Sweet Porridge
달콤한 죽
Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm (1785–1863, 1786–1859)
The Story
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Once there was a poor but good girl who lived alone with her mother.One day they had nothing left to eat.So the girl went into the forest, and there she met an old woman.
The old woman already knew about the girl’s trouble, and she gave her a little iron pot.“Say ‘Cook, little pot, cook,’ and it will make sweet porridge,” she said.“Say ‘Stop, little pot,’ and it will stop.”
The girl carried the pot home to her mother.Now their days of hunger were over.They ate sweet, warm porridge as often as they liked.
One day the girl went out, and her mother said, “Cook, little pot, cook.”The pot cooked, and the mother ate until she was full.Then she wanted it to stop — but she had forgotten the words.
So the pot cooked on and on. The porridge began to overflow, and it filled the kitchen, then the house, then the street.At last only one house was still standing above the porridge when the girl came home.She said, “Stop, little pot,” and it stopped — and anyone who wanted to go back into the town had to eat a path through the porridge.
Full translationTry the story first — open this only to check your understanding.
옛날에 어머니와 단둘이 사는, 가난하지만 착한 소녀가 있었어요. 어느 날 두 사람에게는 먹을 것이 하나도 남지 않았어요. 그래서 소녀는 숲으로 갔고, 거기에서 한 노파를 만났어요.
노파는 소녀의 딱한 사정을 이미 알고 있었고, 소녀에게 작은 무쇠 냄비를 하나 주었어요. "'끓어라, 냄비야, 끓어라'라고 말하면 달콤한 죽을 만들어 준단다." 하고 노파가 말했어요. "'그쳐라, 냄비야'라고 말하면 멈춘단다."
소녀는 냄비를 들고 어머니에게 돌아왔어요. 이제 굶주리던 날들은 끝났어요. 두 사람은 달콤하고 따뜻한 죽을 먹고 싶을 때마다 먹었어요.
어느 날 소녀가 밖에 나갔고, 어머니가 "끓어라, 냄비야, 끓어라"라고 말했어요. 냄비는 죽을 끓였고, 어머니는 배가 부를 때까지 먹었어요. 그러고 나서 멈추게 하고 싶었지만, 그만 그 말을 잊어버렸어요.
그래서 냄비는 계속 끓고 또 끓었어요. 죽이 넘치기 시작하더니, 부엌을 채우고, 집을 채우고, 거리까지 채웠어요. 마침내 죽 위로 아직 남아 있는 집이 딱 한 채였을 때 소녀가 집에 돌아왔어요. 소녀가 "그쳐라, 냄비야"라고 말하자 냄비가 멈췄어요. 그리고 마을로 돌아가려는 사람은 누구나 죽을 먹어 길을 내며 가야 했답니다.
Original text
Now read the original
You just read an easy retelling. Here is the same passage exactly as the author wrote it — unabridged, split into short readings.
The complete story · 245 words · 1 short readings
Read the originalComprehension Check
1. Where did the girl get the magic pot?
2. Why couldn't the mother make the porridge stop?
3. How did the trouble finally end?
Vocabulary
noun
porridge
죽
The pot made sweet porridge.
냄비는 달콤한 죽을 만들었어요.
Your Summary
In 1–2 sentences, say what the little pot could do, and what went wrong when the girl's mother used it.
Source: Adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale "Sweet Porridge" ("Der süße Brei," added to Grimms' collection in 1819; long in the public domain, Project Gutenberg #5314). This simplified retelling and its Korean translation are original text written for SeoJae Story.
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