Korean Short Stories
Lee BYUNGRYUL A Sealed Map 봉인된 지도 Translated by An Seonjae
Information This work was previously published in New Writing from Korea . Please contact the LTI Korea Library. library@klti.or.kr
A Sealed Map In times when the earth and the moon were much closer together than now and the moon looked bigger in times when one year lasted eight hundred days and one day was eleven hours long, you went dragging the animals you'd caught in your snares, there was a day when snow fell intent on obliterating the path you had made and all things under heaven froze. As the ice melted again, the world briefly grew sad, then that nameless night froze again, just like the river, and once the people on the far side of that frozen night, seeming anxious, gathering by the riverside, lit fires, the people on this side of the night lit fires too, anxious for those on the other side. Taking thought for one another that dark night you finally cut off a finger. In times when the earth and the moon were much closer and the moon looked bigger, in times when one year lasted five hundred days and one day was sixteen hours long you came to take me away. Seeming disinclined to reveal the promise you made to God, you said: no one survives such seasons now, so let's return to wrinkled faces aged 120, 90, 82 years old. However, the promise I have to keep means advancing toward that dark, silent vanishing point. Until the earth and the moon have moved far apart and the moon looks small. Until one year lasts three hundred and sixty five days and one day is twenty-four hours long.
Copyright 2008 Literature Translation Institute of Korea
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