Poem by Chen Hsiu-chen陳秀珍(TAIWAN)
Chen Hsiu-chen is the executive editor of Li Poetry Magazine. She has published several books, including Non-Diary (2009), String Echo in Forest (2010), Mask (2016), Uncertain Landscape (2017), Promise (2017), Poetry Feeling in Tamsui (2018), Fracture (2018), My Beloved Neruda (2020), Virus Takes No Rest (2021), Encountering with Cesar Vallejo (2022), and Heaven on Earth (2022). Some of her poems have been translated into more than 20 languages.
She has participated in various national and international poetry festivals in Bangladesh, Macedonia, Peru, Tunisia, Chile, Vietnam, Romania, and Mexico from 2015 to 2021. She won the Morning Star Prize (Peru) in 2018 and the Naji Naaman Literary Prizes (Lebanon) in 2020.
PEOPLE AND GOD
The people on both sides of the war
believe the same God.
The left side insists-the truth is ours,
The right side insists-the justice is ours.
Both sides face toward the same God at same time
to pray for the victory on the same battlefield.
The God is separated into two halves
and caught in a dilemma.
The people on both sides of the war
believe different Gods.
Both sides face toward own God to pray
for the victory on the same battlefield.
The left side insists own to be victory,
The right side insists opposite to be defeated.
The war between people and people
becomes an innocent war
between God and God.
The people utilizes missiles to decide
whose God
is a real one.
(Translated by Kuei-shien Lee)
인간과 신
전쟁의 양쪽은
같은 신을 믿는다
한쪽은 깊이 믿는다
진리는 자기 편에 서 있다고
다른 한쪽도 깊이 믿는다
정의는 자기 편에 서 있다고
양쪽은 동시에 같은 신에게
같은 전장에서의 승리를 빌고
신은 스스로 둘로 갈라져
어찌해야 할지 모른다
전쟁의 양쪽은
서로 다른 신을 믿는다
각자는 저마다의 신을 불러
같은 전장의 승리를 기도한다
한쪽은 깊이 믿는다
자기 편이 반드시 이긴다고
다른 한쪽도 깊이 믿는다
상대가 반드시 진다고
인간과 인간의 전쟁은
어느새
죄 없는
신과 신의 전쟁으로 변하고
인간은 포탄으로
누구의 신이
참된 신인지
결정하려 한다