11/12/2015
6/11/2015
The Dokdo Isle
By Yearn Hong Choi
We approach the Dokdo Isle;
Our hearts are pounding.
Our hearts are pounding
As we start to see the three-peak isle on the horizon.
Dokdo is seen in the distance
As an island with three peaks,
So it was once called the Three-Peak Island.
Dokdo looks different from different angles,
So it has had many different names over 1,500 years.
Once it was called the Seal Island,
Because so many seals landed on the Island.
Who killed seals? Barbarians did.
Once it was called as the Rock Island.
Cholla fishermen were called “the Rock,” which meant “the lonely” in Korean.
The Korean fishermen offered many different names for the Dokdo Isle
Over the past 1,500 years.
But Japan dared to claim that it discovered a no man’s island and occupied it in 1905.
Only barbarians want to steal the isle we have occupied.
We approach the Dokdo Isle;
Our hearts are pounding.
We approach the Dokdo Isle,
Our hearts are pounding
As we start to see seagulls.
The Island sea has been the fishing ground for many centuries
For all Korean people over many centuries.
So no one can steal our Dokdo Isle.
We can see Dokdo from Ulnungdo with our naked eyes
On many fine days.
So don’t try to steal our Isle.
Song for the Korean War Soldiers
Song for the Korean War Soldiers
Who knows the small country still divided
along the 155 miles of demilitarized zone
where deer and wild animals are killed
when they step on landlines?
Who knows the small country still divided
where no one can exchange letters to
his parents and brothers in the North?
Who said, blood is thicker than water?
/Who knows the small country still divided
still under the terror of war?
The North armed with more nuclear weapons
are testing long range missile./
Who knows the small country still divided?
Only migratory birds are flying the sky
over the barbed wires of demilitarized zone.
Where is the post office? Where is the mailman?
/Only the old men and women in their 70s remember
The War in 1950-1953 in their tender 10 years old age.
The young only know the War from the history book.
Is it really the forgotten war? It should not be./
Who knows the South's democracy and prosperity
On the ruins of devastated war?
Do you know the miracle of The South?
Freedom is not free. Freedom is not really free.
We are grateful to your sacrifice.
Every morning we dedicate flowers to your tombstone.
Every morning we dedicate flowers to your memorial service.
We are grateful to your sacrifice for a faraway country.
By Yearn Hong Choi
Requiem --at the Korean War Memorial
--at the Korean War Memorial
You saved our country from the three-year war.
You saved our 30 million lives from the Communist peril.
We shall never forget you for what you did,
The most beautiful sacrifice and dedication.
You sacrificed your precious life for a country,
A faraway, poor, and small country, from your homeland.
We shall never forget you for what you did,
The most beautiful sacrifice and dedication.
Freedom is not free. Freedom is not free.
Freedom is due to your brave youth and courage.
We shall never forget you what you did,
The most beautiful sacrifice and dedication.
Amazing miracle. Amazing to see our country’s dynamics!
On freedom and democracy, the nation is progressing on.
All due to your beautiful sacrifice and dedication.
We shall never forget you for what you did, the final human victory.
5/11/2015
Easily Written Poem
Easily Written Poem
—after seeing documentary film, secret underground train to Seoul
By Yearn Hong Choi
The leftists did not know how dangerous it was when wecrossed the Tuman River to arrive at the Manchurian sideof China. We did not know how dangerous it was to escape the spies of North Korea and China in Manchuria until we crossed the border of China and Mongolia.
Many were killed on the barbed wire. We took a long underground soul train from there to the Southeast Asian jungle and sought political asylum. We did not know how to distinguish the leftists from the rightists. We just risked our lives for minimum food and minimum freedom.
The leftist regimes donated astronomical amounts of money to the dictator in North Korea under the name of nationalism and humanitarian aides. However, they did not see the North Korean refugees. They did not hear the screams of those who shot at the borders.
They did not know the existence of the soul train that went through a long tunnel underground. They were careless of the dictator’s firing of long- and short-range missiles toward the East Sea and the Pacific Ocean and underground testing of nuclear bombs.
They just believed in nationalism and reconciliation between the two Koreas.
They did not ask who we were. They were careless about how many of us were killed in North Korea, in the River, and in the border of China and Mongolia. They just shout that they are the nationalists.
How pathetic! How ridiculous! They don’t see that the dictator is a naked emperor.
Mother and Dove
Mother and Dove
The dove which mother embroidered as a schoolgirl
Pecking for food by my side ever since
I was old enough to observe my surroundings.
Even when the War destroyed everything,
The dove survived
And pecked for peace in my childhood days.
The dove is given to the expatriate son.
The dove flew over the Pacific,
Pecking mother’s love in this coastal city
Enclosed by the Atlantic.
Mother is over 70 years old.
Although the son cannot hide his gray hair,
The dove is still flying in a very peaceful past
Of the mother and the son.
Leaving mother’s hands
Flying in her warmth
To my side,
The dove is praying for the son’s peace.
Mother, my mother.
Dove, my dove.
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