of “DACHEUNG” who devoted 26 pages of space to this peace project.
Poets of the World Call for Peace on the Korean Peninsula through their poems. In her introduction to this poetic anthology Seongrye Han wrote that “It may already be too late to save the Earth. Climate change and climate disasters due to global warming have been predicted for a long time, but selfish humans have ignored them in pursuit of profit. Mother Earth has also warned us countless times. This year alone, countless people have died from heat waves and floods in many parts of the world. In addition, war is a terrible disaster and a huge threat to humanity. The war in Ukraine shows no end in sight, and the current situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula is growing increasingly tense as if war will resume again. Senseless wars that take innocent lives are taking place all over the world, and every day we hear news about new terror attacks. At such times, we are reminded that the salvation of humanity is only possible through solidarity, brotherhood, and friendship among the people of the world. Power is great not because it can occupy fortresses, but because it can create friendship.”
As the saying goes, when times are dark, art is the first to light the fire, and at this event, peace-loving artists from around the world showed the power of solidarity.
On July 27, 2023, amid a heat wave in Seoul with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius, the ‘2023 World Artists Korean Peninsula Peace Declaration’ event was held at Imjingak, where the DMZ, a symbol of the Korean War armistice, is located.
In this event hosted by the National Federation of Artistic and Cultural Organizations and sponsored by Gyeonggi Province, I took charge of recruiting overseas artists and helped out. Many renowned artists from various fields of art joined hands, and in literature, many writers, including Yeom Mu-ung, Baek Nak-cheong, Hyun Gi-yeong, and Hwang Seok-yeong, were listed on the organizing committee. Some artists from overseas participated in person, while others participated via video. The magazine introduced only the overseas poets who participated in the event.
Seongrye Han wrote “July 27, 2023 marks the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement between the South and the North in the Korean War. The Korean War was not only a great tragedy for the Korean people, but also expanded into an international conflict, resulting in great sacrifices. This unstable state has continued for 70 years. Not only for the peace and well-being of the Korean people, but also for the peace of the entire world, a transition to a peace agreement must be made as soon as possible. The dichotomous confrontation between the major powers is intensifying, and as military training is expanding around the Korean Peninsula, there is even talk of using nuclear weapons. Recent wars are not ending as small tragedies in one region, but are leading to tragedies that the entire world is experiencing simultaneously. Any war must stop, and war must never occur.”
Read: A Movie Called War – Poetry from Korea
Seongrye Han concluded her introduction with these words: “As the saying goes, when times are dark, art is the first to light the fire, and at this event, peace-loving artists from around the world showed the power of solidarity. It was an event that confirmed the power of art to make production more precious than destruction and life more precious than death. I hope that the small efforts of artists will become the spark that lights the fire of peace on Earth.”
Seongrye Han translated my poem “A Street in Cairo” in this collection:
The man who returned home,
In his short break,
Does not have but two days:
A day for his arrival,
And a day for getting ready for departure.
A day to cry on seeing her,
And a day for her to cry on the farewell scene.
A day to open his arms for friends,
And a day for hugging their mirage.
A day to tell them about the war,
And a day for their tales of the war’s victims.
A day for life,
And a day for an eternal death.
The man who returned home,
In his short break, remembers:
When the war started,
They put targets on his eyes,
They closed his mouth with
The tank nozzle,
And how he died before smelling
The gunpowder.
The man who returned home,
In his short break,
Is welcomed by a street in Cairo,
And two sidewalks,
Where he poured in the distance between them
The sands of his exiled deserted body,
Counting the papers burned in
The lost wars,
Under the fire and light poles.
The man who returned home,
In his short break,
Is similar to this street where
The processions of sadness pass,
Leaving nothing but pain.
A street in Cairo
Deserted for two thousand years,
Full of dried trees and people,
Filled with a mixture of mud and bones,
But it always looks like a river,
As life looks like death!
The man who returned home,
In his short break,
Is just a street in Cairo,
With balconies of despair,
With lost wars dancing inside him,
With feet sinking in blood and dead bodies,
Those killed ones that sleep in his heart
After finishing their roles in the news.
The man who returned home,
In his short break,
Is seeking a vision
In the hand spread between two cities,
With lines sketched by years,
Made of sands and winds.
The man who returned home,
In his short break, is asking:
“How many last wars will be enough?”
Since the early 1990s, she has been translating and introducing Korean poetry in every issue of various literary magazines in Japan.
Seongrye Han graduated from the Department of Japanese Language and Literature at Sejong University and majored in Japanese studies at the Graduate School of Policy Science at the same university. Debuted in 1986 with Poetry and Consciousness. Author of the Korean poetry collections “Beauty of the Laboratory” and “Smiling Flower,” Japanese poetry collections “The Sky of the Dark Blue Skirt” and “Drama of Light,” Dutch poetry collection “Poems on the Road,” and humanities book “The Formation of Ancient Japanese States and Manyoshu.” She won the Heo Nanseolheon Literary Award in 1994, the Shitosozo Literary Award in Japan in 2008, and the Poetry Slam Translation Literature Award in 2022. Translated works include the novels “The Hole” and “Crying to the Moon.” Essay 『If the World Were a Village of 100 People』, fairy tale 『Night on the Galactic Railroad』, humanities book Shiono Nanami’s Leader Story, etc., translated over 200 books including poetry, novels, fairy tales, essays, humanities books, and critical works in Korea and Japan, and planned and translated four volumes of ‘Anthologies of Representative Korean and Japanese Poets’. Among them, he translated many poetry collections, and translated the poems of Korean poets such as Kim Yeong-rang, Jeong Ho-seung, Kim Ki-taek, and Ando Hyun into Japanese, and the poems of Japanese poets such as Koike Masayo and Ito Hiromi into Korean.
In addition, the texts of various translated books were included in over 40 textbooks and guides for Korean middle and high schools, social culture, morals, and ethics. Since the early 1990s, she has been translating and introducing Korean poetry in every issue of various literary magazines in Japan. Currently she is an adjunct professor at Sejong Cyber University.
Read: ‘The Heart of Poetry’ at the 3rd Naoussa International Poetry Festival
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Ashraf Aboul-Yazid is a renowned Egyptian poet, journalist, novelist, travelogue writer and translator. He is author of around three dozen books and Editor-in-Chief of Silk Road Literature Series.
