November 24, 2008

Music Videos on South Korea's Democracy Movements


타는목마름으로 (song title: Burning Thirst) -- highlights the democratization movement of the 80s, including the Kwangju Movement for Democratization (or Kwangju Uprising). Lyrics by famous resistance poet Kim Chi Ha and sung by Kim Kwang Suk, a popular folk singer who committed suicide.

An unofficial translation:

It has been a long time since my mind has forgotten you,

It has been a long time since my footsteps have forgotten you,

Only a memory of a parched thirst in my burning heart

Makes me write your name secretly,

With a parched thirst, a parched thirst

--Long Live Democracy!

The recollection of vibrant freedom is coming back,

The image of bloody faces of friends is coming back,

Shivering hands, shivering heart,

With shuddering fury, I write on a wooden board with a chalk,

With a parched thirst, a parched thirst

--Long Live Democracy!

솔아 솔아 푸르른솔아... (song title: Brush, Brush, Green Brush) -- highlights the April Movement (or Revolution) of 1960, when student demonstrations for democracy led to the downfall of the dictatorship of president Syngman Rhee, only to be replaced by military dictatorship of Park Chung Hee the following year. The song is a popular song for the democracy movement in South Korea.

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