Читать книгу Korean Children's Favorite Stories - Kim So-Un - Страница 6

As seen in the first story in this collection of stories for children, "The Story Bag," stories do not like to be hoarded, but want to be told and told again, passing always from lip to lip. I have chosen and retold here a number of Korean folk tales that have been handed down by word of mouth from one generation to the next. There are stories that have been told by grandparents to their grandchildren, huddled on the heated floors of Korean homes in the dead of winter, with the cold snow-laden winds raging outside. There are stories repeated in the yards of Korean homes to children seated on straw mats in the cool of a summer evening, smoke from mosquito coils whirling about their faces. These are short tales recounted in great merriment by farming folk, as they rest from their work in the fields in the shade of a nearby tree. These are stories which the Korean children of countless generations have wept and laughed over. They reveal the inevitable foibles of people everywhere and expose the human-like qualities of animals and the animal-like qualities of humans. In these stories ants talk, a baby rabbit outwits a tiger, a tree fathers a child, and a toad saves a whole village. They reflect the serenity of the men and women nurtured by the ancient land of Korea. Here may be found stories which echo those told in many countries throughout the world. Here are also stories that are peculiar to Korea. These stories were first heard in my childhood in Korea. I hope they will use their magic powers to rise above all language barriers and speak directly to the hearts of all "children" between the ages of eight and eighty in other lands.

Author—Kim So-un