Posts tagged “Old Garden Serial”
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The Old Garden: The Day I Met Yoon Hee (Part 18/26)
October 8, 2009
Bong Han had just switched his hiding place for the second time. He was at the top of the wanted list, and it was the most dangerous period for him. We were to meet in Miari in a billiard hall with two exits, one leading onto the main street, one into a back alley. It was around three or four in the afternoon, when there were plenty of people coming and going. I got the only empty table and pretended to play by myself, while I continuously watched the two exits. I did not see him come in, but Kwon Hyung was sitting there on a long bench under the scoreboard right behind the billiard table. He smoothly took a cue and hit a red ball as if it was now his turn.
“Bong Han is not coming. His pictures are everywhere.”
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: Every Fire in the World Goes Out Eventually (Part 17/26)
October 7, 2009
Bong Han was a man of principles. He counted every bean, and he rarely trusted anyone but himself. He divided things into black and white and then cut them with a knife. Many people complained that he was hardhearted. His life was locked up in Kwangju in 1980. In the middle of the massacres, he had escaped to Seoul and hidden in an attic for two years before he was smuggled out of the country. Kang Won, who wrote poetry, met him accidentally during his underground days, and the little study group they organized together became a network of spies. After serving five years in prison, Kang Won struggled to make ends meet and died of cancer like Nam Soo. I liked Bong Han and loathed him, equally. It would have been better if he had remained a revolutionary, like those of the Japanese occupation era, but he was lucky enough to survive and unfortunate enough to live past the end of his own legend.
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: In the 5.18 Cemetery (Part 16/26)
October 6, 2009
We said hello to many different names. In the 5.18 cemetery were Sang Woon, Young Joon, and Chul Young, who passed away more recently. Chul Young, unlike me, spent nineteen years in a psychiatric hospital, his brain injured during torture. He lived his whole life stuck in that day. He lost his mind because the memory was frozen. Whenever his struggling wife came during a visitation, Chul Young asked her about the safety of those already dead and what was happening in front of the state capital. He’d been the last of the civilian militia in solitary confinement at a psychiatric hospital. Decorated with marble, the 5.18 cemetery looked more like another kind of prison. Where Nam Soo was resting was a real, older cemetery, where myriad friends gathered amiably. There, even the dry grass seemed warm and comfortable.
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: Nam Soo (Part 15/26)
October 1, 2009
It’s been more than twenty years since Nam Soo first went into hiding after the Reading Group incident. He was imprisoned for ten years because of a case involving another organization and was released before I was. During the bloody uprising in Kwangju he was already in prison, and by the time he was released I was in prison. When we first met in the seventies, I was a high school teacher in a small southern town and was preparing to leave the country to study abroad. We both were young and opposed the Yushin regime, which changed the constitutional law in order for General Park to continue his dictatorship. I read him a poem by Sergei Yesenin, handwritten in an old notebook. I do not remember where I got that notebook.
Still around, old dear? How are you keeping?
I too am around. Hello to you!
May that magic twilight ever stream
Over your cottage as it used to doPeople write how sad you are, and anxious
For my sake, though you won’t tell them so
And that you in your old-fashioned jacket
Out onto the highroad often goI could not clearly remember what followed next. It was something like, Don’t go eating your heart out with worry that I am now an unknown drunk at a tavern for fear that someone will stick a knife into my chest.
Read Part Fifteen
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: Mang Wal Cemetery (Part 14/26)
September 30, 2009
“Mr. Oh, here!”
“Kun! It’s been too long!”
I hugged him tightly. Then I began to study his face. There were many strands of white hair from his temples to almost the top of his head, and many little lines around his eyes. I had seen Kun briefly at the detention cell, then we were separated. He finished his sentence and was released a few years before me. He was probably five or six years younger than me. I had escaped from Kwangju, but he took up arms as part of a civilian militia. Later, he was arrested for his underground activities. If he had been captured earlier at the state capital, Kun would have led a much easier life. Kun found me at my hiding place in the slums two days after the last crackdown at the state capital. His cheeks were hollow and his face haggard; he was wearing a shirt stained with dirt; he grimaced and burst into tears as he tried to hold on to us. Sang Woon is dead. Young Joon insisted I get out first, later I saw he was gone, he got shot just once. Ah, we would never be able to embrace each other again as we did that dawn.
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: A Soup With Dried Pollack (Part 13/26)
September 29, 2009
After persevering in solitary confinement for a long time, your small emotions are mostly hidden deep underneath a thick layer of insensitivity. Showing them helps no one. In the beginning, you forget words. It’s an easy one. You can’t remember when last you actually wanted to use them. More words disappear from your mind, even the names of those around you. The next step is when you cannot recall names of everyday things that are right in front of you. Wait a minute, what was that thing called? Then comes the symptom of muttering to yourself. Hey, it’s time to sleep, or that guard is such a stickler, or you fart and complain to yourself, gee, that stinks. Among the prisoners, those with long sentences rarely smile or cry. During the audio-visual education lessons, when they show you movies, prisoners shed their tears in darkness and cry to their heart’s content. Their eyes are red and bloodshot when they walk out of the room.
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: Dear Hyun Woo (Part 12/26)
September 24, 2009
Dear Hyun Woo,
It has been so long since I wrote your name down. I feel like I’m addressing someone who is no longer in this world. It breaks my heart.
Yes, it’s been fifteen years since you left Kalmae. Did you receive the letter I sent to the prison on the year of the Olympics?
I’ll tell you later, but that was a very difficult time for me. After that, I left the country for five years. Thanks to you, I painted a lot. I quit after two solo exhibitions, and now I don’t want to paint any more. I guess I’m sick of this greedy world so full of cultural products. Meanwhile, you’re hanging in there in the middle of it all like an icicle hanging from the slate roof of a shed, precarious but pure.
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: Shabby and Pathetic Junk (Part 11/26)
September 23, 2009
I decided to take a trip and first unpacked my bags from the prison, spreading the contents all over the room. There was shabby underwear, a couple of winter sweaters, thick woolen socks, a muffler and knitted mittens, a few books, an unfinished tube of toothpaste and a new toothbrush with its bristle still stiff, a hand exerciser, and a golden turtle made by nonviolent criminals. The hand exerciser, along with the Buddhist prayer beads, were made by those who worked at the wood shop during their spare moments. A Chinese juniper stick was carved into an oval shape, then cut wooden pins were densely wedged in. On chilly mornings when my hands were frozen, they said, I should put it in one hand and roll it around inside my palm. It would be like getting an acupuncture, which would prevent frostbite and help blood circulation. I put the well-worn thing in my hand, then opened and closed it. The golden turtle was a large piece of laundry soap skillfully carved and painted glistening gold. It had a place of honor on top of the shelf next to the toilet, for good fortune. As soon as I had come outside, these things turned into shabby and pathetic junk.
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: A Generation Was Gone (Part 10/28)
September 22, 2009
After I was discharged from the hospital, I went back to my sister’s high rise apartment building. I hated the place. When every family member went into their own room and closed the door, it was just like a prison, everyone perfectly locked down. There was no trace of the old village left in that neighborhood. All I could see were the interiors of cars, paved roads, and sidewalks overlaid with colorful blocks in various shapes.
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
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The Old Garden: Radiant Under the Full Moon (Part 9/28)
September 17, 2009
Yoon Hee gets up, pays my bill without asking, and walks out the door. Afraid to lose her, I hurry and run down the stairs. She is already walking toward the pharmacy, each step deliberate. As I approach her, she walks faster. Near the marketplace full of pubs and cheap restaurants, she finally glances back to make sure I’m following her, then walks into one. When I reach her, Yoon Hee is sitting in a corner and looking at me. It is the most inconspicuous spot. I want to appear relaxed, so I smile.
Tags: fiction, hwang sok-yong, old garden, Old Garden Serial
“Old Garden Serial” Posts
- Oct 8, The Old Garden: The Day I Met Yoon Hee (Part 18/26)
- Oct 7, The Old Garden: Every Fire in the World Goes Out Eventually (Part 17/26)
- Oct 6, The Old Garden: In the 5.18 Cemetery (Part 16/26)
- Oct 1, The Old Garden: Nam Soo (Part 15/26)
- Sep 30, The Old Garden: Mang Wal Cemetery (Part 14/26)
- Sep 29, The Old Garden: A Soup With Dried Pollack (Part 13/26)
- Sep 24, The Old Garden: Dear Hyun Woo (Part 12/26)
- Sep 23, The Old Garden: Shabby and Pathetic Junk (Part 11/26)
- Sep 22, The Old Garden: A Generation Was Gone (Part 10/28)
- Sep 17, The Old Garden: Radiant Under the Full Moon (Part 9/28)
