What if…   By Lee Bang-won 

(Choseon kingdom's King)

如此亦如何 (So, what if we did this,)

如彼亦如何 (what if we did that.)

城隍堂後苑  (So, what if the vines of Mansu -

頹圮亦何如   Mountain are bounded together.)

吾輩若此爲  (I hope we enjoy together -

不死亦何如  a hundred prosperous year.)

 Loyalty   By Jeong Mong-ju 

(Goryo kingdom’s famous liege subject)

此身死了死了 (my body may die ,again and again)

百番更死了 (one hundred times again,)

白骨爲塵土 (and may turn into but a pile of bones and dust,)

魂魄有無也 (my soul may or may not live on,)

鄕主一片丹心 (but my loyalty to my country)

寧有改理歟 (shall remain unchanged forever.)

When you read the two poems for the first time, you might wonder why i wrote two poems. The reason i wrote two is that this two poems are a pair. Actually, the poems is related with Korean history. The time, this poems were written, was the late Goryo Kingdom period. At this time, Because of repeated war, Goryo Kingdom was faced with adverse economic conditions. And they were even in danger of vanishment. Because of this bad situation, some of people ( they were 

usually ministers.) wanted to found a new country instead of Goryo. So they tried to gather people secretly. They were especially hoping to attract Jung mong-ju the minister of Goryo kingdom to their side. Because the minister was so famous , intelligent and moral that there were so many people who were following him. So if they catch him, they could found new country easily and they didn’t also want to lose such a intelligent person. So they determined to conciliate him to follow them. One of them ,who became a new country (Choseon kingdom)’s king, invited him to an arbor and there, he proposed to make up a poem. and then he recited a poem whose name is ‘What if’ . It means Justice is nothing, Life is real, Goryo Dynasty maybe ruined but you and me still alive and live forever. But Jung Mong-ju doen’t reveal Goryo dynasty. She answered that the type of poem named Loyalty. That is ‘ If i can die without reveal, i can die for hundred times , but i can’t change my mind to King.’