There was a girl worker who unusually loved poem at the Rason Railway Bureau in the northern extremity of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Her name is Ri Ji Yong. She created lyric poems "Am I Mother or Child?" and "Another Stretch of 'Rail'" in 2024 and took the first place twice in the national mass literary work prize contest.

"I would have an urge to speak out or write down my impressions and excitement in my life. So I began to write poems. As to the lyric poem 'Am I Mother or Child?', I got an inspiration from a woman who was shedding tears after receiving benefits of the state for the mere reason that she mothered and brought up three children. I only expressed what I felt, but my poem was highly estimated for its simple and truthful representation and won the first prize."

Ri Ji Yong was called a girl of literary interests during her middle school days. She loved to write poems even after starting her career as a railway worker.

One morning on her way to work, she saw familiar faces on the noticeboard introducing Meritorious Persons ofSocialist Patriotism.

She had treated them without ceremony at ordinary times. She was greatly shocked to find that they are meritorious persons who did a lot of work for the country and people.

So she wrote a song reflecting her love for this country where the people who look common in the life lead a brilliant life like stars as patriots and her sincere mind to live like them.

The song "Star" was further perfected amid the concern of many people and won a prize in the national mass literary work prize contest in 2021.

The literary talent of the girl worker attracted the attention of the literary circles and she became an amateur writer.

The amateur writers do their jobs and create literary works at the same time while receiving creative lessons and guidance about their works on a regular basis according to the well-organized system of guiding mass literary creation. They play a vanguard role in developing literature on a mass basis.

For the girl with inexhaustible passion, the thrilling working life was a boundless sea of poetry.

She didn't remain indifferent even to the rails she saw almost every day.

She said in excitement that the two stretches of rails are strong thanks to the path of track-walker and this path is another stretch of "rail" alongside the former.

On this basis, she created the lyric poem "Another Stretch of 'Rail'".

As she created good works one after another in a few years, the girl worker was designated as a reserve writer and now she is studying in the writers' training course of the Faculty of Philology and Literature of Kim Hyong Jik University of Education.

"At the university, I learn more theoretically, improve my logic, develop my cogitative faculty and widen my insight.

What is more important is that my dream has grown.

I hardened my resolve and set a higher goal to become a poetess singing more loudly of this grateful social system that found out, valued and developed my talent."

The girl worker who became a university student will soon play an important role in the poetic circles of the country as a beautiful flower singing of the motherland and the times.