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Nonfiction

The Poet Who Asked for Forgiveness

By Gwak Moon-an
Translated from Korean by Shirley Lee
Because his poetry did not exalt Party ideology, his life could only end in tragedy.

At its essence, the purpose of North Korean literature is to praise the Korean Workers’ Party. While South Korean poetry deals with topics such as love or life, North Korean poetry refers only to Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un, constantly reinventing itself as a mechanism of hymnal thought-control. In North Korea, whatever literary genius poets may possess, ignoring Party ideology in their work is a certain path to being mentally or physically broken by the state. This was the case of North Korean poet Kim Chul.

In the early 1960s, Kim Chul was one of the foremost poets in North Korea. He was renowned for his lyric poetry and wrote often about love. The people even dubbed him “the Pushkin of Korea.” But no matter how beautiful, his poems could not be published unless they promoted Party ideology. One such poem, “A Military Jacket Button,” depicts a soldier returning home after the Korean War. He takes in his arms a motherless baby. The baby wakes up and sucks on a button on the soldier’s military uniform, mistaking it for his mother’s nipple. It is a poignant elegy about the misery of the Korean War.

Wearing a military jacket stained with gunsmoke
The soldier holds the sleeping baby in his arms
The baby awakes, caresses his mother’s breast
And sucks on the button of a military jacket.

Ah!
May this soldier become his mother.

Kim Chul seized poetic opportunities, wrote succinctly, and had strong control over tone; many considered him the nation’s leading poet. Yet because his poetry did not exalt Party ideology, his life could only end in tragedy. He was banished into obscurity by the North Korean state for the crime of writing according to an “artistic,” instead of “political,” sensibility. His pursuit of art offended the North Korean state. 

*

In North Korea, July 27, 1953 is remembered not as a day of armistice, but rather, as the “day of victory.” The state dictates that all art must base itself on the joy of victory; the heroism of the Korean people for having expelled the forces of American imperialism from their lands must be the “voice” with which every artist speaks.

As is evident in “A Military Jacket Button,” Kim Chul’s poetry contained none of that “joy of victory.” His works reflect instead the darkness brought on by the Korean War. Through the image of the baby sucking on a soldier’s military jacket button—thinking it is its mother’s nipple—Kim Chul depicts the Koreans as a war-weary people, and the Korean War as a tragedy for the nation. The work was considered seditious in its realism, and banned.

To make matters worse, Kim Chul’s relationship with a Russian woman was frowned upon by the state. The Workers’ Party issued an order for their divorce, but Kim Chul refused to comply. He was forced by the authorities to make a choice: give up his Party membership, or separate from the woman. Kim Chul said that if this kind of oppression was what the Party represented, he would rather give up his membership. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in hard labor and was sent to a mine with his young son. According to the system of guilt by association, families of “criminals” in North Korea are also punished.

The Russian woman, forcibly separated from Kim Chul, returned to her home country. Kim Chul continued to work in the mines. As he watched his son grow to adulthood, Kim Chul fell into a depression. He began to feel guilty; his senseless stubbornness had resulted in his son’s lifelong suffering.

Day after day, as he watched his son work all day in the mines and come home exhausted and unable to eat, Kim Chul began to feel that life meant nothing unless one yielded to the needs of the Party. He came to accept that art had no value unless it was used as a tool of propaganda.

He wrote a letter of apology to the Party asking to be absolved of his past mistakes. He pleaded with his successors in the publishing section to give him a chance and publish the apology. They were sympathetic, but had to refuse; it was just not possible to publish something written by a poet whose life and work had been erased from the history of North Korean literature.

Kim Chul was devastated. Eventually, he composed a lyric poem expressing deep regret for his past actions titled “Forgive Me”: 

Forgive me, Mother
I complained about the clothes you made me
I hurt you to the core
Forgive me, Mother

Forgive me, Teacher
I did not complete my chemistry assignment
I did not learn my log tables
I hurt you to the core
Forgive me, Teacher

Do not forgive me, my homeland
If, in the decisive moment of battle
I stop to consider my life
And the enemy’s bullet destined for me
Rips through my comrade
Do not forgive me

I am your son
I will be brave in battle
If, leading the charge with our standard, I fall
Never to rise again
Do not forget me, my homeland
Forgive me

In his apology to the party, Kim Chul likens himself to a child who has misbehaved; yet ultimately, he is prepared to sacrifice himself for his homeland, which should therefore forgive him.

Kim Jong-il accepted Kim Chul’s poetic apology and ordered that he and his family be recalled to Pyongyang. He presented them with a luxury apartment in a forty-story building in the Ryugyong-dong, Botong-gang area. In addition, Kim Jong-il enrolled Kim Chul’s children in the school of literature at Kim Il-sung University—they were to follow in their father’s footsteps and learn to sing eternal praises to the Party. Kim Chul shed many grateful tears for Kim Jong-il’s magnanimity.

He expressed his thanks in the poem “Mother.” This Korean Workers’ Party hymn depicts the Party as the birth mother of the speaker. All North Koreans are required to learn this hymn by heart.

Now, I have
Fully grown children
And white hair over my ears
Yet I call your name in a child’s voice
Mother, I have you, Mother.

You are my mother when I am happy
You are my mother when I am grieving
Whether you call me affectionately or tell me off, I run into your arms
Ask you about a thousand things
Tell you all my mistakes, even ones I might have forgotten
I cannot live without my mother!

If I let go, I might lose you
If I leave your side, I might lose you
Even while asleep, I fumble for you
And your dear gaze rests on my face all night
And your soft touch strokes my head
Into the morning
You, Mother, are you really
The one who gave me birth and milk?

I raise my eyes, softly
Looking up at her face again
I see that I was wrong
She is not my mother alone
But Mother to all the sons and daughters in this land
Raising them as upright revolutionaries
This wonderful mother glances down at me

As she gazes over the earth
All kinds of flowers bloom on desolate lands
And her great hands, when they point to the heavens
I hug the four hooves of the legendary Chollima
Ah!
How could I have addressed this mother
In my child’s voice?
How could the vast embrace of this mother
Have cared even for my small cradle?

I am sorry
To have compared this mother to a woman
Who could not even provide milk for me
A woman of the countryside
Should not have been placed alongside Mother

But what was I to do?
O Party, O Korean Workers’ Party!
I was never taught a more suitable name to call you by
Than “Mother”

If one warrior falls behind on this road of holy war
She runs a thousand, nay, ten thousand miles
Helping him get back into line, wrapping him up in the red flag
She is the mother of revolution, the eternal embrace of life

In the million years of mankind’s history
A billion mothers
Awaited this morning in prayer
Which with your foresight and integrity
And your invincible guidance
Has dawned brilliantly upon this land

How could we in our childish way
Have looked into the depth of your
understanding eyes

O Workers’ Party!
O Mother!
Your wise gaze
Your mature and commanding vision
Scans those faraway hills of the future
And there I will walk

I will give everything
I will not hesitate
If I could shine one more ray of light
Onto your dignified and solemn countenance
I would become a hot coal
And fuel a power plant

If your endless benevolence
Will turn green those furrows
I shall become a handful of fertilizer
And fatten a stalk of rice.
What more could I want? 

***

O Workers’ Party!
O Korean Workers’ Party!
Even after being scattered to the heavens or buried under earth
I will return into your embrace
As your son
In your affectionate gaze
In your soft touch, I will entrust my body
Forever and ever
In my child’s voice
I will call out your name

Mother, Mother, without you
I cannot live!

We can see through this poem how individual human relationships become part of an ideological construct dominated by the presence of the Party.

By conflating a term that describes the most intimate and tender human relationship with the identity of the Korean Workers’ Party, the political effect is maximized. This Party hymn is a testament to the extent to which poetic talent is constrained to serve the will of the state in North Korea.

North Korean poets serve the Party with the art of poetry, novelists with the novel. Reader, please note that the concepts of “free will,” or “coercion,” are not adequate for an understanding of why North Korean artists serve the state. They are not merely forced to serve the party: they are forced to desire that servitude. They extol the Party because this is the only way to stay alive.

© Gwak Moon-an. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2013 by Shirley Lee. All rights reserved.

English Korean (Original)

At its essence, the purpose of North Korean literature is to praise the Korean Workers’ Party. While South Korean poetry deals with topics such as love or life, North Korean poetry refers only to Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un, constantly reinventing itself as a mechanism of hymnal thought-control. In North Korea, whatever literary genius poets may possess, ignoring Party ideology in their work is a certain path to being mentally or physically broken by the state. This was the case of North Korean poet Kim Chul.

In the early 1960s, Kim Chul was one of the foremost poets in North Korea. He was renowned for his lyric poetry and wrote often about love. The people even dubbed him “the Pushkin of Korea.” But no matter how beautiful, his poems could not be published unless they promoted Party ideology. One such poem, “A Military Jacket Button,” depicts a soldier returning home after the Korean War. He takes in his arms a motherless baby. The baby wakes up and sucks on a button on the soldier’s military uniform, mistaking it for his mother’s nipple. It is a poignant elegy about the misery of the Korean War.

Wearing a military jacket stained with gunsmoke
The soldier holds the sleeping baby in his arms
The baby awakes, caresses his mother’s breast
And sucks on the button of a military jacket.

Ah!
May this soldier become his mother.

Kim Chul seized poetic opportunities, wrote succinctly, and had strong control over tone; many considered him the nation’s leading poet. Yet because his poetry did not exalt Party ideology, his life could only end in tragedy. He was banished into obscurity by the North Korean state for the crime of writing according to an “artistic,” instead of “political,” sensibility. His pursuit of art offended the North Korean state. 

*

In North Korea, July 27, 1953 is remembered not as a day of armistice, but rather, as the “day of victory.” The state dictates that all art must base itself on the joy of victory; the heroism of the Korean people for having expelled the forces of American imperialism from their lands must be the “voice” with which every artist speaks.

As is evident in “A Military Jacket Button,” Kim Chul’s poetry contained none of that “joy of victory.” His works reflect instead the darkness brought on by the Korean War. Through the image of the baby sucking on a soldier’s military jacket button—thinking it is its mother’s nipple—Kim Chul depicts the Koreans as a war-weary people, and the Korean War as a tragedy for the nation. The work was considered seditious in its realism, and banned.

To make matters worse, Kim Chul’s relationship with a Russian woman was frowned upon by the state. The Workers’ Party issued an order for their divorce, but Kim Chul refused to comply. He was forced by the authorities to make a choice: give up his Party membership, or separate from the woman. Kim Chul said that if this kind of oppression was what the Party represented, he would rather give up his membership. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in hard labor and was sent to a mine with his young son. According to the system of guilt by association, families of “criminals” in North Korea are also punished.

The Russian woman, forcibly separated from Kim Chul, returned to her home country. Kim Chul continued to work in the mines. As he watched his son grow to adulthood, Kim Chul fell into a depression. He began to feel guilty; his senseless stubbornness had resulted in his son’s lifelong suffering.

Day after day, as he watched his son work all day in the mines and come home exhausted and unable to eat, Kim Chul began to feel that life meant nothing unless one yielded to the needs of the Party. He came to accept that art had no value unless it was used as a tool of propaganda.

He wrote a letter of apology to the Party asking to be absolved of his past mistakes. He pleaded with his successors in the publishing section to give him a chance and publish the apology. They were sympathetic, but had to refuse; it was just not possible to publish something written by a poet whose life and work had been erased from the history of North Korean literature.

Kim Chul was devastated. Eventually, he composed a lyric poem expressing deep regret for his past actions titled “Forgive Me”: 

Forgive me, Mother
I complained about the clothes you made me
I hurt you to the core
Forgive me, Mother

Forgive me, Teacher
I did not complete my chemistry assignment
I did not learn my log tables
I hurt you to the core
Forgive me, Teacher

Do not forgive me, my homeland
If, in the decisive moment of battle
I stop to consider my life
And the enemy’s bullet destined for me
Rips through my comrade
Do not forgive me

I am your son
I will be brave in battle
If, leading the charge with our standard, I fall
Never to rise again
Do not forget me, my homeland
Forgive me

In his apology to the party, Kim Chul likens himself to a child who has misbehaved; yet ultimately, he is prepared to sacrifice himself for his homeland, which should therefore forgive him.

Kim Jong-il accepted Kim Chul’s poetic apology and ordered that he and his family be recalled to Pyongyang. He presented them with a luxury apartment in a forty-story building in the Ryugyong-dong, Botong-gang area. In addition, Kim Jong-il enrolled Kim Chul’s children in the school of literature at Kim Il-sung University—they were to follow in their father’s footsteps and learn to sing eternal praises to the Party. Kim Chul shed many grateful tears for Kim Jong-il’s magnanimity.

He expressed his thanks in the poem “Mother.” This Korean Workers’ Party hymn depicts the Party as the birth mother of the speaker. All North Koreans are required to learn this hymn by heart.

Now, I have
Fully grown children
And white hair over my ears
Yet I call your name in a child’s voice
Mother, I have you, Mother.

You are my mother when I am happy
You are my mother when I am grieving
Whether you call me affectionately or tell me off, I run into your arms
Ask you about a thousand things
Tell you all my mistakes, even ones I might have forgotten
I cannot live without my mother!

If I let go, I might lose you
If I leave your side, I might lose you
Even while asleep, I fumble for you
And your dear gaze rests on my face all night
And your soft touch strokes my head
Into the morning
You, Mother, are you really
The one who gave me birth and milk?

I raise my eyes, softly
Looking up at her face again
I see that I was wrong
She is not my mother alone
But Mother to all the sons and daughters in this land
Raising them as upright revolutionaries
This wonderful mother glances down at me

As she gazes over the earth
All kinds of flowers bloom on desolate lands
And her great hands, when they point to the heavens
I hug the four hooves of the legendary Chollima
Ah!
How could I have addressed this mother
In my child’s voice?
How could the vast embrace of this mother
Have cared even for my small cradle?

I am sorry
To have compared this mother to a woman
Who could not even provide milk for me
A woman of the countryside
Should not have been placed alongside Mother

But what was I to do?
O Party, O Korean Workers’ Party!
I was never taught a more suitable name to call you by
Than “Mother”

If one warrior falls behind on this road of holy war
She runs a thousand, nay, ten thousand miles
Helping him get back into line, wrapping him up in the red flag
She is the mother of revolution, the eternal embrace of life

In the million years of mankind’s history
A billion mothers
Awaited this morning in prayer
Which with your foresight and integrity
And your invincible guidance
Has dawned brilliantly upon this land

How could we in our childish way
Have looked into the depth of your
understanding eyes

O Workers’ Party!
O Mother!
Your wise gaze
Your mature and commanding vision
Scans those faraway hills of the future
And there I will walk

I will give everything
I will not hesitate
If I could shine one more ray of light
Onto your dignified and solemn countenance
I would become a hot coal
And fuel a power plant

If your endless benevolence
Will turn green those furrows
I shall become a handful of fertilizer
And fatten a stalk of rice.
What more could I want? 

***

O Workers’ Party!
O Korean Workers’ Party!
Even after being scattered to the heavens or buried under earth
I will return into your embrace
As your son
In your affectionate gaze
In your soft touch, I will entrust my body
Forever and ever
In my child’s voice
I will call out your name

Mother, Mother, without you
I cannot live!

We can see through this poem how individual human relationships become part of an ideological construct dominated by the presence of the Party.

By conflating a term that describes the most intimate and tender human relationship with the identity of the Korean Workers’ Party, the political effect is maximized. This Party hymn is a testament to the extent to which poetic talent is constrained to serve the will of the state in North Korea.

North Korean poets serve the Party with the art of poetry, novelists with the novel. Reader, please note that the concepts of “free will,” or “coercion,” are not adequate for an understanding of why North Korean artists serve the state. They are not merely forced to serve the party: they are forced to desire that servitude. They extol the Party because this is the only way to stay alive.

© Gwak Moon-an. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2013 by Shirley Lee. All rights reserved.

용서를 구한 시인

오늘 북한시문학은 조선노동당을 칭송하는 송가문학으로 그 발전을 이룩하고 있다.

순수   사랑과  인생을  노래하는  한국시문학에      비해   북한시문학은      김일성,

정은만을 위한 세뇌칭송의 찬가문학으로 거듭나고 있다.

 

 

 

김정일

 

아무리   뛰어난   시적재능을  가진    시인일지라도  시문학에서  정치사상성을  배제하는

 

순간,

 

어떤   가혹한  처지에  놓이게  되는지,

 

시인의  자유로운  개성이  정치적  요구  앞

 

에   어떻게  무너지는지를      북한시인 김철의  파란만장한 인생사와 눈물겨운  굴욕   사를

통해 이야기하고자 한다.

 

 

 

1960년대 초,

 

시인 김철은 북한에서 가장 유능한 시인 중 한사람이었다.

 

서정적인 시문학에 대한 조예가 깊었던   김철은 사랑에  대한 시를 주로 많이   썼는데

 

북한인민들로부터

 

조선의 푸슈킨이란 별명까지 받은 재능 있는 시인이었다.

 

당시 김철 시인이 쓴 시중에 대표적인 시가

 

군복단추라는 시다.

 

이 시는 결여된 정치사상성으로 인하여 당시 출판물에서 삭제되었다.

 

시   군복단추

 

6.25전쟁이 끝나고  고향으로  돌아온  인민군병사가      엄마  잃은  아기

 

를   품에   안고   있을   때   잠에서 깨어난  아기가  인민군병사의     군복단추를  엄마    젖꼭지

 

인줄 알고 빠는 시적묘사를 통하여

 

6.25전쟁이  가져다준 비참 상을 노래한 단시다.

 

짧은 시적묘사 속에 전쟁이 가져다준 비참 상을 간결하게 묘사한 재치 있는 시다.

 

 

 

 

군복단추

 

 

포연에 그슬린 병사외투입고

잠자는 어린 아기 품에 안은 병사

잠에서 깨어난 어린 아기 엄마 품 더듬으며

군복단추 빨 적에

군복 입은 사나이 엄마 될 순 없을 가

 

 

 

시적계기에 대한  예리한  포착,

 

짧고  간결한  시적묘사,

 

강한   여운조성으로      인해   당시

 

북한시문학에서     베스트로  인정받은  시인   김철   이지만,

 

시의   정치사상성을 배제하고

 

순수   예술지상주의라는       이유로   북한정부로부터     영영   매장되는   비극적   운명을   맞게

 

된다.

 

단시 군복단추도 이런 면에서 북한정부의 비위를 심히 거슬렀다.

 

북한에서는

 

1953

 

727일을 정전이   아닌

 

전승기념일로 극구자찬하면서 미제를

 

쳐    물리친   조선인민의  영웅적   기상과  전승의   기쁨을   모든   문학작품들에서     시대의

 

 

 

기본감정으로 내세우도록 지향시키고 있었다.

 

하지만  시인   김철이  쓴

 

군복단추에서는     북한당국이 고취하는  전승의  기쁨은  전혀

 

없고  전쟁이  가져다준  참혹상만이 시의   기본감정으로      흐르고  있다는  것이   북한정부

 

의   입장이었다.

 

전쟁으로  인해   엄마   잃은  아기가  아빠의  군복단추를 엄마의  젖꼭지

 

로    알고   빠는    시적계기만을 묘사함으로서 사람들에게  염전사상을  고취하고   전쟁공

포심만  야기   시킨  극히   자연주의적이고      염세주의적인      반동  작품으로  낙인찍혀  영영

 

세상에 그 빛을 보지 못한 시가

 

군복단추.

 

 

 

설상가상으로      시인   김철은   러시아여성과 살고   있던   것이   문제가   되어   이혼하라는

 

당적   권고를   받게   되지만  이를   강하게   거부한다.

 

그러자  당에서는  조선노동당원증

 

을   내놓겠는가,

 

아니면  러시아여성과      헤어지겠는가,

 

둘    중   하나를  결정하라고 압박

 

하였다.

 

그때   시인   김철은  그런   것이   조선노동당원증이라면       나는   당원증을  내놓겠

 

다며 주저 없이 당증을 바치고 수천 속 지하막장에서 광부로 반생을 보내게 된다.

 

결국은   러시아여성도 강제이혼을 당하고   자기   조국으로  돌아간  뒤,

 

심심산골  수천

 

속   지하막장에서     십 수   년을   광부로  일하면서  온갖   고생을 밥   먹듯   해오던  김철은

 

중년이  된   아들의  잠자는  모습을  보며  어느   순간,

 

자신의  무의미한  고집과  반항심

 

때문에 자식들이 고생을 하고 있다는 죄의식에 극도의 좌절감을 맞게 된다.

고된 노동을  마치고 파김치가 되어 집으로 돌아와   저녁도 먹지 못한 채    쓰러져  잠

든   아들의 시체 같은   모습을 보면서  시인   김철은  북한에서  정치사상적  바람세를   거

스르면  인생은  아무의미도 없고   아무리  뛰어난  재능도  정치선전의 효율적인  도구로

이용될 때 비로소 그 진가를 인정받게 된다는 것을 통감하게 된다.

이렇게  되어   김철은 자신의  지난 기간 과오를   반성하는 의미에서 당에 용서를 구하

는   일종의 반성문을 시로   써가지고  평양에 있는   문예출판사를     찾아가 출판해  줄   것

 

을    후배들에게  부탁하였다.

 

하지만   이미   시문단계에서      삭제해버린  자연주의적  시문

 

학의 대표자  김철의 시를   출판한다는  것은 감히     후배들의  입장에서도  선뜻    다칠   수

없는 일이라 좋은 말로 거절해 버렸다.

아무도  돌아봐주는  이     없는   삭막한 허탈감에  시인   김철은 또   한 번   정신적인 빈혈

 

을   느끼게 되었고  고민에  고민을 거듭한  뒤,

 

자신의  과거를 반성하는  서정시

 

용서

 

하시라를  써가지고  김정일에게  직접   올리기   위해   중앙당청사  앞에서  밤낮없이  기

 

다렸다.  그때 김철이 쓴 서정시

 

용서하시라는 다음과 같다.

 

 

 

 

용서하시라

 

 

 

용서하시라 어머니시여

무명천으로 통바지 해주었다고 투정질하며

어머니의 속을 태우던 이아들을

 

 

 

 

어머니시여,

 

용서하시라

 

 

 

용서하시라 선생님이시여

화학숙제도 제대로 안 해오고

대수공식도 외우지 않아

선생님의 속을 태우던 이 제자를

선생님이시여 용서하시라

 

 

그러나 용서하지 마시라 조국이여

결전의 길에서 내 순간이나마

생명의 귀중함을 생각한다면

하여 나의 가슴을 겨눈 적의 탄알이

전우의 가슴을 뚫게 된다면

절대로 용서치 마시라

 

 

허나 나는 그대의 아들

내 결전장에서 용맹하나니

돌격의 앞장에서 깃발 들고 나가다 쓰러져

영영 다시 일어나지 못한다 해도

조국이여 부디 나를 잊지 마시라

그리고 용서하시라

 

 

이처럼  김철은 시에서  지난   기간   당   앞에   이런   투정   저런   투정을 다하였던  자신을

 

용서해  달라는  것,

 

하지만  조국을  위한  결전의  순간에는 전혀   비겁하지  않고  돌격

 

의   앞장에서  제일먼저  적탄에  자기   가슴을  내대겠으니 그때는  부디   조국이여 자기

를   용서해 달라는  식으로  당과   북한정부  앞에   뻣뻣했던 자신의  과오에 대한   반성문

을 시로 썼던 것이다.

김정일은 김철  시인의  반성을  높이   평가해  그의   가족들을  평양으로  올려와  평양시

 

보통강구역   류경동에   위치한

 

40층고급아파트를 선물했으며   자식들을   김일성종합대

 

학어문학부에      입학시켜  아버지의  뒤를  이어   영원히  당을   노래하는  시인으로  자라도

 

록 해   주었다.

 

그제야 김철은  너무도 철없었던 지난   과오를 오열 속에   씻고 또   씻

 

으며 치로 어루만지는 김정일의 배려에 감사의 눈물을 흘리고 또 흘렸다.

 

 

 

이렇게  되어  당에   대한   칭송의  송가,

달달 외우도록 당에서 강요하고 있는 서정시

 

찬가로  나온   것이  오늘날  모든  북한인민들이

어머니이다.

 

서정시

 

어머니는  조선노동당을 자기를   낳아   길러준   친어머니의  모습으로  형상한

 

조선노동당찬가다.

 

인간본연의   개성이    어떻게    물리적으로   길들어지는지는  서정시

 

 

 

어머니를 통해 보도록 하자.

 

 

 

 

어머니

 

 

내 이제는

다 자란 아이들을 거느리고

어느덧 귀밑머리 희어졌건만

지금도 때 없이 아이 적 목소리로 찾는

어머니 어머니가 내게 있어라

 

 

기쁠 때도    어머니

괴로울 때로 어머니

반기어도 꾸짖어도 달려가 안기며

천백가지 사연 다 아뢰고

잊을 번한 잘못까지 다 말하는

이 어머니 없이 나는 못살아

 

 

놓치면 잃을 듯

떨어지면 숨질 듯

잠결에도 그 품을 더듬어 찾으면

정겨운 시선은 밤 깊도록 내 얼굴에 머물러 있고

살뜰한 그 손길은 날이 밝도록

내 머리를 쓰다듬어 주나니

이 어머니 정말

나를 낳아 젖 먹여준 그 어머니인가!

 

 

조용히 눈길을 들어

어머니의 모습 다시 쳐다보노라

 

그러면.. ..

 

아니구나.

 

이 어머니 나 하나만이 아닌

이 땅위에 수천만 아들딸들을

어엿한 혁명가로 안아 키우는

위대한 어머니가 나를 굽어보나니

 

 

그 시선 한번 강토에 비끼면

황량하던 폐허에도 온갖 꽃이 만발하고

 

 

 

거인의 그 손길 창공을 가리키면

전설 속에 천리마 네 굽을 안고 나는

이런 어머니를 내 지금껏

아이 적 목소리로 불러왔던 가

이런 어머니의 크나큰 품이

나의 작은 요람까지 지켜주고 있었던가.

 

 

송구스러워라

이 어머니를 나에게 젖조차

변변히 먹여줄 수 없었던

한 시골아낙네의 이름과

나란히 한다는 것은

 

 

하지만 어이하리.

당이여 조선노동당이여

어머니란 그 말보다 그대에게 더 어울리는 말을

이 세상 그 누구도 나에게 가르쳐주지 못했거니

 

 

준엄한 싸움 길에 하나의 전사 뒤떨어져도

 

천리 길,

 

만 리 길을 다시 달려가

 

붉은 기에 휩싸 안아 대오에 세워주는

영원한 삶의 품 혁명의 어머니

 

 

인류역사 백 만년에

수억만의 어머니들이

그리도 기원하던 아침이 오직

 

그대의 예지,

 

그대의 신념

 

그대의 필승불패의 향도 따라

이 땅위에 찬연히 밝아왔나니

 

 

응석과 어리광 만으로야

어찌 그대의 사려 깊은 눈빛을

마주 볼 수 있으랴

 

 

당이여

어머니시여

 

 

 

그대 현명한 스승의 시선

그대 노숙한 사령관의 안광이

저 멀리 내다보이는

미래의 언덕으로 내 걸으리라

 

 

무엇을 아끼랴

그 무엇을 서슴으랴

그대 숭엄하고 존엄 높은 모습에

한줄기 빛이라도 더해 드릴 수 있다면

내 불붙는 석탄이 되어

어느 발전소 화실에 날아들어도 좋아라.

 

 

그대 은정 가없이 펼쳐진

저 푸른 이랑들을 푸르게 할 수만 있다면

내 한줌 거름이 되어

어린 모 한포기 살찌운들

무슨 한이 있으랴

. ..    … …   ….. ….

 

 

당이여,

조선노동당이여

하늘가에 흩어지고 땅에 묻혔다가도

나는 다시 그대 품에 돌아올

그대의 아들

그대 정겨운 시선,

살뜰한 손길에 몸을 맡기고

나는 영원히

아이 적 목소리로

부르고 부르리라

 

 

 

어머니,

 

어머니 없이

 

나는 못살아.

 

 

자기를  낳아준  어머니라는     이   세상   가장   친근한  이름에  조선노동당을      디졸브함으로

 

서    정치사상적선전효과를       극대화한  시

 

어머니는  재능   있는   한   시인으로  하여금

 

북한사회에서      시인의  인생을  산다는  것이   얼마나  어렵고  험난한  길인지를  조선노동

 

당찬가

 

어머니를 통해 의미 깊게 시사해주고 있다.

 

 

 

 

시인은  시로  용서를  빌고,

 

소설가는  소설로서 북한의  정치체제를 찬양하는 바로   여

 

기에 오늘 북한재능 인들의   유일한  생존이 담보되어  있음을 독자 분들은   아셔야  할

것이다.

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