culture

The lyric “My Motherland”, which has been widely recited by the Korean people, is a typical poem singing about love for the country.

Written by writer Kim Sang O in 1979, the poem deeply expresses personal emotions of the Korean people for their country with simple and true everyday language.

Kim Sang O was born in 1917.

He wanted to study literature with a burning desire for learning in his childhood. But he could not fulfil it as the country was lost to the Japanese imperialists.

 So he dropped out of middle school after studying for only two years and went to a foreign country. But he could not continue his study there though he struggled against all kinds of adversity.

Feeling real grief over the loss of the country and bitter hatred against the aggressors, he joined an anti-Japanese underground organization led by General Kim Il Sung, the legendary hero of the anti-Japanese war and peerless patriot.

After the country’s liberation, he came to take a step as a genuine literary man.

Immediately after liberation, he worked as chief editor of the newspaper Jayu (free) Hwanghae, the then organ of the Hwanghae provincial party committee, and then associate editor of Minju Joson, the organ of the DPRK government, after graduating from the Central Higher Cadres Training School (now the University of National Economy).

 In the period he created many works including poems reflecting the happy life of the Korean people.

During the Fatherland Liberation War between June 25 1950 and July 27 1953 he wrote many poems, full of intense hatred against the invaders, like the poem “With the Flames of Hatred” (1950) and the epic “Under the Flag of the Motherland” (1952) inspiring the people to fight bravely and annihilate the enemy.

After the war, the country underwent a radical transformation day by day and the stirring reality was the object of joy and praise for him.

Therefore, his works in that period brimmed over with love for the common people in the country and enthusiastic response to and self-confidence in the stirring era, with the result that such masterpieces as the songs “We’ve Planted Skullcap and Crab-Apple Trees on the Mountains” (1959) and “A Bumper Harvest in the Chongsan Plain” (1959) were produced.

His true and deep emotions, which had built up for many years sharing joy and pain with the country, reached a climax in the lyric “My Motherland”.

Expressing the deeply regrettable feelings he had felt in the past as he wandered about in bitter sorrow and pain after losing the precious country in the poem, Kim Sang O eulogized the deep sense of patriotism of the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters who devoted their lives to the country without hesitation.

In the last part, he clarified that our motherland is the eternal home of life retaken and glorified by President Kim Il Sung and its future and expressed his feelings of great reverence for and heartfelt gratitude to him in an excited tone.

As soon as the poem was published, it caused a sensation among the local people and was hailed as a masterpiece of the times.

Kim Sang O continued his creative activities until the advanced age of 70, writing short stories, novels and lots of literary criticism, biographies and essays as well as poems. 

He received Kim Il Sung Prize and his remains were buried at the Patriotic Martyrs Cemetery in Sinmi-ri.