구순의 재미동포 변만식 씨 '윤동주 시' 영어번역판 출간<br /><br />The late poet Yoon Dong-ju is famous for his works in their own right... but also for his zeal in preserving the Korean alphabet, Hangeul.<br />Most Koreans and Japanese have been exposed to his work, but until recently, he was not well known elsewhere.<br />Now, a 90-year-old resident of Virginia has published a volume of translations of his work to introduce some of Yoon's masterpieces to English speakers.<br />Our Kim Do-yeon had a chance to speak to him.<br />"By heavens, 'till the day I am to expire; Agonized I for the sake of the life; Of no disgrace. So be inspired even; by the whisk of the wind"<br />Yoon Dong-ju, the late poet who wrote that beloved poem, is famous for opposing Japan's rule of Korea in the early 1900s through pen and paper.<br />His love for the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, called him to write his poems in Korean amid Japan's crackdown on the language and culture.<br />Almost 80 years after his death, a volume of his works along with some historical background on him has been published by a 90-year-old resident of Virginia who saw a need to expose Yoon's works to the rest of the world.<br />"Many winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature are translated versions. That said, I didn't want such great works to be confined to Korea. I wanted to use my humble skills to introduce the poems to western literature."<br />Mr. Pyon Man-sik emigrated to the U.S. in 1967 but was too busy to look back on his home country until he was stable in his new life.<br />"I forgot everything about Korea until the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Around 1995, the Yoon Dong-ju Literature Community was coming to the Washington D.C. area. I went to a meeting out of curiosity but quickly realized how great he was."<br />A graduate of the Seoul National University college of education, Mr. Pyon was an English teacher when he was in Korea.<br />As for Yoon Dong-ju himself, he died at the age of 28 in a Tokyo jail cell, so he never got to see his works become famous around the world, but now in English they're accessible to more people than ever before.<br />Kim Do-yeon, Arirang News<br />
