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<1부>
Tales & Fables: The Many Problems of King Midas
(adapted by Paul Matthews)
Ah, to be king would be a wondrous thing, you might think, but you’d be wrong. There are so many pressures put upon you, so many dignitaries to greet and so many urgent requests from your people. Too little time in the day to stop and think about what you are doing and if you are really making the right decisions. Such was the case with poor King Midas.
He wasn’t a bad king, but he also wasn’t one of the best. He wasn’t cruel or severe to his subjects, but he did often forget to think things through. Case one… a special visit from the god of wine and parties - Dionysus. Midas had been kind to one of his satyrs - those goaty folks with cloven hooves for feet. He’d found him in the palace grounds and treated him like a nobleman and for that Dionysus felt the king should be rewarded.
One wish, he offered. Anything he liked. Well, this sounded rather grand to Midas and the first thought that came into his head was his love of all things shiny and expensive, so he blurted out: I want anything I touch to turn into gold.
The god looked at the king and asked him if he was really sure that was a good idea. Maybe he might want to take a moment or two to think things through? But Midas had made up his mind and insisted on his wish. And it was granted, but with dire consequences.
Dionysus told the king the wish would take effect on the very next sunrise and Midas, after bidding his guest farewell, jumped straight into bed wishing for morning to come round as quick as possible.
- wondrous : 경이로운, 경탄스러운
- dignitaries : 고위 관리, 현직에 있는 사람
- urgent requests : 긴한 청탁
- subjects : 백성들
- blurted out : 무심결에 말하다, 불쑥 말하다
- dire consequences : 비참한 결과
Upon awakening, he was delighted to discover that the bed that he lay on was now solid gold. He reached out to touch his bedside table and that turned to gold, too. He danced around his bedroom touching and turning every single object into precious metal with great delight.
Soon it was time for breakfast, but the king was left rather hungry after his toast became gold, his boiled egg became gold and even the tea in his cup became gold. Would he never be able to eat again? A worrying thought.
Then his daughter entered the room and he felt calmer, he grasped her hand to tell her all that had happened and… in an instant she was a golden statue. Shocked and scared and panicked, Midas ran out of the palace in his nightgown and straight to where Dionysus was staying. He left behind him a series of gold footprints on the path…
The god had been expecting the king and soon told him how to solve his malady. He should wash his hands in the river and the power would drain away. Midas did just that and was relieved to see gold flowing out of his hands, downstream. An accidental gift that much pleased the farmers a few miles along the river bank, who were delighted to discover little crumbs of gold in the water.
Back home everything he had touched was back to its original state, including his daughter who was quite shaken by her temporary statue status and told her father to think more carefully in future.
- with great delight : 대단히 기뻐하면서
- to panic : 어쩔 줄 모르다, 공황 상태에 빠지다
- malady : 심각한 문제
- to drain away : (물이) 빠지다
- accidental gift : 뜻 밖의 선물
Just a day or two later, Midas found himself in the company of two more gods - Pan, the god of the wild and Apollo, the god of music. Both were rather set on proving that they were the better musician and they wanted the king to be the judge.
King Midas swiftly agreed, for he loved a good singsong and after hearing both performances judged Pan to be the more enchanting musician. Apollo was furious at the decision and decided that the problem lay with the king’s ears - far too small to hear clearly. So with one brush of his lyre strings he magicked them into the ears of a donkey.
Large, long, furry brown ears now stuck out from each side of Midas’s head. He cried out to Pan for help, but he was long gone and Apollo just laughed and refused to change them back. What to do? King Midas decided he was going to be the sort of king who wore large hats instead of crowns. He didn’t care what color or material they were, as long as they covered up his embarrassingly large ears.
In fact, the only time he ever took off his hat outside of his private rooms was at the barber, for he was quite vain and couldn’t bear the thought of an untidy head of hair along with those atrocious ears.
- furious : 몹시 화가 난
- lyre : 리라, 수금(고대 현악기)
- was long gone : 벌써 떠나고 없었다
- vain : 자만심이 강한, 허영심이 많은
- couldn’t bear the thought : 생각만 해도 참을 수가 없었다
- atrocious : 형편없는, 끔찍한
The barber did his best not to laugh the first time he saw the state of the king and was also very careful not to tell anyone else. However, after several visits he was desperate to share this ridiculous secret with someone. What to do? He knew if he told others, then his majesty would find out and he’d end up cutting hair in prison, but maybe there was a way to relieve himself of the burden.
In the middle of the night the barber made his way out of the city and into the countryside. He headed to forest and once in the center he dug a hole in the ground, whispered “The king has donkey’s ears” and giggled to himself as he filled the hole in. A secret safely stored underground, he thought.
Well, it would have been, except that when spring came flowers grew from that very spot and started whispering “The king has donkey’s ears”. The whisper spread to the nearby trees and bushes, and then to the meadows and the hills and the roads, and soon it could be heard all around the city - whisperings of beetles and birds and weeds and moss, all saying the same thing - The king has donkey’s ears.
In no time at all the whole city knew Midas’s secret and he had no choice but to spend the rest of his time on the throne with his ears out on display. And whenever he walked through the city, the little boys and girls would creep behind him and bray quietly, hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw.
King Midas thought it all rather asinine.
- did his best not to laugh : 안 웃으려고 최선을 다 했다
- desperate : (다른 모든 것이 실패한 뒤에 시도하는) 필사적인
- to relieve himself of the burden : 부담에서 벗어나고 싶었다
- in no time at all : 잠시도 지체하지 않고, 즉시
- on display : 전시[진열]된
- asinine : 터무니없는
Tales & Fables: The Necklace
(adapted by Paul Matthews)
I have a sad tale for you from a long time ago in France, when if you were lucky enough to be invited to the palace, you would accept immediately and then spend the next week worrying about what to wear.
Such was the case for Mathilde and her husband Loisel. The madame had been longing for an invitation to a glamorous occasion and the monsieur managed to wangle one thanks to his connections. He thought she would be happy, but when he showed her the invite she glowered at him and began to weep.
“I have nothing to wear,” she wailed, “No fancy gown and no glittering jewels. If I went there with the little I have I would be the laughingstock of the party.” Loisel thought for a second and then told her he would scrape together what he could for a brand new party dress and why couldn’t she ask her fashionable friend for the loan of a necklace.
Mathilde brightened immediately, and a day or two later she had the perfect dress for the occasion and a borrowed diamond necklace from her dear friend Jeanne.
The party was fabulous and everyone admired madame’s outfit and diamond decoration, but when it was over and she stepped into the cab to head home, she suddenly discovered the necklace was gone. Monsieur and her, searched high and low, but they never found it. They had no choice but to buy a replacement.
- to worry about what to wear : 무엇을 입을지 고민하다
- glamorous : 화려한, 매력이 넘치는
- wangle : (남을 설득하거나 꾀를 부려) 얻어 내다[해내다]
- laughingstock : 웃음거리, 조소의 대상
- to brighten : (기쁨·희망으로) 밝아지다[밝히다]
- to searched high and low : 샅샅이 찾다
They scoured the jewelers of Paris to find its like and when they did, they used all the money they had in the world (and even some they hadn’t - Loisel borrowed heavily from the bank he worked at) to buy it. A whopping thirty six thousand francs! And they gave it back to Jeanne without a word of what had happened. She was none the wiser.
The couple were now deeply in the red and for the next ten years they took second and third and fourth jobs so they could pay off all they owed. They had no luxuries, no niceties and made do with only the basics until the debts were all paid in full.
The stress and the worry and the work aged them prematurely. Their hands rough and dry, their faces filled with wrinkles and worry lines. Much different to Mathilde’s friend Jeanne who looked not a day older.
One day, madame decided to tell Jeanne the truth and reveal how she had lost and then replaced the necklace, but was perturbed by her friend's shocked expression when she told her.
“I have done you wrong, please forgive me,” Mathilde cried.
“No, no. It’s not that,” Jeanne replied, “My necklace was but costume jewelry, no diamonds only fakes. And it cost me only five hundred francs…”
- to scour : 샅샅이 뒤지다
- none the wiser : 여전히 모르는, 그 이상 모르는
- in the red : 빚지고; 적자로; 적자상태로
- niceties : (반드시 필요하진 않지만 있으면) 괜찮은 물건
- prematurely : 조숙하게, 너무 이르게
- perturbed : 냉정을 잃다
<2부>
Movie Stories
주제: Siblings
Little Women / 작은 아씨들 (2019)
Movie World 2 : Key’s to the Heart / 그것만이 내 세상 (2018)
Frozen / 겨울왕국 (2013)
My Annoying Brother / 형 (2016)
Cheaper by the Dozen / 열두 명의 웬수들 (2003)
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