단편 - Two Farmers
(원작) 이솝우화 The Bittern and the Hoopoe
이솝우화 중 하나를 다듬어 보았다.
원작이 궁금한 분들은 The Bittern and the Hoopoe라는 이야기를 찾아보길 바란다. 내용을 틀어서 만든 이유는, 첫째로는 막상 Bittern 이랑 Hoopoe 새 울음소리 들어봤는데 원작에서 나오는 의성어가 연상되지 않는 울음소리였고, 둘째로는 Bittern이나 Hoopoe라는 새는 한국에서 잘 마주칠 기회가 없기 때문이었다.
소리 내어 읽으면서 발음하기 어려운 문장도 함께 다듬어, 비교적 읽기 수월할 것이다.
추가로, 이해를 돕기 위해 챗GPT를 통해 각 장면 삽화를 제작하였다.
각 장면별로 캐릭터의 일관성은 떨어지더라도, 내용의 이해를 위해 삽입하였으니 너그러운 마음으로 양해를 부탁드립니다.^^
Two Farmers
One day, a man walked up to an old farmer who was out in the fields with his cows.
“Where do you like to bring your cows to graze?” the man asked.
The farmer gave a small smile and said, “Right here. The grass is just right—not too rich, not too plain. That’s the best kind of place.”
“Why’s that?” the man asked.
The farmer paused for a moment, listening to the sounds around them. “Do you hear that sad bird calling out from the meadow?” he asked. “Let me tell you something. That sound reminds me of two farmers I used to know."
The farmer continued, "They both worked with cows too. They weren’t so lucky.”
The man sat down beside him, and the farmer began his story.
“The first farmer liked fancy places. He took his cows to fields full of tall, lush grass and flowers. It looked beautiful, and he thought the cows would love it. But the grass was too rich. The cows got restless and hard to control.
When it was time to go home, they just ran off. He shouted, ‘Come on, cows, let’s go!’ but they didn’t even look back.”
“And the second farmer?” the man asked.
“Well,” said the farmer, “he did the exact opposite. He took his cows up to the dry, rocky hills, where there was barely any grass at all. The cows were quiet—but they were so weak, they could barely stand. When he yelled, ‘Get up! Let’s move!’ they didn’t budge.”
The farmer looked out over his own calm herd and nodded.
“That’s what happens when you don’t find balance. Too much or too little—it just doesn’t work.”
He leaned in a little closer and added with a knowing look, “The thing is, neither of those cows even belonged to them. They’d borrowed them from a rich landowner who expected everything to go perfectly. But when things went wrong, and the cows either ran off or collapsed, those two farmers didn’t stick around. They just disappeared—ran off before the landowner could find them.”
He gave a small chuckle. “And now, every time I hear those birds calling, I think of those two. I hope they found somewhere quiet to settle down.”
