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| Yang Hee-eun sings before anti-President protesters at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, Saturday night. / Yonhap |
Living legend healed wounds in the minds of protesters with her songs
By Park Si-soo
The fifth mass anti-President rally in Seoul on Saturday had a guest that took the crowd by surprise: singer Yang Hee-eun.
Braving the cold wind and wet snow, Yang, 64, took to the main stage dressed in a long black coat and wearing red-rimmed glasses and a red scarf. Nearly 1.6 million people jam-packed at Gwanghwamun Square greeted the unplanned appearance of the living legend of Korean music with thunderous applause and screams of joy.
She sang her three iconic protest songs -- "Morning Dew," "To the Land of Hope" and "Evergreen Tree" -- that were banned during the 1961-79 presidency of iron-fisted dictator Park Chung-hee, scandalized President Park Geun-hye's father.
Yang sang the songs standing in one spot, without any gesture or comment that might agitate protesters. Instead, she closed and healed wounds in the minds of the crowd with words that came out of her mouth one after another.
"Although our road has a long way to go and is even precipitous," she crooned the last line of Evergreen Tree. "We shall overcome and be victorious."
The line reminded people of the turbulent trajectory of her life as a musician, which is often compared to that of South Korea's zigzag path toward democracy.
In particular, Yang's "Evergreen Tree" is widely considered a shortened narrative of the people's bloody struggle to secure true and uninterrupted freedom and democracy in the face of a violent crackdown in the 1960-80s.
On Saturday night Yang posted a thank you message on her Instagram account.
"I sang the (three) songs with people at Gwanghwamun. It was awesome," she wrote.
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Here are the lyrics of "Evergreen Tree."
Look at the lush pine needles on the field
Although no one tends to them
Even when hit by rain, wind and snowstorm
The ground remain verdant to the end
The past days of despair and pain
Do not ever come back again
I shall shed blood, I shall awaken
I shall become the pine needle of the rugged field
Although we do not have much
With hand in hand, we shed tears
Although our road is long way to go and even precipitous
We shall overcome and be victorious
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