Drinking a cup of water,
she tried to forget a host of stories
in the Japanese colonial period,
when moonlit nights were bright in the ruined nation
and then again in the age of a divided Korea.
Once, Eon-nyeon from the village opposite,
came by after gathering greens and said:
‘When you die
we’ll make the memorial offerings for you.’
‘I don’t need that,’ she said
with a smile, her first in a very long time.
If she had no teeth
she still had gums.
Her gummy smile was all she had.
Paddy Fields
There were children laughing in the Pyeongtaek fields,
and girls singing, too.
In that hallucinatory world,
there were tender yellow-green
baby rice plants
in the freshly planted paddy-fields.
Now it was the turn of sunlight,
of water.
After three rounds of weeding the rice would ripen.
They were the fields of the Republic of Korea,
fields of the People’s Republic,
then of the Republic of Korea again,
then of the People’s Republic again,
then of the Republic of Korea again.
After American jets flew over, the fields were quiet.
Don’t be sad.
Your descendants will continue forever because of these fields.
The rice is ripening in the scorching heat.
On the dirt bank of one field, homeless dogs are coupling.
Two Deaths
Gwon Pyeong-geun, aged 47.
Yi Seok-u, aged 26.
Gwon put on the suit long left hanging unworn:
now he was a gentleman of the harbor.
Yi appeared wearing a clean shirt
without his usual People’s Guard’s armband: a lovely young man.
On September 8, 1948
they joined the crowd out to welcome the American military
landing at Incheon harbour,
a zone still being guarded by Japanese police.
There, Gwon Pyeong-geun
and Yi Seok-u were shot dead by a Japanese policeman.
Rejoicing at Liberation,
and gone out to welcome
the liberating army, the allies,
they were killed by the last tatters of Japanese imperialism.
Nay, it was liberation that killed them.
Gweon Pyeong-geun had been chairman of the central committee
of the Incheon branch of the Korea Workers’ Union;
Yi Seok-u had been a guard in the people’s militia.
Regarding their corpses, the Americans said
that the Japanese police were right to fire.
That evening, the Korea Workers’ Union
shouted anti-American slogans
along with anti-Japanese slogans
and tore down from the wall
the Stars and Stripes.
Flowers
In prehistoric times, forty thousand years ago,
as people were moving their homes
one by one from caves to huts,
when a father was killed while hunting
his son
brought him home on his back,
put the body up in a tree
then offered flowers on the ground beneath.
Forty thousand years later
in Jinan, North Jeolla Province,
a family made a grave for a man who died in the war
then a four-year-old boy offered flowers.
Behind him, his mother wept.
A few wild chrysanthemums.
General de Gaulle
Today, again, General de Gaulle was sitting in the café.
The faces around the stove in Café Geosang
behind the old Hwasin department store in Jong-ro, Seoul
turned red
around the hot stove.
His name was Kim Cheol-sun;
his nickname, General de Gaulle;
his occupation, none;
his marital status was unclear –
sometimes he was said to have a son, sometimes not.
More than once every day
the words ‘General de Gaulle’ were sure to come tumbling
out of his mouth, which looked like a turtle’s.
‘In France, General de Gaulle got rid of every traitor,
those who fawned upon Hitler,
those who fawned upon the Vichy government.
He executed some,
sentenced others to life imprisonment,
deprived more than 600,000 of civic rights.
But in this bloody Republic of Korea,
pro-Japanese people have become patriots,
while patriots are blamed as traitors,
as reds.
Where on earth is our national spirit?
Of what country is Dr Syngman Rhee president?’
A few days after,
General de Gaulle failed to appear in the café.
An outstanding bill of eight hundred hwan
began to gather dust.
Lee In-su
Humanity became a tool of barbarity.
Humanity was a sacrificial offering.
During the Japanese colonial period
talented Lee In-su studied English literature
at the University of London,
then came back. After Liberation
he was the pride of Korea University’s English department.
One English teacher from Mokpo,
eager to meet him,
even made the two days’ train journey up to Seoul.
Lee In-su was the pride of Korea’s English studies,
he looked cool after he’d shaved,
he was laconic at all times.
Lee In-su had a wife and children.
He moved between home and school.
War broke out.
He was not able to leave Seoul.
During the three months under the People’s Republic
Kim Dong-seok, who had previously gone North, came back down.
At his urging
Lee In-su made English broadcasts aimed at the American forces.
Even Byeon Yeong-tae, the future premier who had taught English in China,
could not match his English.
After Seoul was recaptured
Lee was arrested.
Kim Seong-su, the founder of Korea University,
addressed a petition to President Syngman Rhee.
Many people
tried to save his life.
Defence minister Shin Seong-mo had him swiftly executed.
Lee In-su was a brilliant scholar
when he was in England.
Shin Seong-mo had been a ship’s captain amidst wild seas.
He always considered Lee In-su his rival.
From early days,
small Shin Seong-mo
had thought only of getting rid of tall Lee In-su,
by any means.
An Outstaring Game
The meeting started,
the first session of the very long,
very tedious
armistice negotiations.
The UN’s chief delegate was American Vice Admiral C. Turner Joy,
the North’s was General Nam Il.
Outside Panmunjeom, the fighting was still furious.
Joy proposed: ‘Let’s make the armistice line the Kansas Line,
passing through Yeoncheon and Cheolwon in Gyeonggi province,
Geumhwa and Ganseong in Gangwon province.’
Nam Il proposed:
‘Let’s go back to the 38th parallel as before the war.’