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HITS SINCE 1999/8(4000Hits since 1997/7) Çѱ¹¼Ò¼³!! ---- Yellow City

||In Portuguese !! ||

Yellow City

YELLOW CITY(1996/12)

  It was like dream life.
  I am 55 years old.
  My young  days was full  of lies. But I  thought it was  for goodness, that 
days........ 
  I have not  lived for other people, no, I  have even not lived for my  family, 
no, I've not lived for my body own.
  Here, the only virtual things left. Now, I am watching the vacuity only.
  I thought  that days  it was my  action, but  always languages, thoughts.  I 
was not enough to do act, than anyone.
  And  they did  not speak  so  much than  me.  They did  not be  proud  of 
goodness  and knowledge.  But  they  did good  things,  and they  were  kind 
people.
  But I have  done bad things, unknown  everyone. I have lived in  the castle 
of me,  by oneself, touched them  in my castle  too. As result the  bad things 
are left to my family and everybody.
  But I do  not say this again,  because it is to  do bad things two times,  to 
hurt my heart, my mind again!
  I am  going to tell  a story just  of Mr. jang  and me, who are  doing now 
sweeping up the street.

   -----------      2.-------
  Me and  Jang, we are working  at night not  to be seen  by every
people's 
eyes.  The time to  sweep up the street is always at dawn, and  At night we 
swept up dirty rubbish and papers in front of every house.
  Me and Jang, we are always afraid of young people.
  when we meet  them, we feel it is  better to go in to  mouse hole. Because 
they are young, rich, we are old, poor.
  Jang use to say that he is  ashamed of his job. He hated his dirty poor job 
that smells up.
  That was me, too. But I was less than Jang.
  I hated to go into rich people's apartment and villa.
  I was afraid of it just like falling into the hell.
  I felt that there  were full of gas which was  not moving at all, there were 
no one mouse. Oh, yes I am afraid of such calm belt and no sound!
  To us, the worst apartment was Hankuk villa. 
  The Hankuk  villa was at  the long calm  lane which me  and Jang always 
swept up everyday.


  I always put on my yellow cap deeply, when I go to the Hankuk villa. And 
I returned out fast in a sweat.
  In Hankuk villa, there was no smell to live. 
  The people  who live in  Hankuk villa also hated  to meet us.  One day, an 
old  woman who  put  on her  sun glasses  drove  a deluxe  car  to me,  like 
crashing against me, when I swept up.  
  But she did not said one word.
  If she said  "I am sorry.", I could say "that's all right."
  Insult.
  She added insult to injury. Yes, it was insult.
  Contempt.....
  Even, two guards who guard  the Hankuk villa never say to me. They also 
think they are rich men as if they live in Hankuk villa.
  But they always said,
  "Rich people are just like fools. They can not fix a leak."
  And then, why are they not saying, "hello"?
  I do not know why.
  Seoul was such city.
  Korea in 1995 was so.
  


  And I hated to meet  two men. They are young men, one is  older than the 
other  one. When  I went  to Hankuk  villa to  sweep,  I always  met them  , 
because they were smoking in front of stairs.
  The younger one, looks like twenty, used to  smokes in front of me(in front 
of old  man just like  his father),  and to pitch  a cigaret butt,  and to  go u
p 
stairs, saying to me "hoohoohoo".
  Why does he say "hoohoohoo" to me? I don't know why.
  But I know it is contempt.
  And the other one, looks like being married, used to avoid me. Why?
  Dirty? Because I am a dirty sweep?
  Anyway, The Hankuk  villa was too calm  except two young men and  two 
guards, so that, there was no one mouse seen.  But there were only too many 
expensive cars. And  when I meet that  car, moving to me, I  hung down my 
head because of shame, shameful job.
  The Hankuk villa is  rich, small town. But there were so much  rubbish. So 
my sweep waggon  was always full of  rubbish. So it was  always dangerous 
to go down the steep hill with much rubbish. So dangerous like flying circus.
  We climbed the steep hill,  and climbed down the steep hill from 10  o'clock 
at  night to  5 o'clock  at dawn.  We  are always  tired out  in winter  or  in 
summer, with  rotten smell  from our  bodies. But there  was no  way except 
bearing.
  What can I do? I did not learn so much, I did not go to school......
  But down the  hill, near the construction  working place, there was a  place, 
where  we can  drink macgully(korean  wine).  There, construction  crew  and 
drunk always gathered.  But it was so  poor place, no ceiling.  So cold winter 
wind gathered into too. 
  An old woman boiled an egg and bean sprouts soup and  haejangkuk(korean 
soup). Side  dish was  kimchi. And  this old  woman looks  like 60 years  old 
woman, but it is said that her real age is 50.
  Her face was dirty, than us, I wondered she washed her face. Her hair was 
white, under the ears, dirty.
  But it was the best place, where we could drink macgully(korean wine) and 
talk about our working, home, hope, and worm story.
  It was that time to drink macgully that  we tied up our bloody hands  with 
newspaper because  of broken glass in  the rubbish. And it  was that time  to 
clean out our lungs which were filled with dust.
  The giant sub-way train was running above the magully house.
  That train was so noisy, But we felt that noise like side dish.  It was good  
noise to drink rough macgully. We felt the warmth, to that giant metals,
train.
  The train was running  everyday everytime, loading people who are  leaving 
for somewhere.
  The moving  giant metals... To  move is the same  with me....., To  die can 
not move, just rotten smell.
  Though I  am full  of dirty smell,  I am alive,  and drinking  macgully with 
side dish kimchi, hearing the noise of the train.....
  To be alive!
  To be lived!
  To live!
  


  The summer rain was pouring down, that day.
  When I climbed  down the hill of Hankuk villa  at deep night, I found Jang 
drawing his waggon with so much rubbish.
  He was too small  to draw his sweep waggon full of  rubbish, that day. He 
looked like an ant to draw a big insect.
  I said,
  "Ui-(Hi), Jang, hurry up, and let's go to drink, O.K?"
  He  hung  down  his  head to  draw  his  sweep  waggon,  with  deep  hot 
breathing.
  "oh, why so much rubbish, today!"
  I said. 
  We got  a minute's breathing,  smoking on the  hill, to  go down the  steep 
slope. 
  Mr jang could not smoke well because of his deep breathing.
  The rough  summer rain  was pouring down  above our heads,  following a 
street light.
  At that time. Jang said,
  "Let's go, hurry up..., and let's take a rest down the hill."
  He was already  drawing his sweep waggon,  but I was still smoking,  so I 
said,
  "Um-, o.k... Be careful, Jang..."
  He looked  very uneasily  because of  heavy waggon.  I was watching  him 
drawing waggon with breathless anxiety.
 I said,
  "Go slow, Let's go with me, I will help you."
  But Jang said,
  "Don't worry...."
  I could not hear his voice well because of pouring rain.
  At  that moment,  Jang's step  was slid  over, his  waggon pushed  him, it 
went down itself fast, left Jang under the waggon.
  "Ah!"
  I heard Jang's scream in the dark. 
  "Jang! Jang!"
  I run down the steep hill.
  I could finger his hot bleeding head in the rain. 
  He was no conscious.
  "Hei, Jang, Jang, Don't lose your consciousness!"
  I screamed out, but he was calm.
  I tied  up his  bleeding head with  my yellow  shirts, I carried  him on  my 
back, and run to the hospital.
  I was feeling his hot bleed on my back.
  "Hei, Jang! Jang! Don't lose your consciousness!  That's hospital!"
  I  screamed, to  Jang with  no answer.  And I  prayed  and prayed  for his 
living.
 'Please be alive!'

This is Korean novelist Yeungkwan Kim's fictionin Korean