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After spending the whole afternoon hunting frogs in the water, the stork started devouring for lunch the frog carcasses piled high on land. 

The stork had his fill and let out a loud burp. And then the stork threw Spots a frog leg and told him to eat it. Spots hesitated a little, but being very hungry, he took a bite. 

 

Spots was surprised. He didn’t expect the flesh of his own kind to be so tasty. He gobbled up a leg in a flash and then looked at the stork as if asking for more. The stork snorted and tore off a piece of meat from the buttocks with his claws. It was greasy and tender and so good. The butt hole was rather distasteful, but Spots simply closed his eyes and ate it up. 

“너, 검둥개구리의 눈에는 내가 어떻게 보이느냐” 

“Blackie, what do I look like to you?” 

“저와 같이 거멓게 뵈는뎁쇼” 

“You look black like me.” 

“저 아래 널리 퍼져 사는 사람이라는 동물이 있는데

그 동물들의 눈에는 내가 사람 모양으로 보인단 말이다.

“There is a creature called humans living down there. I look like a man in those creatures’ eyes. 

그러기에 그자들은 자기들과 꼭 같은 꼬락서니를 한 대리석상을 신전에 모시고 굽신거린다.

소는 소, 개는 개의 제우스를 가지고 있으니 내 어찌 유일자일 수 있겠느냐.

결국 나는 없는 것이다. 너희들이 만들어낸 것이다.

그러니 너희들은 스스로 만든 것을 부술 수 있고 때릴 수 있고

또 잡아먹어 버릴 수도 있는 것이다. ” 

So, they placed a marble statue of me made to look just like them and worship in front of it. Cows and dogs have their own Zeus, so I cannot say that I’m the Only One. I don’t exist. I am of your creation. So, you can destroy, beat up, and eat what you made yourselves.”

# Interview with literary critic Jeon So-yeong

This last scene was called “The Suicide of Zeus.” Zeus the god disappears, proving that a god is like an idol created by human mind. The writer speaks through Zeus to criticize how human beings are blinded by desire and worship an idol in the form of an ideology, authority, or a god. The god in this story symbolizes the political ideology that sparked the tragic Korean War in the 1950s as well as those in power who sacrifice and oppress people in the name of such an ideology. The story says that life’s suffering begins when humans willingly become slaves to gods and other idols. Unbeknownst to human beings, such things can take away their freedom. The author is trying to say that idol worship is meaningless, and freedom is important through Zeus’ disappearance.

제우스는 땅을 구르며 버럭 일어섰다.

Zeus stood up abruptly. 

“두 개구리는 일어서라.

 그리고 나한테 침을 뱉고 물어뜯어라” 

“Stand up, frogs. Spit at me and bite me off.” 

두 개구리는 주춤했지만 신의 위세에 눌려 반사적으로 돌진해 침을 뱉고 물어뜯었다.

Greenie and Blackie hesitated, but overwhelmed by the god’s power, they rushed at Zeus to spit at him and bite him. 

숨을 돌렸다. 크게 눈을 한 번 깜빡이고 나서 초록이는 앞을 응시하였다.

They caught their breath. Greenie blinked once before staring straight ahead. 

제우스도 신전도 아무것도 없었다,

나무가 있고 풀이 있고 돌맹이가 있을 뿐이다.

천지는 아무 변함없고 무관심하였다.

Zeus and the temple were all gone. There were only trees, grass, and rocks. The world remained unchanged and indifferent.

도달할 끝이 없는 망망한 하늘 아래 시초도 종말도 없는 시간의 흐름속에서

초록이는 그저 우두커니 서 있을 뿐이었다.

Greenie stood still dazed under the unreachable vast sky, within the passing of time with no beginning and no ending.

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Kim Sung-han (Born in Pungsan, Hamgyeongnam-do Prov., Jan. 17, 1919~Sep. 6, 2010)