Sample Translations
Byoung-hyun Ahn On the Way to Meet You E ng l i s h
Book Information
On the Way to Meet You (만나러 가는 길) Woorinabi Publishing corp. / 2014 / 4 p. / ISBN 9791195352418 07810 For further information, please visit: http://library.klti.or.kr/node/772
This sample translation was produced with support from LTI Korea. Please contact the LTI Korea Library for further information. library@klti.or.kr
On the Way to Meet You Written by Ahn Byoung-hyun
It was one weekend morning after a storm. I received a phone call from an old friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. He gave me an address and told me to come and see him there. There are moments in life when, like an unexpected avalanche in spring, things come down on you, things that you didn’t want to stay in your heart. For me, yesterday was one of those moments. But the storm passed last night. Today I am going to go and see my old friend.
Hi! You can never find happiness as if it is playing hide-and-seek with you. You think about it and think some more about it, and you try your best to make a living, but you feel that people often look down on you. I was away from where I should have been. Before so many choices, how honest was I with myself? Hope seemed like an artificial flash of light, and all I could do was grumble and complain
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and ask, “Why me?”
Ahhh … No … I’ve met selfishness disguised as consideration. And things often did not go my way. Where does unhappiness come from? I remember being forced to say things out loud. “I might be in the way.” Hearing the truth was not easy. “But I could be of help.” But I became mean and kept changing for the worse. But a voice told me, “It’ll be okay.” “It will be all right.” Pull! Pull! Thank you. Is there really a light at the end of the tunnel? Is it really darkest before the dawn? Will I find some comfort at the end of this world? Clang! Swirl … Swirl … Clang! Keekeek. The air is humid.
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As if a storm is on its way. But it is sadness marching towards me. I walk over to one dark shadow of sadness that is resting on a bench and say, “Hi. Why are you sitting here?” The shadow of sadness does not look at me, but speaks quite slowly. “We sit here so that we can melt little by little.” “When we swim in the water, we shrink, and one day we will disappear.” “If we are not too big, it only takes a couple of laps. Even if we are quite big, we still disappear after a dozen or so laps in the water.” So I ask, “So how many laps have you swam so far?” “I am the oldest sadness around here.” “I have become smaller since the time I got here, but for some strange reason, I just stopped shrinking.” “It’s time for me to go.” “Wait!” “Here. Take this.” The shadow of sadness takes a look at it for a long time and puts it in its mouth. It starts to swim along in the water with so many other shadows of sadness, as it must have done countless times. It tries desperately to be forgotten, which looks beautiful and sad at the same time. As I slowly walk out of the place, I see the shadow waving at me from the water. It is a bit blurry, but the shadow looks smaller to me. I wonder what I should say when I see my friend. He will be different from how I remember him.
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I am sure I’ve changed, too. But I am certain that he will welcome me as his friend, and that I am ready to go and see him.
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