Korean

Bedtime in Eli's flat in Mapo: Su-a brings home the folk-tale book her publishing house printed and Eli reads the start of The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon to Ha-eun: it came out today, read it to her, long ago, they say, there lived a tiger, slower, you're not reading the weather, the tiger came down to the village, Ha-eun said tiger, the end is tomorrow, I can't read the dried persimmon yet, I put your name down for the reading-aloud club, without asking me, and starting is half, I did your half.

The Mapo library on a Saturday morning, Eli's first reading-aloud club: slower than on the radio, I'm Eli, I'm a science teacher, the slower you read, the better they listen, forty years a postman, I come for the coffee, a breath at every comma, the book low, the more he reads, the more Korean he sounds, next week Mr. Yun is the tiger, and three years now, the longer I do it, the hungrier I get.

The Mapo library, the club reads The Sun and the Moon with Mr. Yun as the tiger, Eli as the mother and Ms. Seo as the children: give me one rice cake and I won't eat you, at the last hill no rice cakes, the tiger said it was her turn, the tiger asked for a rope too, the rope was rotten and he fell into the millet field, he says he'll eat her, asks if it's strong, says let's climb, no rope ever came down, and because you never asked for one.

The Mapo library, the club reads The Rabbit's Liver with Eli as the turtle and Mr. Yun as the rabbit: Rabbit, the Sea King is ill, the rabbit pretended to think it over, he pretended not to be afraid, I left my liver at home, a king doesn't pretend, he just believed, what animal keeps its liver outside its body, the rabbit's part is cold porridge, I pretended to understand, and I know, I saw it all.

The Mapo library, no book today: Eli tells The Gold Axe and the Silver Axe alone on the five words a story walks on: then a mountain spirit appeared, my axe is the iron one, so he gave him all three axes, but then the greedy neighbour heard, while that went on the spirit vanished, at last he lost even his iron axe, with five words the story walks, the trusted axe cuts your foot, and a proverb is salt, just a pinch.

The Mapo library, the club reads The Old Man with the Lump, a story in two halves: an old man with a lump sang in the mountains, where does that song come from, from this lump, when he said that the goblins bought the lump, the neighbour went up too and sang, he came home with one more lump, the second half faster, I told my grandson, he asked where the gold went, and children always follow the money.

Mrs. Park's stall at Mangwon market, the first day of Min-jun's documentary, Eli on the tripod: it's a market film, the market is you, film the kimchi, not my face, she said that to the radio too, the tripod nearly fell in the kimchi tub, then it'd be camera kimchi all winter, the first day I sold one radish, no tree stands after ten strokes, I nearly believed her, and I nearly said no, too.

Bedtime in Eli's flat, The Two Brothers and the Gourd for Ha-eun: the kind brother mended the swallow's leg, the moment they sawed the gourd rice poured out, the moment he heard he caught a swallow, Ha-eun says again, she wants the gourd again, the gourd is a rice cake in a picture, you skipped the second gourd, the moment I say goblin she hides under the blanket, she's asleep, the moment you said swallow, and swallow is my best word.

Coffee after the reading at the Mapo library, Mr. Yun's own story from forty years of post: a Busan letter came every month, I looked at the nameplate and the name was different, the old lady had read them all, the son said keep taking them to her, she read them to me at the gate, that's a story, she was looking down the road, I'll read you a letter from Minneapolis, and hearing a hundred times isn't seeing once, bring the snow.

Reading night in the Mapo library's children's room, Su-a and Ha-eun in the front row, Eli reads The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon whole: the reader is Eli Brooks, my hands are shaking, even if the sky falls there's a hole to climb out, the hole is the first sentence, dried persimmon, right then the baby stopped, it turned out the persimmon was a dried fruit, Ha-eun shouted tiger, before the persimmon breathe three times, and at Chuseok everyone wants a story.

Grandma's gate in Jeonju in the summer holiday, Eli, Su-a and Ha-eun off the train with a box of pears: you've come, did the little tiger sleep on the train, she slept till Iksan and sang till Jeonju, oh, the pear box, Grandma, I'm sorry, even a monkey falls from a tree, Grandma, we're here, he practised proverbs on the train, why does a proverb talk like a book, a proverb isn't said to a person, it's said to the air, now you're Korean, pick up the pears.

Grandma's table in Jeonju, bean-sprout soup with rice: Grandma, tell us a story while we eat, even the Diamond Mountains come after a meal, a hungry man hears nothing, that's the law of it, she says that to everyone, just eat, how's the soup, just like last summer, Grandma, a soup that's always the same is bound to be good, Grandma, and the stone bridge story, after the rice, a nap, the story is tomorrow.

The veranda of Grandma's house in Jeonju, an evening of the summer holiday: the market I used to go to as a girl was by the south gate, my mother sold rice cakes from a basket, what did a rice cake cost, one egg, laid by the hen I used to feed, the basket I used to carry is still in the storeroom, the stall at Mangwon is the basket, grown up, after hardship comes joy, I'll pay with an egg, the hen died forty years ago, bring two.

Lunch at Grandma's in Jeonju, Ha-eun throwing rice at the chickens there aren't any more: Ha-eun, rice is for eating, she's throwing it to the hens that aren't there, no matter how many times I say it, she throws it, a habit at three lasts till eighty, give her the smallest spoon, I still throw rice to the birds too, Grandma, Ha-eun says great-grandma, that's great-grandmother in baby talk, I've waited two years, no matter how I try, great-grandma won't come out for me.

A walk through the old market in Jeonju with Grandma, the rice-cake shop of her childhood shut and the Neighbour passing: I was going to buy you the rice cake from the old shop, but look, it's shut, Grandma, the day you go is market day, you've learnt it the wrong way round, today it's the bad one, the day you go is market day, the rice-cake lady's at a wedding, she's back at three, we were going to wait, now we're going for cold noodles, you're the one on the radio, right, read us the menu, cold buckwheat noodles, nine thousand won, and the voice costs extra.

The Kims' flat in Mangwon in the summer heat, Grandma up from Jeonju, Eli and Su-a in from the car park with two cross faces: what's wrong with your face, I said the wrong thing in the car park, if the word that goes is kind, the word that comes is kind, which word went first, a quarrel's only over if somebody laughs, I'll laugh only if you say I was right about the parking, Grandma, he parked in the neighbour's spot, I'll move the car, only if I come along, there, that's the laugh.

Mrs. Park's stall at Mangwon market, Min-jun's camera on the tripod and Eli in front of it: bro, how did you come to the market, Mrs. Park gave me a piece of radish kimchi, coming here, I've come to know every stall by its smell, after three years at the village school even the dog recites poetry, he's had six years, so I'm the dog, haggling every week, he got a Jeolla accent, is the camera still on, the camera's always on.

The Kims' flat in the evening, Min-jun's camera on Mr. Kim and his taxi story: Dad, the camera's on, the ring story, a bride got in at Mangwon, because of the rain, the whole of Mapo was one car park, because I braked, the ring rolled away, so, did you find it, what time was the wedding, eleven, I took the back seat out in the rain, mending the barn after the cow is lost, for ten years the bride sent rice cakes, nobody lost a cow.

Mrs. Jo's rice-cake shop at Mangwon market the week before the holiday, Min-jun's camera in the doorway: Mrs. Jo, twenty honey rice cakes, please, far from twenty, I haven't got two, in one sentence, Mrs. Jo, far from rich, I never once sat down, then the white ones, please, take what's left, a chicken instead of a pheasant, drinking the kimchi soup before the rice-cake giver has thought of it, and getting famous, far from famous, I'll have to shut.

A Sunday supper at the Kims' flat, Grandma's test of ten proverbs for ten rice cakes: ten proverbs, ten rice cakes, miss one and Min-jun eats it, there's no way he gets all ten, a word with no feet, goes a thousand li, there's no way Grandma knows only ten, nine, there's no way he misses the tenth, a man who's eaten nine rice cakes, there's no such proverb, there is now, he gives the tenth to his grandmother.

Mangwon market the week before Chuseok, Mrs. Park's list and Eli's arms: pears, one box, jujubes, chestnuts, one croaker, the box costs more than the pears, at Chuseok the navel is bigger than the belly, so crowded you can't move your elbows, that's the shot, walk slower, the croaker over there looks bigger, another's rice cake looks bigger, and so heavy I want to sit down.

The Kims' kitchen on Chuseok eve, the half-moon rice cakes: pine needles under, the size of a chestnut, you're shaping them half-heartedly, mine look like dumplings, a pretty rice cake brings a pretty daughter, I have a daughter already, then yours can be ugly, Min-jun listened half-heartedly and ate three, and paper is lighter lifted by two, I'll fill.

The Kims' flat on Chuseok morning, Mr. Kim laying the ancestral table with Min-jun's camera on him: as you know, red east, white west, fish east, the pears go on the right, don't they, ask your mother about the pears, as you can see I've already placed them all, Dad, Mum, the camera, only one of you talk, too many boatmen take the boat up the mountain, two bows, you bow three times from nerves, and as you know, I'm a science teacher.

The Kims' flat on Chuseok afternoon, the whole family and the camera: Eli, tell us the library story, so, you see, a tiger comes down, speak of the tiger and it comes, I hear the word tiger even from my room, the mother says the dried persimmon and, well, the baby stops dead, pause there, three breaths, the persimmon, you see, was a dried fruit, and the book's wrong, the baby stopped because it was tired.

The Kims' flat on Chuseok evening, Min-jun's laptop on the table: it's a rough cut, the sound's bad in the fish aisle, you said you'd film only the kimchi and look, it's my face for ten minutes, the kimchi doesn't talk, it's dark under the lamp, the story was at your mother's stall, Mrs. Jo said she wouldn't and look, she even sang, am I in it too, and you're the narration, the Jeonju son-in-law.

The Kims' flat late on Chuseok evening, Grandma's wedding story: Grandma, tell the wedding story, I was seventeen, Jeonju, a spring, I went with my shoes on the wrong feet, and the groom, he bowed with his hat on backwards, Grandpa told it the other way round, he told it wrong for fifty years and I let him, and even a mousehole has its sunny day.

The Kims' flat on Chuseok evening, Ji-yeong's story of Eli's first morning at school: on the first day he bowed even to the dog, if I'd known it was a dog I wouldn't have bowed, he and the vice-principal bowed until the bell, the vice-principal said that's enough for the first year, if you'd told me it would have been quiet, not knowing is the medicine, but the dog, did the dog bow too, and the dog bowed back, only the dog.

The Kims' table at the last supper of Chuseok, Mr. Kim standing with the one glass: just one glass, to the family, the American is family too, sit down, a story is the very thing that makes a family, six years ago I couldn't even say thank you, one word repays a thousand-coin debt, so which word did you pay with, I've eaten well, and that very word, say it every Sunday.

Mangwon market one evening, the vendors on folding chairs under the roof at the entrance for Min-jun's film: Mangwon Market, forty minutes, not only did they film my shop, they even put my song in, your face is on twice as long as mine, a dragon rises from a ditch, not a director, a video editor, dust gathered makes a mountain, not only does he read the radio, he's even learnt our proverbs, and that comes at minute twelve.

The station platform the morning after the holiday, Grandma going home to Jeonju: I'll carry the bag, so hold the rail, I'll ring every week, so a proverb each time, I'll give you a proverb, so you tell me a story, Ha-eun says bye-bye, great-grandma, next year I'll be ninety, so you tell the story, picking a star from the sky, I'm on the train, aren't I, that's the star, and bring the little tiger too.