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Family Month Special : Korean Folktales

Episode 2: The Sun and the Moon

One day, there was a big party at a wealthy man’s house. The mother went over to help with cooking and was returning home her bag filled with delicious rice cakes. The sun was descending fast over the horizon and the growl of a tiger echoed from far away.

“Oh, my! It sounds like a tiger. I better get going.” (Mother)

“I will not kill you if you give me one of those rice cakes.” (Tiger)

“Okay, fine. I will give you a rice cake if you’ll let me go. My children are waiting for me to come home. Here is the rice cake. Now let me pass.” (Mother)

“어휴, 호랑이 소리네. 무서워라~ 빨리 가야겠다” (엄마)

“떡 하나 주면 안 잡아먹지~” (호랑이)

“그래그래~ 떡을 줄테니까 나는 보내주려무나~

 집에서 어린 것들이 엄마 오기만을 기다리고 있단다. 

 여기 떡을 줄테니, 얼른 길을 비켜다오” (어머니)

Despite her desperate pleading, the tiger ended up devouring her. 

“Hi, children. Mommy’s home. Children, what are you waiting for? Mommy’s home. Please open the door.” (Tiger)

“It must be Mommy. Let’s open the door.” (Sister)

“Wait. Mom said not to open the door without checking who it is. And her voice sounds a bit strange. Let’s look out through the peep hole first. Oh, the clothes look like hers, but it doesn’t look like her.” (Brother)

“Children, why aren’t you opening the door for me? I brought you some delicious rice cakes.” (Tiger)

“Wait. Mom, can you show me your hands?” (Brother)

“Mommy, why are your hands so coarse?” (Sister)

“What? Well, that’s because I worked all day long today.” (Tiger)

“얘들아~엄마왔다. 얘들아 뭐해? 엄마 왔다니까~ 어서 문 좀 열어봐” (호랑이)

“어, 엄마 왔나봐. 오빠 빨리 문열어” (여동생)

“잠깐만~ 엄마가 아무나 문열어 주지 말랬잖아~

 그런데, 엄마 목소리가 좀 이상한거 같은데.

 먼저 여기 문구멍으로 좀 내다보자~ ...엄마옷은 맞는데 엄마같지가 않아” (오빠)

“얘들아~ 문 안열고 뭐하니? 엄마가 맛있는 떡 가져왔다” (호랑이)

“잠깐만~

 엄마! 어디 손 좀 안으로 들이밀어 봐” (오빠)

“ 엄마! 왜 이렇게 손이 거칠거칠해?” (여동생)

“뭐? 그 그거야 오늘 하루 종일 일을 했으니까 그렇지” (호랑이)

The children pretended to head toward the outhouse but took a turn near the well and climbed up an old pine tree next to a well.

But the tiger that was looking inside the well turned around and spotted the children hiding up in the tree. The tiger started climbing up the tree to catch them.