Sample Translations
Hyo-sook Kim A Wrestling Dokkebi’s Chuseok E ng l i s h
Book Information
A Wrestling Dokkebi’s Chuseok (씨름 도깨비의 추석) KIZM Publishing corp/ 2014 / 7 p. / ISBN 9788967492434 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
A Wrestling Dokkebi’s Chuseok Written by Kim, Hyo-sook
A dokkebi named Gabi lived in a hackberry tree that was at the entrance of a village. When it became completely dark at night, Gabi came out of the tree and snooped around here and there. When someone passed by, he would run over and ask loudly, “Look here! Why don’t you wrestle with me just once before you go?”
One evening, Chuseok was just around the corner. Let’s go, here we go. The moon is so bright! A man sang full of energy as he came up the peak of the mountain.
“Hey you, you have a great voice! What is your name?” Gabi yelled in the dark. “Why, thank you very much! My name is Domuji,” said Domuji. “Is that so? Domuji, won’t you wrestle with me one round?”
Dokkebi Gabi, who was plump and hairy with bug eyes, suddenly jumped out from the darkness, smiling from ear to ear. Surprised, Domuji flinched, but then he saw that
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Gabi was smaller than him, so he relaxed. “Wrestling in the middle of the night? I have to hurry home and help prepare for Chuseok.” “Why don't you wrestle with me just once before you go?”
“Hm … fine! Just once, then!” Domuji was confident when it came to wrestling, so he decided to take on Gabi just this once.
But right as they were about to start, Gabi breathed in a lot of air and filled his entire body. Then he grabbed the side of Domuji’s pants and lifted him up. Domuji was surprised, but he put his feet back on the ground and raised Gabi into the air. “Eeee-yah!” Domuji shouted and slammed Gabi to the ground.
Hurled to the ground, Gabi looked like paste that had been pounded by a mallet. “Let’s do it one more time!” Gabi got back up immediately, breathed air into his body, and charged at Domuji for another wrestle. This time, Domuji hooked onto Gabi’s leg as he pulled him and threw him to the ground.
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“One more time!” “Let’s do it one more time!” “Just do it one more time!”
Before they knew it, it had become light out. “We’ve already gone at it multiple times, and you’ve lost, haven’t you? Let’s stop now.” Domuji said laughing.
“This time I’ll win for sure.” Gabi said panting. “That’s enough. I have to go prepare for Chuseok. I can’t wrestle with you all day.”
“Then I’ll help you. Let’s hurry up and get the preparations finished, so we can wrestle again.” Gabi walked one step ahead of Domuji and walked towards the village. As soon as he entered the village, he could smell sweet-tasting food everywhere. Gabi’s sniffed the air and took a peep here and there. “Ah, it smells so good!” Gabi strode into Domuji’s house.
Domuji’s family were all startled at the sight of Dokkebi Gabi, who had appeared so abruptly. Without a care in the world,
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Gabi sat right next to Domuji’s wife and started frying up jeon. The meat jeon sizzled, the fish jeon browned. Flip, flip, flip, flip!
In no time, Gabi finished frying the jeon and put one meat jeon in his mouth … “Aaahh! It’s hot!”
Gabi rolled over to Domuji, who was grinding freshly-harvested rice in a mortar.
“I’ll help you!” Gabi stood up quickly. Pound, pound, pound, pound! Gabi ground the rice finely, slowly poured in hot water, kneaded songpyeon into round shapes, and steamed them in a hot pot.
“Let me taste one to see if it’s good!” Gabi put one hot songpyeon in his mouth and gulp! “Aaahh! It’s so hot!”
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Gabi jumped up and down then plopped himself down in front of the grandmother, who was polishing brassware. “I’ll help!” Gabi used the straws for cleaning to shine the brassware. Swish, swoosh, swish, swoosh!
When Gabi looked at the shine on the brassware, he was startled at the sight of his hairy face and bug eyes. “Aaahh! So scary!”
Scared by his own reflection, he jumped up and ended up falling in front of the kids who were picking chestnuts.
“I’ll help!” Gabi breathed air into his stomach, and blew the air back out, shaking the branches of the chestnut tree. The burs from the falling chestnuts poked Gabi’s head. “Aaahh, it stings!” It was so painful that
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Gabi shot high into the sky.
Gabi fell on the hackberry tree that was at the entrance of the village. “Whew! Preparing for Chuseok is harder than wrestling. I need to rest a little.” Exhausted after the Chuseok table setting preparations, Gabi fell into a deep sleep. 6 While Gabi slept, Chuseok arrived. And thanks to Gabi, the Chuseok table setting in Domuji’s house looked plentiful.
The night of Chuseok, the full moon rose. The moon is shining! The moon is shining! The moon is so bright! Gabi opened his eyes to the boisterous noise. “Hey there! Why don’t you come down from there and eat some tasty food?”
Domuji’s family and the village people had gathered under the hackberry tree, being noisily jolly. “Today, certainly, we have to wrestle a round!” Domuji said.
“Fine, fine! Let’s wrestle a round!” Gabi smiled from ear to ear, inhaled and filled his body with air,
bent over and grabbed Domuji tightly. The village people started to cheer and shout. “Eeee-yah!”
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dokkebi – A fabled Korean monster Chuseok – Fall harvest festival jeon – A pancake-like dish that is made with various ingredients such as meat, seafood, and vegetables songpyeon – A half-moon shaped Korean rice cake that is made with various stuffing