While Korea was busy dealing with international political affairs, the Danube boat accident seems to have been resolved somehow, looking at how press coverage has died out. Who would remember that event except the families of the deceased.
I have been confined to my home for two months because of the back pain, but when I passed a temporary building commemorating the sinking of MV Sewol in front of Gwanghwamun Gate on my way home, the Danube boat accident comes to my mind. A boat sank out of the blue in both cases, but whose deaths carry more weight?
What is sad is that we, Koreans should have learned something big out of the hardships. But we have not learned any lesson.
Come to think of it, it was touching to see the Hungarians gather around on the riverside of Danube and sing a song 'Arirang', our traditional folk song.
At the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) concert held in Seoul Arts Center, the members all stood up with holding sheet music instead of instruments and sang to honor the memory of the deceased Korean victims.
“Call me if the moon rises in Wolchulbong / I long for my loved one but he doesn’t come / I listen carefully to the sounds of washing clothes and spinning wheel”
These are from “Longing Heart” a Korean folk song.
They sang with sorrowful voice and expressions, this song which sings about a longing heart waiting for a loved one, and everyone at the concert – the members and the audience alike – fell silent.
It’s touching to hear what happened at that concert – I would have been real moved if I had been there. I heard that there were a total of 6 curtain calls. Of course, the orchestra is world famous with Iván Fischer as its conductor for 35 years. Yet I presume the massive number of curtain calls had something to do with the Accident.
I wasn’t there. Yet, many years ago, I was at a BFO concert conducted by Iván Fischer at Budapest. I had also ridden on a ship on the Danube in the middle of the night. I had never imagined then that a horrible accident like this would happen in the future.
The Danube had evoked romantic feelings in me since I was very young.
Maybe because the Danube is located far away and the pronunciation of ‘Danube’ felt romantic like a song.
That is, until this accident.
It feels so dismal. The victims would have made the trip to Budapest a big treat. For some, the trip would have been a present for parents who looked after their little kids. Some people would have made the trip to commemorate anniversaries. Each would have their own story. The bereaved families badly wanted to find the bodies. One body was never to be found even after futilely searching through the deep water – the family of the one whose body is missing probably envies the other families who at least found the bodies.
It’s been months, but I cannot forget the scene of a grandmother holding her 6 year old granddaughter tight with both arms until the two bodies were found.
“The Hungarians and the members of BFO sympathize with the family of the deceased in their grief and would like to pay condolences for the losses,” Iván Fischer said before singging “Longing Heart” with the members of the orchestra. Iván Fischer, I heard, was the one who chose the folk song to mourn the victims.
To console is to convey sincere feelings of sympathy and to convey the empathy. It’s completely different from giving out just some money.
A few years ago, tens of thousands of people died because of a big tsunami in the Eastern Japan. Looking at the people lining up in front of the KBS station in Seoul holding envelopes with money, I thought the same thing.
“That’s not enough. Children, husbands and wives that one kissed just that morning disappeared, and they are just handing envelopes?”
I saw on TV that 6 year old boy left alone in a small car, his parents swept away in the violent waves, and also a man running down to the deap sea to find the body of a loved one. From somewhere inside of me then, 250 poems poured out. Those poems appeared on the newspapers of Korea and Japan at the same time (on the front page on March 27th 2011). From the USA, Europe and other countries tons of money donated to aid Japan, but the Japanese people were especially moved by the sincere condolences expressed in the one line poetry of Tanka which they call a ‘Hometown of Heart’
That scene occured to me while listening to the sincere gift of music coming from Hungary, the country that established diplomatic relations with Republic of Korea in 1989, a first for the East European bloc.
Literature and Art have great powers in healing.
That is why I wish and encourage the families of the deceased to be close to art andr literature more often and write their thoughts down calmly to be healed.
What can I give? I would like to convey my sincere feelings of sympathy
Lee Sunshine
