Eleven traditional Korean sijo poems are on their way to the moon, launched on Jan. 15 aboard a private U.S. lunar lander.
According to the Sejong Cultural Society, a Korean-American foundation in Chicago, Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander Blue Ghost was launched from Florida at 1:30 a.m. with the poetry collection “Polaris Trilogy,” which includes 11 traditional Korean sijo poems.
This collection is part of the Lunar Codex project, which aims to send global art and cultural works to the moon. The project serves as a “time capsule” to preserve humanity’s cultural heritage for future generations. Lunar Codex plans a total of seven launches, with this being the fourth. The artworks are either engraved on nickel film or stored on memory cards to ensure their preservation in space.
The poetry collection features sijo inspired by themes of the sun, moon, and stars. Among the 11 poems are eight Korean sijo, including “To the Moon” by Koo Choong-hoe, “Dream of a Meteor” by Kim Dal-ho, and “Galaxy” by Kim Heung-yeol, along with three sijo in English. The poems were selected by Lunar Codex from submissions made through the Korea Sijo Association. Blue Ghost is scheduled to land on the moon in March.
