메밀꽃 필 무렵
When the Buckwheat Blooms
Yi Hyo-seok (1907–1942)
이야기
단어를 탭하면 번역돼요. 문장을 선택하면 형광펜을 칠하거나 학습 계획에 추가할 수 있어요.
여름 장은 처음부터 장사가 시원치 않아서, 해가 아직 높이 떠 있는데도 봉평 장터는 벌써 쓸쓸했다.얼굴이 얽고 왼손잡이인 허 생원은, 이십 년 넘게 늙은 나귀 한 마리를 끌고 강원도의 장터를 떠도는 장돌뱅이였다.그날 허 생원은 주막에서 젊은 장돌뱅이 동이가 주모와 농담을 주고받는 것을 보고, 괜히 화가 나서 따귀를 때렸다.동이는 아무 말 없이 나갔지만, 잠시 뒤 숨을 헐떡이며 달려와 아이들이 허 생원의 나귀를 괴롭힌다고 알려 주었다.허 생원은 그런 동이에게 미안한 마음이 들었다.
그날 밤, 허 생원과 조 선달, 그리고 동이는 팔십 리 떨어진 대화장을 향해 밤길을 걸었다.산허리는 온통 메밀밭이었고, 갓 핀 하얀 꽃은 소금을 뿌린 듯 달빛 아래 숨이 막힐 만큼 환하게 빛났다.
달밤이면 허 생원은 늘 같은 이야기를 꺼냈다.젊은 시절 봉평에서 보낸 어느 여름밤, 개울가 물방앗간에서 우연히 성 서방네 처녀를 만나 하룻밤을 함께 보낸 이야기였다.처녀의 집은 다음 날 제천으로 떠나 버렸고, 허 생원은 그 뒤로 다시는 그 처녀를 만나지 못했다.“평생에 딱 한 번 있었던 일이지만, 그 밤만은 잊을 수가 없네.”
이번에는 동이가 자기 이야기를 했다.동이의 어머니는 봉평 사람이었고, 아버지는 얼굴도 모른다고 했다.어머니는 지금 제천에 사는데, 동이는 술만 마시면 행패를 부리는 의붓아버지를 피해 열여덟 살에 집을 나왔다고 했다.
개울을 건너다가 허 생원은 발을 헛디뎌 물에 빠지고 말았다.동이가 허 생원을 업어 건너 주었는데, 그 등이 어쩐지 따뜻하고 포근했다.허 생원은 대화장이 끝나면 제천으로 가 보기로 마음먹었다.
다시 길을 나설 때, 허 생원의 눈에 문득 동이가 채찍을 쥔 손이 들어왔다.허 생원과 똑같이, 동이도 왼손잡이였다.달은 어느새 기울었고, 나귀의 방울 소리만 메밀밭 사이로 맑게 울렸다.
전체 번역먼저 이야기를 읽어 보고, 이해했는지 확인할 때만 열어 보세요.
Summer markets were poor business from the start, and though the sun was still high, the Bongpyeong market was already nearly empty. Heo Saengwon, pockmarked and left-handed, was a travelling peddler who had wandered the market towns of Gangwon for more than twenty years, leading an old donkey. That day at the inn, Heo saw Dong-i, a young peddler, joking with the woman who kept the place, and in a sudden temper he slapped him. Dong-i left without a word, but a little later he came running back, out of breath, to tell Heo that some children were tormenting his donkey. Heo felt sorry for how he had treated the boy.
That night, Heo, his friend Jo Seondal and Dong-i walked through the dark toward the market at Daehwa, eighty ri away. The whole mountainside was buckwheat fields, and the newly opened white flowers looked as if salt had been scattered over them, shining so brightly under the moon that it took his breath away.
On moonlit nights, Heo always told the same story. It was about a summer night in Bongpyeong when he was young, when he happened to meet the daughter of the Seong family in the water mill by the stream and spent the night with her. The next day her family left for Jecheon, and Heo never saw her again. "It happened only once in my whole life, but that night I can never forget."
This time Dong-i told his own story. His mother was from Bongpyeong, he said, and he had never even seen his father's face. His mother now lived in Jecheon, but at eighteen he had left home to get away from a stepfather who turned violent whenever he drank.
As they were crossing a stream, Heo lost his footing and fell into the water. Dong-i carried him across on his back, and somehow that back felt warm and comforting. Heo made up his mind to go to Jecheon once the Daehwa market was over.
As they set off again, Heo's eye suddenly fell on the hand in which Dong-i held his whip. Just like Heo, Dong-i was left-handed. The moon had begun to sink, and only the donkey's bell rang out clearly among the buckwheat fields.
이해도 확인
1. What does Heo do for a living?
2. What story does Heo tell on every moonlit night?
3. What does Heo notice about Dong-i at the end of the story?
핵심 단어
noun
장돌뱅이
jangdolbaengi
a travelling market peddler
허 생원은 이십 년 넘게 장돌뱅이로 살았다.
Heo lived as a travelling peddler for more than twenty years.
한줄 요약
In 1–2 sentences, say what Heo begins to suspect about Dong-i, and which clues point to it.
출처: Based on Memilkkot pil muryeop (메밀꽃 필 무렵, When the Buckwheat Blooms), the short story Yi Hyo-seok published in the magazine Jogwang in 1936. The author died in 1942, and the story is in the public domain. This simplified retelling in modern Korean and its English translation are original text written for SeoJae Story.
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