To Correct Public Awareness of Songs from Enlightenment Period
On March 20, 2007, Chairman
He said: Some songs from the enlightenment period reflect our people’s love and yearning for the lost country and the native places they left behind, the sentiments of their anger at and resistance to the aggressors who occupied their country, their affection for their country’s beautiful scenery and famous places, and their aspiration for and conviction in the liberation of the country.
He then enumerated them. Spring of Home Village, Wild Rose, Site of the Old Royal Palace, Touch-me-not, The Tuman River Filled with Tears, etc.
He continued: Though they have some limitations, the songs from the enlightenment period are a valuable musical legacy of our nation. If these songs are not allowed to be sung or discarded without any historical consideration on the plea that they are decadent songs, the music of the 1920s and 1930s would be lost in the history of our country’s music. Rehabilitation of the songs from the enlightenment period is a kind of great event in the musical history of our country and a valuable success we have achieved in inheriting the musical legacy of our nation on the principle of sustaining the Juche character and national identity and on the principle of remaining faithful to the historical truth.
Listening to his instructions, the officials realized that they had mistaken the songs from the enlightenment period as worthless decadent ones.
The Chairman went on:
If we properly inherit the historical assets, our history will become brilliant; otherwise, we might leave vacancy in our history and experience twists and turns. We must not bequeath the history that has vacancy to the coming generations. This is one of the purposes of why we recognize songs from the enlightenment period and allow them to be sung widely.
We cannot bequeath the history that has vacancy to the coming generations.
It was a patriotic declaration that could be made only by the father of the nation who was determined to fulfil at the highest level the responsibility he assumed before the country, the nation and history.