Poems of 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.
 


Dreaming of a Nation of Poetry
 Park Sung-jin
 
A single poem
becomes a bird crossing borders,
and a single line of language
becomes a bridge spanning the seas.
 
The flowers blossomed by the letters created by King Sejong
bloom toward the skies of the world,
while Kim So-wol’s azaleas
and Yun Dong-ju’s starlight
reach beyond the small peninsula in the East
and seep into the hearts of humanity.
 
Even today, Korean poets
sow the seeds of love and peace.
 
Poetry endures longer than guns
and travels farther than power.
 
One day, Korean literature
will become a beacon illuminating world literature,
shining upon the human heart
and singing of Korea,
the Nation of Poetry.
 
 
 
Gandhi’s Walking Stick
 Park Sung-jin

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.
 
 
 
From Baekdu to Halla
Park Sung-jin
 
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.