Poetry book on Whales by Lee Geon-cheong
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Lee Geon-cheong
By Choi Yearn-hong
Assume that you find artwork on a rock cliff so long unknown and later find out they were done by artists 6,000 years ago. You cannot believe what you see and touch. Lee Geon-cheong, an outstanding poet and former president of the Korean Poets Association, produced a poetry book “In Front of Bangudae Petroglyphs.” It was my joy to read his work, because it was the first Korean poetry book dedicated to whales, a major figure in the petroglyphs. I visited the same site to produce a whale poem. He made many trips to Ulsan, North Gyeongsang Province, to investigate the ancient artwork on the rock and finally produced a remarkable book. I hope the world will discover, know and protect the Bangudae Petroglyphs, as another poet and environmentalist.
“In Front of Bangudae Petroglyphs”
I traveled to Peru and saw the Nazca Lines and Petroglyphs. From the trip, I produced a series of poems from Peru which included “Nazca Line” published in the “Literature Consciousness” in its winter issue of 2015. Nazca Line was a mysterious art work in the Peru desert land. It can only be seen from the sky, so I took a Cessna to see it from above. It attracted tourists from the world. Archeologists and anthropologists estimate that the Nazca Line was drawn 2,000 years ago as a possible religious service of the Nazca people to God. A hummingbird, a spider, a killer whale, flowers, trees and an astronaut-looking man are among the twelve petroglyph figures. One long line was 20 km. The total length of lines and curves is more than 1,000 km. Why they were drawn in the desert is only guessable, disputable, and will remain so.
Bangudae art works are known to be 6,000 years old. Some said they were done between 6,000 and 3,500 years ago. Unlike Nazca, there was no known civilization around Bangudae. However, I can imagine that Bangudae was where a river met the sea where all kinds of wild animals flourished and later human beings settled down. Whales were there long before human beings appeared on the Earth. The Bangudae art works are more than whales; all kinds of sea and land animals and fish. But whales and whale hunting boats and tools attracted most of our attention.
There are 304 pieces of rock art on a group of rocks on a branch of the River Taewha flowing into the East Sea. The engravings of whales and deer were made in most cases by carving out the body, while those of land animals mostly consist of outlines and patterns drawn on the rock surface. The human figures are side views of the whole body with a somewhat exaggerated penis, or front images of people with mask-like faces spreading their four limbs. There are engravings of people hunting animals with a bow, raising their hands, and playing a long rod like a musical instrument, recalling hunting and religious acts.
Whale engravings are in general 20cm to 30cm long and between 10cm and 80cm high. Most show whales swimming in a group upward as if seen from a bird's eye view. Sideways engravings of whales are made in a "twisted method" in which the tail is carved sideways to show the horizontal tails of the whales, which are different from those of fish. Other rock art shows a mother whale with her baby on her back, whale jumping scenes, and large cetaceans migrating to and from the sea, all vividly depicting whale behavior. The whale horizontally overturning a boat with its body seems to be dead, and stripes carved on its body are thought to be distribution or breakup lines, resembling ethnographic material describing natives distributing pieces of whale. These engravings are assessed to provide important information about the hunting and subsequent distribution of large animals.
Bangudae means turtle terrace. The three turtles on the upper left of the main rock face appear to be guiding whales swimming in a group. Since sea turtles come to the shore to spawn between early spring and summer, they are often regarded in ancient myth as symbolic animals crossing the boundary of sea and land. In the case of fish, heads of fish looking like sharks are depicted sideways, and there are salmon jumping above the sea surface. Sea birds are always placed around whales as they are hunting prey. Some engravings show mating and molt scenes of land animals and because of different patterns and angle of fall suggest the annual change of seasons and the breeding season.
The Bangudae petroglyphs are a collection of stone-aged men’s life in the wilderness, but their whaling is a masterpiece on the rock art. Whales must be their major source of food, oil and other necessary nutrition.
Lee’s poetry book contains some other poems on the Chonchonli Petroglyphs, about 2 km distance from the Bangudae Petroglyphs.
My poetic imagination naturally extends to Namsan in Gyeongju, where all kinds of Buddhas were engraved on the mountain rocks by Silla people between the sixth to ninth centuries. The mountain as a whole is a museum.
Who knows? The Silla Kingdom originated from Bangudae and advanced by whale hunters to Gyeongju. But I am sure the Bangudae people were the first whale hunters of human history. Most probably, this site was the worship place of the prehistoric people for harvesting whales and other sea and land animals. We have to explore the lost civilization around Bangudae. Whales are a common figure in the seaside Bangudae and desert Nazca petroglyphs, strange to say, at the least.
I translated two poems from his book and post here.
For Bangudae Petroglyphs
I come here and regain my sight.
I come here and regain my hearing.
I can see things clearly, I can hear sounds clearly.
I can even see a red dragonfly and a grasshopper.
I can clearly see them all.
It is not a rumor and a legendary story.
I can touch them with my fingertips.
6000 years ago, whale hunters sailed their boats to the sea,
Darted their harpoons into gigantic sperm whales.
They also made a stockade to domesticate wild animals.
They conducted their religious rites in this river town.
Oh, I can feel and hear their breathing here.
I shake their warm hands.
They speak in resounding voice, welcoming my visit and showing their smiles.
They hug me tight.
The beginning of history in the Korean Peninsula opened under bright sunshine.
This was the center of the history from the beginning.
This was the port from which they briskly set sail out to the sea.
----The Bangudae petroglyphs is speaking eloquently to me.
Oh, sacred cliff with prehistoric art works.
My eye sight is getting better.
My hearing ability is getting better.
I can now see clearly.
I can hear very clearly.
A Reigning Phallus
I met a man who has been living 6000 years in this valley.
He is real, alive.
He is standing on the cliff
And I am standing on the other side of the river.
We get wet in a late autumn rain.
He and I get wet.
His thunderous voice is roaring to me.
Is he praying with his two hands clasped to invoke God?
Is his strong imposing phallus hailing pods of 58 sperm whales,
And tigers, wild boars and deer in his backyard?
His roaring voice is crossing through 6000 years thunderously.
In front of his imposing penis, I stand up as a new man.
Between the cliff where he is standing and my stance,
The late autumn rain keeps falling.
Dr. Choi is a poet and writer based in the Washington area.