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By Kim Jin-heon
On the morning of April 14, I visited Yeongnang's birthplace in Gangjin, South Jeolla Province, where the 20th Yeongnang Literature Festival was being held. The first day was the poet's 120th birthday. To mark the anniversary, his third son, Hyun-cheol, now 89 and living in the United States, visited the ceremony for the first time in 13 years.
The COVID-19 pandemic had prevented the festival from being held for a while, but fortunately, this year's reopening encouraged many to visit. After I arrived, I looked around Yeongnang's birthplace, a memorial hall and gardens with peonies. There were hundreds of other people, including young people who took part in the literary contest and people participating in a symposium.
A mother and her boy and girl sat on the floor of Yeongnang's home. The mother said that she came from Chuncheon, in Gangwon Province, because her daughter, a high school senior, had a talent for literature and was participating in a contest. Likewise, her son, a freshman, would travel around Gangjin-gun and Mokpo for a school class.
At the opening ceremony, Yeongnang's third son made a speech on behalf of his family. He said that when the peony bloomed, his father would invite aspiring literary men to his house and ask them to write poems. He also wrote a poem called "Until Peonies Bloom." He tried to throw it away because he didn't like it, but the novelist Lee Gwang-su snatched the paper away and read it aloud. Ultimately, the poem became Yeongnang's representative work.
Most of Yeongnang's poems are related to his life and hometown. He liked to sing operas and played Korean traditional instruments. This kind of talent gave his poems a rhythm. Yoo Hong-joon, author of "My Exploration of Cultural Heritage," said that spring in Gangjin-gun is famous for flowers. Moreover, the green color of the barley fields and the black ocher appeal to travelers, and the sunshine is more plentiful there than anywhere else in Korea. Yeongnang was undoubtedly deeply influenced by this natural environment.
Later, this literary sensitivity helped him start a literary journal in 1930 with Park Yongchul, Jeong Jiyong, and Jeong Inbo. In the journal, he included "Until Peonies Bloom." His gift for music and his love for his hometown gave his poems brilliant lyricism and local color, and later on, a critic said that while Sowol was the national poet in the north, Yeongnang was the same in the south in those days.
Additionally, during his youth, Yeongnang talked passionately with his friends about his country's loss of independence. On March 1, 1919, he was involved with the independence movement and served six months in prison. He later donated money to Korean independence forces in China, and he refused to adopt a Japanese name or visit any Japanese shrines.
This ideology prevented him from getting work, but after liberation in 1945, Yeongnang joined the Syngman Rhee government. Sadly, he was killed in the Korean War in 1950.
Today, Yeongnang's poems and patriotic life inspire travelers to visit his birthplace every spring. Moreover, Gangjin has other cultural heritage offerings such as a Goryeo-era celadon kiln site and the temple Muwisa. The natural heritage of Wolchulsan National Park and long coastal areas attract visitors year-round, too.
The writer (shinykim60@hanmail.net) is a retired English teacher who published a book titled, "Flower Is Flower."
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