왜 고양이가 쥐를 미워해요?
어느 날 쥐가 신령님께 심부름을 갔습니다. 그러나 쥐는 금방 돌아왔습니다. 고양이가 쥐에게 물었습니다.
“쥐야, 무슨 일이 있었어? 왜 이렇게 빨리 돌아왔어?”
“으응, 신령님이 말씀하셨어. ‘동물들아, 내일 설날에 일찍 세배하러 오너라. 실낱에 내가 상을 주겠다. 그리고 오는 순서대로 띠도 정하겠다.’”
고양이는 말랬습니다.
“쥐야, 그럼 우리 내일 새벽에 같이 가자.”
“그래, 그렇게 하자.”
쥐도 찬성했습니다. 그리고 쥐는 다른 동물들에게도 이 이야기를 전했습니다. 고양이는 생각했습니다.
‘첫 번째로 가서 상을 받아야겠다. 또 첫 번째 띠도 되어야겠다.’
소도 쥐의 이야기를 들었습니다. 소는 생각했습니다.
‘나는 걸음이 느리니까 먼저 떠나야겠다.’
그래서 그 날 밤 소는 다른 동물들보다 먼저 길을 떠났습니다. 쥐가 이것을 보았습니다. 그래서 쥐는 소의 등에 탔습니다. 쥐는 고양이와의 악속을 잊어버렸습니다. 다른 동물들도 그 날 밤 소를 보았습니다. 그래서 모두 출발했습니다.
소는 밤새 걸었습니다. 마침내 소는 신령님이 사는 곳에 제일 먼저 도착했습니다. 그러나 문이 아직 닫혀 있었습니다. 소는 문 앞에서 기다려야 했습니다. 그 사이에 소는 잠이 들었습니다.
아침이 되었습니다. 쥐는 문이 열리자마자 소의 등에서 뛰어 내렸습니다. 쥐가 제일 먼저 집 안으로 들어갔습니다. 쥐는 신령님께 절을 했습니다. 다음에 소가 절을 했습니다.
그 뒤에 호랑이, 토끼, 용, 뱀, 말, 양, 원숭이, 닭, 개, 그리고 돼지가 차례로 절을 했습니다. 모두 열두 마리 동물들이었습니다.
그 때까지 고양이는 계속 쥐를 기다렸지만 쥐는 오지 않았습니다. 결국 고양이는 혼자 신령님께 가기로 했습니다. 그러나 고양이가 신령님이 사는 곳에 도착 헸을 때는, 열두 마리 동물들은 이미 다 상을 받았습니다. 또 신령님이 띠도 정했습니다. 고양이는 화가 났습니다.
‘아, 쥐가 나를 속였구나!’
이 때부터 고양이는 쥐를 미워하기 시작했습니다.
One day, Rat went on an errand to a divine spirit. But soon he returned. Cat asked, "Rat, what happened?"
"Mmm, the divine spirit said, 'Animals, tomorrow on New Year's Day, come early tomorrow in order to greet me. For New Year's Day, I'll give my rewards.'"
Cat said, "Rat, then tomorrow at dawn, let's go together."
"Yeah, we'll do that," Rat agreed.
And Rat notified the other animals of this story.
Cat thought, 'By going first, one should receive a reward. And become the first zodiac sign too.'
Ox heard Rat's story as well. Ox thought, 'Since my pace is so slow, I should leave first.'
So that night Ox hit the road before the other animals. Rat saw this. So Rat got up on Ox's back. Rat forgot about his promise to Cat. The other animals also saw Ox that night. So they all set out. Only Cat waited until dawn.
All night long Ox walked. At last he arrived first at the place where the divine spirit lives. But the door was still closed. Ox had to wait in front of the door. In the meantime Ox fell asleep.
It became morning. As soon as the door opened, Rat jumped down from Ox's back. Rat entered into the home first thing. He bowed deeply to the divine spirit. Next, Ox bowed deeply.
After that, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Hog bowed deeply one by one, twelve animals in all.
Even though Cat continued to wait for Rat until then, Rat still didn't come. Finally Cat decided to go to the divine spirit alone. But when Cat arrived at the place the divine spirit lived, the twelve animals already received all of the rewards. Also, the divine spirit decided the zodiac signs as well.
Cat got angry, 'Oh, Rat deceived me!'
And from that occasion, cats began to hate rats.
I experienced some difficulties in translating this. On top of the various levels of honorifics and familiar language styles, the first couple paragraphs were difficult, perhaps mostly because of prepositions. I don't know, for instance, exactly about this "errand"--if the rat is running an errand for the divine spirit, or if he's on an errand which takes him to the divine spirit.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I used the names Cat and Rat whereas the Korean text doesn't differentiate between a/the cat and Cat or a/the rat and Rat. In the same way I may have called the divine spirit God, but I elected not to in order to preserve somewhat the Eastern mythology.
Again, we see the awkwardness in the Korean style paragraphs, but this time I used convention more familiar to me in quotations. I may jump from one side of the fence to the other a few times before I decide is best. On the one hand, leaving the paragraph conventions as they are preserves the Korean-ness of the tales (I suppose). But it is strange, and since native English readers are more comfortable with paragraph pausing and parsing, it seems to make the story more readable. Another main option we saw in the previous story, using colons at the ends of paragraphs that anticipate quotations. Maybe we'll see that again to sample. In the style above, where the quotations are "Westernized", I think the story reads well. But, perhaps, too well. Maybe it is good to leave in that Korean convention.
Another convention is the use of repetition in sentences of the subject, as well as repetition from sentence to sentence, where a native English reader would expect to see a pronoun. Again, I am doing a balancing act in order to preserve the Korean-ness while making it not unbearable.
Lastly, what does this tale tell us? We can hardly feel sorry for Cat. Although he was polite, and, in some way, entitled to make it into the zodiac, what as he doing while all the other animals were observing Ox, while they were on their way to the divine spirit? I will tell you, he was probably out tomcatting around. Perhaps Cat was a little too sure of his own entitlement. On the other hand, how can any of us much like the character of Rat, that rude but opportunistic fellow. As usual, the divine spirit seems a less than fair. Maybe it is good this year, of all years, to appreciate the Ox. Although he unknowingly(?) gave out a free ride, he did what it took to reach his objective. But Ox, munch some grass for a while instead of dozing off. What I want to know is why the dragon didn't arrive in flames and glory and receive the top prize? It's clear: more to this story remains to be read....
In the first paragraph, The rat went on an errand to a divine spirit. But soon he came back. The errand was 'conveying the divine spirit' message', So the rat said he had told 'Animals, tomorrow on New Year's Day, come early tomorrow in order to do new year greeting me. I'll give my rewards (We receive money on New Year's day, and the story said the prize instead of giving money.) and designate Chinese zodiac sign(띠). They were his messages.
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