Poem by Chen Hsiu-chen

Poem by Chen Hsiu-chen
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
 
전쟁의 양쪽은
같은 신을 믿는다
한쪽은 깊이 믿는다
진리는 자기 편에 있다고
다른 한쪽도 깊이 믿는다
정의는 자기 편에 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
없는
신과 신의 전쟁으로 변하고
인간은 포탄으로
누구의 신이
참된 신인지
결정하려 한다