Sample Translations
Jaein Yun A Peaceful Night in the Universe E ng l i s h
Book Information
A Peaceful Night in the Universe (우주평화의 밤) Nurimbo Publishing corp. / 2014 / 13 p. / ISBN 9788958761853 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 Peaceful Night in the Universe Written by Yun Jaein and Illustrated by Oh Seungmin
“There, there, Eunji. You really want to go with Youngjae, don’t you?” My heart dropped when I heard Mom. She wouldn’t make me take my little sister to Grandma’s, would she? Dad consoled Eunji. “Youngjae will be back in 4 days. I promise.” Eunji continued on as if she hadn’t even heard Dad. Mom began nagging me again. “Don’t forget to brush your teeth before you go to sleep, and be a good boy for Grandma. Be nice to…” “Yea, yea, I know.” How come Selmina isn’t here yet? Come on! Get here quick. Just then, Selmina came running in.
Selmina must not be getting sick because she’s an alien from Saturn. As for me, I feel carsick and nauseous. When Dad announced that we were almost there, Selmina whined, “You said that earlier.” “But we’re almost there for real! Look, you see that pond?” Selmina poked her head out the window. “Youngjae, look. There’s an ocean!” “You are not allowed to swim there even when it gets hot.” “Why not?” “Large snakes live there. Scary, children-eating snakes!” Suddenly my carsickness disappeared.
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“When I was young, my friend went swimming there, and he died.” Semina’s black-grape eyes widened. “Died?” “Yes. He was eaten by a snake.” Selmina breathlessly asked, “Died? What happens when you die?” “When you die, you stop breathing. And your eyes shut tight. Then you can’t see your mom and dad ever again.” Semina and I sat bolt upright and cried. “No, way!”
“Sweethearts, you don’t look well. You’ve come a long way.” I felt drowsy as Grandma rubbed my belly. “How’s your back these days? Is it still bad?” Dad asked Grandma. “A backache won’t kill me,” said Grandma, letting out a deep sigh. “These days your brother is gluing envelops at the welfare center,” she added, “and he goes to sleep holding his name tag tight in his hands.” How silly Uncle is! He’s a grown-up, but he’s not ashamed to do childish things? A name tag is not treasure!
“When I think about my aching body, I’d like to die right away, But I want to live a day longer than my poor last son.” My eyes widened. Grandma said she wants to die! But then she won’t be able to see Mom and Dad ever again!
Stars twinkle in the sky. There’s more than a hundred!
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Selmina held Grandma’s hand and begged, “Grandma, tell us a bedtime story.” “They say if you like hearing stories, you live in poverty. Do you still want to hear one ?” I answered for Selmina. “Yes. It’s just one story, so it’s ok. But you have to tell us the bestest story!” “Is that right? What should I tell you then? What would be the bestest? You both saw the large pond on the way here, right?” Selmina and I grew quiet.
“Once upon a time, giant snakes lived in the forest. Four brothers and their sister. The brothers sneaked into a village every night to eat hens and calves, but the sister snake lived a good life, eating only the bad mice who stole rice from the granary. One day, the sister snake fell in love at first sight with a man from the village.” “Grandma, what is it to fall in love at the first sight?” I interrupted. Selmina pulled on my hair. “You silly, you don’t know that? That is to like somebody.” “Well…I knew that too.”
Grandma resumed the story. “So that was a big problem, a snake falling in love with a man.” I whispered to Selmina. “Selmina, if a snake falls in love with me…I will run away. You?” “Me, too!”
“So what happened? What’s next?” I asked. But then Grandma didn’t say anything. Her head was hanging backwards, and she didn’t move.
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Her eyes were shut tight, and she stopped breathing! Dad and Uncle were sound asleep. “Goodness! What do we do, Selmina? My Grandma, is she dead?” Selmina sprang up, extended her arms wide open, and cried, “Kasikimo Ulbaralang!” Then a chocking sound came out of Grandma’s throat. She opened her eyes and let out a loud yawn. “I must have dozed off! Let’s call it a day.” Selmina dashed out to brush her teeth, but I stood still, watching my Grandma’s face.
The Junebugs were so loud that they woke me up. “Where is Dad? Did he go back home already?” I asked Grandma. “He went back early in the morning, saying that your Mom was tending the store all by herself.” Why does it feel so strange? Dad will be back in two nights…. Even before we started having breakfast, the welfare center shuttle bus came for Uncle. Uncle hid behind Selmina, insisting that he didn’t want to go, but Grandma forced him out onto
the bus.
Selmina whispered to me.
“We’d better huna General Churang quick!” “You mean help my uncle escape? How?” “Kokangi will help.” “Kokangi?” “That would be ‘baby goat’ in Earthling.”
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Grandma’s voice resounded from the kitchen, “Sleepy heads! Go get two eggs from the chicken coup.”
Brave Selmina lead the way. The hen ferociously flapped her wings and clucked. Selmina flapped her arms like the mother hen and cried out. “Yoleba Yoki!” The hen became calm. Taking the chance, I took two eggs. They were warm. “Selmina, you just said cluck-cluck in Saturnine, right?” “Bingo!”
An old lady leaning against her cane stopped by when she saw us. “Look at these cherubs, prettier than flowers. Are they your grandchildren?” “This one is my grandson, and this girl is his friend! They came to visit me for the vacation.” “Your house must be all bustling now. Do you want some corn?” The cane lady’s toothless mouth munched uselessly. “When your teeth are all gone like mine, you can’t eat corn even if you want to. Take these.” Selmina whispered to me, “that’s what happens when you don’t brush your teeth before you go to bed. You’re gonna brush your teeth tonight, Mr. Nam.”
“Tell us the story from where you left off last night, now that it’s dark.” Selmina hung on Grandma’s shoulder and begged. “How much did I tell you last night?” “You said the sister snake fell in love with a man.” “That’s right! So the sister snake fasted and prayed for a hundred days in order to become a
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human.”
“So she became a human after hundred days?” “Certainly. She turned into a beautiful lady. She married the man and even had a child—a very handsome boy like you, Youngjae.” Grandma looked at me and smiled. “They lived happily together, until one day the husband was struck by a sudden illness and died.”
“He got sick and died?” Just then, Uncle slapped his cheek and shouted. “Dead! Mosquito!” As Uncle showed his dead, bloody mosquito to Grandma, I asked Selmina what kind of illness makes you die. “Cold, cough… and then you pass out.” “I didn’t die from catching cold.” “Mr. Nam, you got a shot at the hospital.” “That’s right. Do you have hospitals in Saturn too?” “No. Nobody dies there. There are no shots or medicines.” “Wow, great!” But I thought it was a little unfair. Why was I born as an earthling?
“Come hold Kokangi. You have to feed him magical paper so you can huna General Churang.” As Selmina fed paper to the goat, Grandma came running swinging a fly swatter. “You troublemakers, why are you feeding him papers. He needs to eat grass and drink milk!” We ran away from Grandma up toward the vineyard, but then I tripped over a rock.
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Just before I pulled myself up, I closed my eyes and stopped breathing for a moment. “Is this what death is like?” Not being able to move. Nobody knowing that I am gone! My heart felt pressed and Mom and Dad’s faces flashed in my mind. “Youngjae, Youngjae! Kokangi ran off! He ran off!” Selmina cried to me. At her calling, I sprang to my feet and ran.
Perhaps the baby goat didn’t want to eat the magic papers, like Grandma said. The baby goat was grazing on grass beneath a large tree. “Youngja, do you see that?” Selmina pointed at a bird’s nest at the top of the tree. She climbed up to it in no time. “Look what I found! Eggs! One, two, three! There are three eggs, and all of them are warm!” Selmina took one out of the nest and showed it to me. Just then, the mother bird flew in from somewhere. She cried viciously and attacked Selmina. “Leave it alone! Put it back, quick, Selmina!” I yelled. The mother bird pecked Selmina’s cheek with her sharp beak.
“Ouch!” The egg slipped out of her hand. Yellow goo flowed out from the broken egg. The baby goat quickly came over and licked up the yellow goo. Selmina dropped to her knees. “Kokangi, Kokangi ate the baby bird! ‘Cause I dropped it….” Blood dripped from Selmina’s left cheek.
Selmina has been lying down without saying anything for a while.
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Does she want to listen to the story tonight? I do… “Grandma, what happened next? You said her husband died from getting sick…” “After her husband died, the sister snake returned to the forest with her child. Her snake brothers welcomed her, but in the middle of the night she heard a strange noise. Shick-shick…the snake brothers were sharpening a knife to eat the child.” Selmina sat up straight. “That’s strange. Why do snakes sharpen knives like humans? They can just eat him.” Grandma answered as she swatted mosquitos with the fly swatter. “I don’t know. That’s what my grandma told me.”
“Anyhow, the sister snake slipped out of the house without letting her brothers know. She couldn’t even put on shoes lest they hear her footsteps. The sister snake held tightly onto her sleeping child and ran barefoot across the dark forest. When the brothers found out that she had escaped, they slithered after her. She ran towards the house of the most kind-hearted couple in the village. With her tears falling, she slipped the sleeping baby through a window. ‘Baby, I am so sorry, but there is no other way to keep you safe. Live happily and get love from your new good parents. I will always be with you!’ The sister rolled up the baby blanket, held it like her child, and kept on running. Soon enough, the brothers caught up with her. They stuck out their forked tongues and hissed at her. “Give us the scrumptious baby! Give him up! Right now!”
Her face wet with tears, the sister cried out to them in front of the pond. “You evil brothers. Watch closely! My child and I, we are dying together here!”
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She clutched tightly to the rolled up blanket and threw herself into the water. The brother snakes thought that their delicious meal had slipped away. They were incensed.” “So the mother died instead of the child? To save him?” Selmina asked. “That’s correct.” “Do you think Mom would do that too?” I asked. “Of course! All mothers in the world would sacrifice their lives for their children.” Then my mom would do the same! I thought. “So what happened to the baby?” Selmina asked. “He lived happily with his good parents.” “Then what about the snake brothers? They must have been punished since they were evil, right Grandma?” “I’m not sure. I didn’t hear that part.” The dark pond appeared before my eyes. I could see the snakes’ forked tongues.
Today, the shuttle bus did not come. It’s not because Kokangi did his job, but because Uncle has Saturdays off. When we were having lunch with Uncle, Grandma said, “Look at you kids, your chins have become so sharp over the last few days. I’d better make some chicken soup.” “I’m not eating the mother hen!” I shouted out loud. Selmina added, “Grandma, don’t kill the hen!”
“Pumpkin heads! What are you talking about? Goats eat grass. Hens eat insects. People eat pigs, cows, and chickens.”
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“I said I’m not going to eat them!” Grandma slapped her forehead. “What silly things I’ve heard in my long life from these little brats.”
When I was lying on the porch to avoid talking to Grandma, I got a phone call. “It’s Mom. Dad will come get you tomorrow morning. Pack your bag before you go to sleep tonight. Tears streamed down my cheeks when I heard Mom’s voice. “Youngjae, are you there? Youngjae, are you okay?” I was choked up so I couldn’t say anything, then Grandma ran in and took the phone. “Stop making him cry. We’ve gotta pick corn before it gets too hot. Talk to you later.” Grandma wiped my tears with her wrinkly hands. “Sweetheart, you miss Mom that much? Your crying makes me want to cry, too.” “Grandma… It’s all because of you. Don’t get mad at Mom. Why are you angry at her?” “Alright, alright. I won’t cook the hen, so stop crying!”
Selmina shouted to us when we were picking corn. “Gone! General Churang and Kokangi. They are gone!” Selmina’s face turned red. “They must have gone to the pond! Quick, hurry!” I ran after Selmina with all of my might. I was out of breath when I got to the pond, but nobody was there. Uncle and the baby goat! “… No… They are already…. by the snakes… What do we do?” Big tear drops poured from Selmina’s eyes.
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My brave friend Selmina was crying!
Even this alien from Saturn cried like a foolish earthling! I dropped to my knees. “You troublemakers! What, are you crying about now?” 11
I heard Grandma’s voice from behind me. “You almost made my heart stop! What made you run like that , without looking back, and to a place you’ve never gone before?” We ran back to Grandma and hugged her. “Grand…ma… The baby.. baby goat… Uncle… The pond….” “What are you talking about? Uncle went to the mother goat, to get milk for the kid.”
The baby goat was drinking milk. We watched for a while. My mood brightened. Selmina whispered, “Mr. Nam, promise me you will
only eat Tokaring like Kokangi!”
“I promise! But what is Tokaring? In Earthling?” Selmina beamed and answered.
“Something that mom gives you! ‘Cause Kokangi’s milk is from his mom!” “Okay. But what if Mom gives me fried eggs? Can I eat that?” “That… you can’t… No, you can.” “How come?” “Mr. Nam, that’s because those eggs are bought from a store. And not stolen from mother hens.”
My alien friend Selmina is super smart.
Selmina and I lay down side by side and stared at the starry sky. “Youngjae! You know, that snake living in the pond. That’s a mother snake.” “Really?” “Yes. That’s the mother who turned back into a snake after she died.” “How come?” “She looks after the children who drowned in the pond. But because she looks so scary, people don’t know that she’s a good snake.” “I still don’t like it there. It’s too cold and dark.” Selmina reached out to my hand and helped me up. “This is a spell I learned from the bestest Saturnine magician. Repeat after me.” “Kokamila Sorolong!” “Kokamila Sorolong!” “Papa-alcha Haratasukoyang!” “Papa-alcha Haratasukoyang!” We held hands and walked in circle as we chanted the magic spell.
“Look, look over there! Youngjae! Do you see the children rising up with the mother snake? Just as Selmina said, children danced in the sparkling sky! Uncle woke up from sleep and stared at us. Selmina extended her hand to Uncle too. “Honorable General Churang! Would you like to dance with us?” Uncle sprang up and danced jauntily. “Youngjae! What a peaceful night in the universe!”
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