Chapter Six
1
Oh mighty River Amnok,Thousands of ri your waters shine
Along their journey to the sea.
But now the mist
Is shrouding them in darkness,
And shrouding too the lonely raft,
That drifts down slowly with the stream.
From out the little hut upon the raft
A plaintive song is heard upon the air:
"We play the pipe
And drift along.
Our native fields
Are long since gone.
Many ri before us lie
On the course that we must ply.
As we drift on to foreign parts
And leave at home our broken hearts..."
Why is this song so sad upon the air?
Such is the fate of all the people's songs
When their ancestral land is wracked
In pain and torment.
How could their songs be otherwise,
When from the ancient pines
The Japanese have built their spacious halls
And there make merry, and drink wine,
And the poor houses of Korean peasants
Are falling into ruin and decay,
Their roofs and pillars rotting with the years?
2
When it grew dark and the cool breeze of eveningFanned the Amnok River's gentle waves,
From high upon the rocky northern shore
A drawn-out whistle echoed through the air,
And straightaway was answered on the raft
By the gleam of a little signal lamp,
And the raft swayed and turned towards the shore.
Two men step out on to the shore--
The raftsman and the partisan Chol Ho.
And they are joined by other warriors,
Swift and silent as they slip across the rocks.
Plain raft upon the Amnok waters,
You have now become a bridge
That leads into their homeland,
A floating bridge that now will lead
These warriors back to their own native home.
The bridge is set afloat,
And echoing gently through the darkness
There comes an old Korean song:
"Though far away from home
The waves may carry us--
Our ship will still return
To our own native shore...."
3
This, then, is their own Korean land,Tormented ever by malicious foes,
Koreans can find no place here to live,
And no space even after they are dead.
I have a question for the partisans:
Was it so long ago you crossed the river
From this far Korean side
To stand like wandering beggars
On a foreign shore,
On land unworked and alien?
Who remembers how the wind sighed then
In echo of those travellers' sighs?
Who remembers how the Amnok beat its waves
To foam against the rocky cliffs,
And the spray thrown up in the air
Was like the tears of those making the crossing?...
Oh, mighty River Amnok!
Raise high your waves today
And let them roar,
And let their echo thunder on
Across the breadth of our Korean land!
Today her sons are come to her again,
Come to her from the distant Changbai mountains,
Lighting their route along the way
With the flames of their freedom-loving hearts.
Oh mighty River Amnok!
Raise high your stormy waves today
And let them roar
And let the echo thunder on
And tell our ancient homeland
That her sons are come once more
To light upon Korean land
The fire of struggle and of liberation.
4
A small town lies in a ravine.Ten o'clock at night,
The citizens have all put out their lights
And fallen into sleep.
The doors are long since locked
In all the shops where people haggled as they bought
And struggled to out-cheat each other.
Even the taverns are quiet now,
And the Japanese drunks
Have caterwauled their "Kusatsu yoitoko"
And gone home from their filthy Japanese whores.
And on the outskirts,
In an old decrepit shack,
Where a poor boatman's wife
This morning lost her husband,
The lamentations are now over.
The widow sleeps,
Sunk in a weary slumber without dreams,
And at her side there sleep her sons,
With the emaciated faces of old men.
5
Ten o'clock at night,The town is sleeping.
Only the street lamps splutter feebly,
Lighting the weary silence of the streets.
Behind his desk at the police-station,
The duty sergeant dozes quietly
Until he is awakened by the shouting
Of a woman, who shoves in through the door,
A drunken, ragged-looking tramp,
Who scarcely holds himself erect.
"What's wrong?" the policeman asks the woman.
"He won't give me the money for my wine!"
"Money for what?" the tramp asks, laughing.
"That's a good joke, by God...."
"What are you laughing at?"
Yells out the sergeant,
"How dare you laugh in front of me?"
I'll teach you, you Korean dog,
To keep your laughter to yourself!"
He got up from his chair,
And clenched his fists,
And went towards the man.
But a swift blow to the temple
From the butt of a revolver
Felled him grunting to the floor.
The woman (who was Kkot Bun)
Went to the telephone
And cut the wires.
Chol Ho--the political worker--
Threw the station doors wide open
And signalled with his lamp.
Immediately somewhere a shot rang out,
Then it was followed by a volley from all sides:
In the post-office, in the bank, in the town-hall
And in the office of the forestry.
Across the cloudy night-time sky
Machine-gun bullets traced a dotted line.
6
Enemies run bewildered to and fro,And fall beneath the blazing fire.
The prison burns,
So does the Japanese town-hall,
The houses of the Japanese,
The houses of the traitors,
And as the flames grow higher,
They light up all the night-time town.
This is the first time in long years of slavery
That streets trampled into submission
Have echoed to this mighty voice,
This summons to resistance and to hope.
Along the streets roused from their slumber
Run men and women, children too,
Even an old man with no hat on
Runs together with them to the square,
Where crowds, illuminated by the fire,
Surge back and forth in noisy waves.
Suddenly all fell silent
As
Out on to the square,
And raised aloft his naked sabre,
Fire gleaming in the polished steel.
"Koreans!
Take a close look at the flames
Unleashed against the Japanese!
Korea's soul is still alive,
The heart of our immortal people
Is beating still today!
Let us all fan these flames
Until our enemy is reduced to ashes!"
Then we shall hear a great "Manse!"
That shakes the houses and the streets,
And a flame that reaches to the sky
Shall pierce the gloom above our ancient land.
7
Illuminated by the scarlet light,And chanting revolutionary songs,
The partisans march out of town,
Leaving behind an atmosphere of hope.
Crowds of people see them on their way:
"Travel in safety, heroes of our land!"
"May happiness and victory be yours!"
And in the firelight's ruddy glow
The tears upon their faces are like blood.
"May you be happy, friends who stay behind!"
"Fight for our people's freedom!"
"We shall meet again, dear comrades
At the martial feast of liberation!"
And stepping forth into the night
The partisans move in full battle order,
Their steady marching footsteps leading on
To fields where other battles still await them.