hosteller-memo

2. The little sea

  

                     2.

 

At a spot of the mud flat,fixing his eyes on it  he stops walking

 

a moment,  and bending his back, digs out the upper part of the

 

place widely but not so deeply, to find out  round-shaped holes ,

 

with clean water overflowing continously out from the inside of them .

 

hinking this is the right place,he sits down on the wet surface, 

 

hanging his pants taken off on his shoulder. 

 

 

 

He sets up a round wall of mud around the appointed place

 

where are the holes. As you know, the temporary wall  does 

 

a very important role, which prevents water outside of the wall

 

from entering inside. Now putting a bit of Doenzang on the head

 

of a stem of mutted barley stem, he pushs it slowly down into a hole 

 

and waits ,concentrating his gaze on it. He copies exactly

 

one by one, in one exception of sitting down on the wet

 

surface with the lower part of his body naked , after the way

 

the youths of good-for-nothings do respectively

 

at other places .Now he can do it well alone with no help

 

from them, as he observed carefully how they used to catch them

 

everytime he was allowed to follow them into the mud flat.

 

 

 

Probably you can never imagine how thrilling it is to seizure the crabfish

 

exactly at the right moment when it pushes its claws out of the hole

 

Then the operation to seizure it should be taken with no mistake.

 

 If you do fail to grasp the craw of the crabfish coming out of the hole ,

 

there would never a chance to catch it again. The crabfish ,surprised,

 

ruuning back dwon inside its hole would never try to meet you

 

eye to eye again .

 

 

 

Anyway  it is one of the boy's most favorite things to go catching

 

 the crabfish . As you know his other fascinating were as follows:

 

the spectacles of wild ducks' sudden flight at dawn in flocks.

 

schools of fish ,at the high tide, soaring up above the water surface,

 

giving out their silver flash .

 

the blue crabs with long white claws projecting their eyes under rocks.

 

hundred and thousand little crabs dancing with their white claws

 

,in perfect order,on the wide mud field.

 

 

 

Then the boy feels lonesome ,whenever he is reminded of the day

 

when an enormous storm called Saraho Typoon let

 

the little sea sweep away his friend dog, Badugi .And also

 

he feels sad the fearful moment when the typoon let

 

the little sea smash with its crazy waves every windows

 

of the frontside of his house, to complete collapse and

 

swallow  in the blink of an eye the small hut he frequented.

 

 

*to be continued

 

The older the boy gets, the farther the  psychological distance

 

between himself and the little sea. Actually the little sea  had stepped

 

back further and further from him before he noticed it. one day,

 

at the time of ebb ,the little sea is giving its ears  to the wind

 

whispering from the left seaside where forests of seaweeds are

 

a magnificent sight and gazed at the exit of the water way

 

toward the remote and wider sea on the right side, Then the boy 

 

was unaware of it.

 

 

 

Since then the little sea begins to back further from the boy.

 

However he is completely unaware of it. Seeing the little sea

 

going out toward the remote exit of the inland sea, he just thinks

 

that the sea, which ,temperamentallly having a tendency

 

to bustle in and out, would enjoy swimming out far and getting back.

 

 

?So Looking at the little sea hanging around at the edge if the mud flat ,

 

the boy never noticed that it was a gesture of going away from him.

 

 

 

Actually the little sea  had stepped back further and further from him

 

before he noticed it

 

 

 

 

그런데 어느 날 소년이 학교에서 돌아와 보니

 

그 바다는 쓸물을 따라 멀리 보이는 큰 바다 입구 쪽의

 

산 아래까지 가 머물먼서 스년족 긍로 눈길을 보내는 것이었다.

 

그리고 마침내 그 산모퉁이 너머로 사라지기 시작하는 것이었다. 그가

 

소년에게서 떠나는 마지막 모습이겄던 것이다.