Choe In-geol:
I Sing Again the “Song of Praying for Death in Battle”
Dost Thou still remember me?
My bloodshot voice being revived again and again,
As a boiling cry, as heaps of skin-stinging winds,
Whenever the silvery moon arises over the frozen Amnok River
While wandering around the virgin forests in Yulangcun and Baiyunping—
Dost Thou still remember that voice?
While the winter is rushing in with the whirring north wind in northern Jiandao,
We barely managed to satisfy our hunger with pancakes
Made of mashed corn and bean and cooked on the warm stone, where we warmed our boots,
Melted our frozen backs, and covered our chests with leaves from broad-leaved trees taller than us,
Fought three days and nights,
As we could not go even a step backward.
Having my body tied up with a rope onto my gunstock,
I, who have never returned, still rotting as
The fury embedded within the bones of hundreds of Japanese soldiers of
The Kwantung Army Manchurian Railway Garrison that had come down across Zhanggufeng Peak,
Was, oh, a young soldier of the Northern Route Army Command, named Choe Il-geol,
A proud machine gunner of the Korean Independence Army.
Now I wish I could rise up just once again.
After again tying my body up with a rope onto my last machine gun,
I wish I could run pulling the trigger
Through those enemies that continue to rush into this land.
I wish I could fall as bullet sounds like those of rain
Onto the center of those new conspirators,
That still do not stop its order of charge, hiding within forests.
While traveling all over the Korean peninsula, with its late autumn moon high in the sky,
I wish I could sing again the “Song of Praying for Death in Battle” that I sang that day.
** “Song of Praying for Death in Battle” was a Korean marching song during the Battle of Qingshanli in 1920, which was fought between the Imperial Japanese Army and Korean armed groups in a densely wooded region of eastern Manchuria called Qingshanli, in which the Korean independence army resoundingly defeated the Japanese army. [Translator’s Note]
최인걸 —다시 부르는 기전사가
그대들 지금도 날 기억하는가
장백산 사십 척 골짝에 누워
어랑촌, 백운평 원시림 속 떠돌며
압록강 얼음 위에 은빛 달 뜰 때마다
끓어오르는 울음 살 아린 바람더미로
되살아나고 되살아나는 내 핏발 선 목청
그대들 지금도 기억하고 있는가
시월 삭풍에 우우우 북간도의 겨울은 몰려오는데
야영화 달군 돌 위에 옥수수가루 콩가루
짓이겨 지짐하여 허기를 채우고
키 넘는 활엽으로 등 녹이고 가슴 덮으며
사흘 낮 사흘 밤을 꼬박 새워 싸우며
우리는 한 발짝도 물러설 수 없었지
총대에 내 몸을 칭칭 감아 동여매고
장고봉 넘어 치내려온 관동군, 만철수비대
수백여 구의 뼛속에 박힌 분노가 되어
영영 돌아오지 않고 지금도 썩어 있는
아, 나는 북로 군정서 소년병 최인걸
자랑스런 대한독립군의 기관총 사수였다.
지금도 나는 꼭 한 번만 더 살아나고 싶구나
언제고 한 번만 더 살아 일어나서
하나 남은 기관총에 다시 허리를 묶고
끊임없이 이 땅에 밀려오는 저 적들의 가운데로
방아쇠를 당기며 달려가고 싶구나
밀림 속에 숨어 아직도 돌격 소리 그치지 않는
저 새로운 음모의 한복판을 향해
빗발치는 탄알 소리로 쏟아지고 싶구나.
늦가을달 높이 뜬 삼천리 반도를 오가며
그때 부르던 기전사가＊ 다시 부르고 싶구나.
＊ 祈戰死歌 : 청산리전투 당시 독립군이 부르던 군가.
Translated by Seung-Hee Jeon (literary critic and translator, editor of Asia: A Magazine of Asian Literature)
