In the literary world for children of our country, however, there were brothers who contributed their whole lives to writing rhymes for children with great passion.
Chairman
"We must let the world know that our country has produced excellent writers, composers and painters, and excellent works that made contributions to the treasure-house of human culture."
Kim Jong Thae and Kim Kyong Thae were brothers who wrote many rhymes which are very much loved by Korean children. Kim Jong Thae, the elder brother, was born in 1920, and Kim Kyong Thae, the younger brother was born in 1923 in Inchon, Kyonggi Province of Korea.
Kim Jong Thae wrote songs and rhymes for children from the post-war period until his last day. Kim Kyong Thae, who started his writing work at nearly the same time as his brother, spent his life writing rhymes.
Chairman
This collection contains 73 works (Kim Jong Thae-36 and Kim Kyong Thae-37) representative of hundreds of songs and rhymes which they wrote. The majority of the songs and rhymes in the collection are for educating children to grow into a faithful person to the Workers' Party of Korea who is knowledgeable, morally sound and fit under the warm care of President
Kim Jong Thae's masterpieces are "We are moving into a new house" (1953), "Let's love our park" (1955), "Fly high, our flag of Children's Union" (1955), "We are climbing mountains" (1956), "Get running, ten thousand of sacks of rice" (1957), "My homeland" (1957), "Kids' hygienic propaganda team" (1958), "We are dancing into our room" (1960), "We can't get to sleep" (1960), "The red peach" (1963), "They have planted it" (1963), "The laurel flower" (1963), "I'm climbing up to Moran Hill" (1963), "How happy we are" (1963), "I'm really happy" (1963), "Revolutionary songs are ringing all over" (1964), "The people's army is our pride" (1965), "The native home of Mangyongdae" (1969) and "The sound of the sewing machine at the shore of the Olgi River" (1973), and Kim Kyong Thae's are "Raspberries" (1953), "I'll definitely become a pilot" (1953), "The snowman" (1954), "The weeping willow" (1954), "The spring breeze" (1955), "The night in the camp at the seashore" (1956), "Let's take care of it with pleasure" (1957), "The fresh pride of our farm" (1973), "The sea of maize" (1977), "The red flag of three revolutions is flying high" (1981), "The spring water of Okgye-dong" (1982), "The flower blooming in the bosom of the Party" (1985) and "I'm growing a flower" (1985).
Each rhyme of Collection "Raspberries" is full of children's beautiful and innocent feelings which show the passionate life, delight and happy mood during the decades from the post-war period of rehabilitation and socialist reform through the period of a winged horse (a thousand-ri-flying-a-day horse) to the period of struggle for socialist construction.
The main feature of the brothers' rhymes is the great lyricism which runs throughout the whole of a work.
First of all, Kim Jong Thae's rhymes have characteristics of bright and innocent feelings.
He provided strong lyricism for his works by using onomatopoetic words and poetic expressions showing children's feelings well enough.
Rhyme "We are moving into a new house" provides a vivid portrayal of happy children who were moving from the half-underground house at the foot of a mountain into a new house after braving out the barbarian bombing of the US imperialist invaders in the Korean War, unfolding the poetic situation "Today is a happy day/The day we are moving house/We are moving into a new big house".
In my arms
I'm holding the portrait of our Marshal
On the head
My sister's carrying a round gourd
Mom and dad are pulling a handcart
We are moving into a new house
The rhyme merrily shows the reality of the post-war reconstruction with the pride of winners who defeated the US imperialists under the wise leadership of the President
The pictures shown by the rhymes by Kim Jong Thae are so vivid that they look alive and are full of children's feelings in such a way that you would find yourself singing in spite of yourself.
Rhyme "Let's love our park" criticizes the activities of innocent children who do not care about public property. However, it provides bright, merry atmosphere by using onomatopoetic words properly. The rhyme shows a child crying "Haw, haw, our horse is running" and whipping a horse beautifully with a stem he broke off from a tree in the park and another child picking a flower for him saying "Who is better, it's 10th lap now/Take it, winner!
The voice of a lyric hero, who advises the children that don't take a scrupulous care of communal property, is ringing with idea of loving a tree and a flower in a park.
-Oh, no! Look at him, Who calls whom a stupid?
The child who broke a branch from a tree in the park is just a stupid
…
-Oh, it gets me! Who calls whom an idiot?
The child who picked a flower in the park is just an idiot
The rhyme shows part of children's life in a beautiful park where birds sing merrily and butterflies dance so that the light humorous portrayal can enable children to break their bad habits.
Rhyme "We are dancing into our room" is an impressive work which describes the way that preschooling children walk into an education room of a kindergarten through the multicoloured gate. The rhyme provides a vivid picture of the affectionate image of the children entering their room in lines, their clean mind and happy faces by using onomatopoetic words "napulnapul (dancing/roughly fluttering)", "sappunsappun(on tiptoe)", etc.
We are going into our room
In lines into our pleasant room
We are dancing into our room
Into our room where we sing songs
The child before me is my friend, too
The child behind me is my friend, too
We are walking in on tiptoe
Our Marshal welcomes us warmly
The poetic moment of this rhyme is the moment when the children get into the education room. While singing that the room of the kindergarten is a pleasant place where children learn the childhood of President
Kim Kyong Thae's works have characteristics of simple emotion. The titles of his rhymes alone ("Raspberries", "The snowman", "The weeping willow", "The spring breeze", "The maize", etc.) provide deep emotional meanings. Especially, Rhyme "Raspberries", which became the title of the collection, is still sung with fresh, thick fragrance by Korean children after over 60 years since it was written.
Raspberries, red raspberries, on mountains and mountains
They live up there as they like our mountains
Raspberries as red as the faithful mind of anti-Japs guerillas
They live on our mountains that our Marshal liberated
The rhyme sings about the feeling of respect and praise for the anti-Japs martyrs, describing the sweet-smelling red raspberries at the foot of a beautiful mountain with thick, green forests.
In the rhyme, the raspberries is personified as affectionate children.
Like Red raspberries growing on every mountain of our country, Korean children living happily in every part of the country keep in mind the faithfulness of anti-Japs guerillas as red as raspberries.
The rhyme impressively emphasizes the idea of inheriting the revolutionary tradition of anti-Japanese armed struggle led by President
Kim Kyong Thae's works have some commonness with his brother's, but have some individual differences.
Kim Jong Thae's rhymes have poetical rhythms, whereas Kim Kyong Thae's have musical rhythms with the help of vivid ringing sound. In the choice of poetic words, they are individually different. While the poetic language of Kim Jong Thae is consistent with expressive words which enable you to experience the inner world of children's feelings, the poetic language of Kim Kyong Thae is consistent with soft, clear and beautiful words. In addition, various methods of expression such as repetition, contrast, antithesis, etc. which are major methods in creating rhythms of rhymes are efficiently used in the bothers' rhymes to enhance the presentation.
The rhymes by brothers and poets, Kim Jong Thae and Kim Kyong Thae, belong to the heritage of the revolutionary literature of our country and serve as a powerful means of educating the younger generation as well.
