Sino-NK

Rodong Sinmun yesterday carried a number of foreign language items, as well as a plug (in Korean) for foreign language education in the DPRK.  A positive sign? At the very least, an opportunity for two English-language students at Kim Il Sung University to get an important translation on their respective resumes of a collectively-composed poem, part of the very active cultural construction for the year 2012:

Fellow Countrymen, 
General Kim Jong Un Is With Us

Hearts are rending,
Never have we imagined
The snow-sweeping sky
The land frozen by biting cold
Would melt by bitter tears.

Hearts are tearing
Never have we predicted
This land would be frozen hard
With the tears of millions of people
Wailing over their dead father
Never, never have we imagined
There’d be so sad a day in our life

To the welkin and to the earth we are asking;
Is it really possible
That our Kim Jong Il has passed away
Leaving behind his people he loved so warmly
Leaving behind the country he was attached to so much?
Every December was warm to us
With the memory of our beloved Mother Kim Jong Suk,
Every year December came to us
With beautiful flowers in the streets and villages
With songs of celebration loud all over
On the anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s supreme
commandership

Who could imagine those flowers of December
Would turn into wreaths of grief
The songs of December
Would be a wail of the last depart

His words are still ringing in our ears
Calling for surviving this winter of rigor and
Proudly opening the gate to a prosperous nation
On the centenary of birth of the great leader,
How can he go, not keeping the promise?

Reading the desire of the people,
Anxious to listen to what they have to say,
Dear leader used to cover hundreds of miles.
But today why on earth he does not hear
The heartrending cries of his children
Calling their father?

Dear leader, you toiled and moiled,
To bring the spring of a thriving nation,
When that spring is close at hand,
When the day of affluence,
Your lifelong goal for the people,
Is close at hand,
How can you pass away so early,
Without seeing the day?

From the furnace you visited,
From the farm fields you tended,
From the training ground you inspected,
From Kim Il Sung University you loved so much,
Echo the bitter cries of the soldiers and people of
this nation

O, dear leader,
You have built a thriving nation for us
But we haven’t built even a statue for you!

Struggling for the beloved people all his life,
In the running train our leader breathed his last at work
Often we sang of our wish for his long life and good
health
Always regarding ourselves as his sons and daughters
Yet we couldn’t keep his heart beating in health

Everything we had to do
He did himself
So heavy was such workload
That the great man’s heart suddenly stopped beating!

Waiting for him was all we did
Delight was all we felt in his presence,
But never did we realize
How tough,
How tearful,
How hard
His journey to us was!

President Kim Il Sung requested us
To be faithful to Comrade Kim Jong Il,
Now can we celebrate our father’s 70th birthday!
How can we atone to President Kim Il Sung for our
ingratitude!

O snowstorm!
Tell, snowstorm of Korea’s December,
Through snowstorm he came to the people
He experienced snowstorm so much
To bliss the people with warm spring
Even on the last day
Even on the departing day
He was in wild snowstorm!

Had he enjoyed
Even a fine day free of worry
Had he enjoyed
Even a single blissful day with his family
Had he enjoyed
Even a single Sunday or public holiday
Such a heart-breaking grief whoever would be in

O Comrade Kim Jong Il
Thou art Father of the Korean people
Who devoted whole life for their affluence
Thou art the commander, strong and gallant,
Who tamed imperialism with the gun of Songun
Thou art the great founder of a thriving Kim Il Sung
nation
Who worked a legendary miracle from the worst
Thus bringing spring of power and prosperity to this
country
Thou art great protector of global independence,
21st century’s most distinguished statesman

Never has thy heart ceased beating
With the party led by thyself
With the army trained by thyself
With the people loved by thyself
Will Kim Jong Il’s revolutionary history be an eternity
Will Kim Jong Il’s Songun era be an everlasting shine

Hold your heads up, you fellow countrymen,
Over the welkin shines the Sun radiant
That is our Comrade Kim Jong Un
May you my motherland rise up ever more powerful
On the road our dear leader paved
Flying ahead is the red flag along the way
Our Comrade Kim Jong Un
He is the great bearer of that flag

Comrade Kim Jong Un,
He is our Comrade Kim Il Sung
He is our Comrade Kim Jong Il
Our Party, our fatherland,
He is the Sun of our nation

We are confident
We still hear the heartbeats of Comrade Kim Jong Il
His heart calling us
To carry on the march of Mt. Paektu under
Comrade Kim Jong Un’s leadership
To complete the revolutionary cause of Juche
To realize the historic cause of national reunification

With dear Kim Jong Il
We Korean people chorused the Road of Victory
The revolution Kim Il Sung pioneered
The revolution Kim Jong Il advanced
Let us accomplish under Comrade Kim Jong Un’s
leadership

We will demonstrate it to the world

O fellow countrymen
O our motherland,
General Kim Jong Un is with us!

[Words from College of Literature,
Kim Il Sung University
Translated by Pak Chang Son, Ju Kwon U]

And the same, with translations by students in the Chinese department:

人民哟，我们有金正恩同志在

令人悲痛欲绝，
天空风雪交加，
大地冰封雪盖，
未曾想过血泪流淌，
会把大地融化下来。

令人心痛欲裂，
大声喊叫父亲，
千万儿女的泪水，
把大地都冻硬，
岂料在我一生中，
竟有今日这一天。

天哟，地哟，
请你回答，
他为人民奉献爱心，
他为祖国奋斗终生，
将军可不能这样走。

每逢12月，
全国人民都深切怀念
尊敬的金正淑母亲，
全国各地都隆重纪念
将军被推举为最高司令官，
大街小巷百花争艳，
举国上下载歌载舞。

岂料12月的一朵朵花，
变成充满血泪的花圈，
岂料12月的一支支歌，
变成永诀悲歌的回荡，
啊！谁也未曾料到。

要闯过这一严峻的冬天，
迎接领袖华诞一百周年，
敞开强盛国家大门，
以让世人刮目相看，
您这番话还响在我们耳边，
这一诺言让我们怎么兑现。

了解人民的心愿，
想听人民的呼声，
将军不远千里看望人民，
可今天，您为何
听不到儿女喊叫慈父，
嚎啕大哭的悲声？

为了迎接强盛大国的新春，
将军付出全部心血，
这一新春即将来临，
将军毕生的夙愿—
人民过好日子的那天近在眼前，
您却真的盼不到那天，
就这样溘然长逝？

在将军亲临过的熔炉前，
在将军亲手栽培的田园，
在将军视察过的练兵场，
在将军心爱的金日成综合大学，
都有全体军民的痛切之声传来。

将军啊！
您给我们建设了繁荣富强的国家，
我们却没有为您建立了一尊铜像。

您一生为人民吃苦受累，
竟然在行驶的野战列车上殉职，
全国千万儿女齐声唱歌，
祝愿将军平安，
可没有保护您伟大的心脏。

本应由我们来做的事，
将军一人包在身上，
负担过重、操劳过度，
啊，您那伟大的心脏就停止了跳动。

我们只是盼您光临，
我们只是为您光临高兴，
从未想过
您找我们来，
是多么吃力，
是多么辛苦！

金日成主席生前恳切地嘱咐我们，
要竭诚拥护金正日同志。
可我们不孝，
没给他过七十大寿，
向我们的领袖怎么交待呢？

啊，暴风雪哟！
12月的暴风雪哟，你说吧，
他冒着风雪去看望人民，
为了给人民带来暖春，
他一生冒了多少风雪，
难道，
难道去世的时候，
也非冒风雪不可？

要是他有一次
度过了愉快的时间，
要是他有一天，
享受了天伦之乐，
或安心度假过节日，
那么我们不会如此心酸。

啊，金正日将军，
他是人民的慈父，
用自己的一生，
换来了人民的富贵荣华，
他是钢铁统帅，
用先军的枪杆子，
制服帝国主义，维护了和平。
他是建设强盛大国的伟大英雄，
在最困难的情况下，
创造出传说般的奇迹，
给这块大地带来了繁荣昌盛，
他是人类自主事业的伟大守护者，
他是21世纪最杰出的政治大元老。

有了他领导的党，
有了他培养的军队，
有了他热爱的人民，
金正日革命历史永垂不朽，
金正日先军时代永放光芒。

人民哟，抬起头来，
天上有太阳照耀，
那太阳就是我们的金正恩同志，
祖国哟，振作起来，
将军闯过来的革命征途上，
有红旗迎风飘扬，
那伟大的旗手，
就是我们的金正恩同志。

金正恩同志！
他是我们的金日成主席，
他是我们的金正日同志，
他是我们党，
是我们祖国，
是我们的太阳。

是的，
金正日同志的心脏，
今天也仍然跳动，
那颗伟大的心脏，
对我们说，
要永远跟着金正恩同志，
坚定地走白头山的行军路，
将主体革命事业完成到底，
一定实现祖国统一历史事业。

同将军一起，
齐声合唱”胜利之路”的人民哟，
跟着金日成主席开始的革命，
跟着金正日同志进行的革命，
要跟着金正恩同志胜利完成。

啊，人民哟，
祖国哟，
我们有金正恩同志在！

[金日成综合大学文学大学集体作
金昌海，李赫哲翻译］