(영어동화읽기) The Peasant's Wise Daughter

그냥 죽죽 읽어 나가세요. 대체로 짤막짤막해서 일단 읽기 시작하면 끝까지 읽으시기 바랍니다. 모르는 문장이나 단어가 나와도 그냥 추측하고 지나가시기 바랍니다. 작은 것을 버리고 큰 것을 얻으면 됩니다. 모르는 문장은 그런 상황을 뒤에서 여러번 만나면 저절로 알게 됩니다. 그리고 단어는 미리 혹은 나중에 따로 공부하면 됩니다. 그런 것에 자꾸 걸리면 진도가 안나가고 진도가 안나가면 금방 그만 둡니다. 읽을 때는 오직 줄거리에만 집중하셔야 합니다. 독해는 종합적인 공부로서 단어, 숙어, 문법, 회화, 듣기, 작문 실력을 한꺼번에 늘려 줍니다. 모든 영어공부 중에서 가장 종합적인 것이 읽기 입니다. 독해를 많이 하면 소위 영어의 내공이 쌓여 갑니다. 책을 많이 읽는 사람은 도저히 당할 수가 없습니다. 진짜 영어고수들은 모두 독서를 많이 한 사람들입니다. 중고등학교에서 영어성적 상위 1%에 드는 학생이라면 대체로 초등학교 때 영어동화책을 많이 읽은 학생입니다. 읽기는 모든 공부의 기초이면서 또한 완성입니다. 이런 동화들을 죽죽 읽어 나가다 보면 영문독해력은 그야말로 가랑비에 옷 젖듯이 자기도 모르게 쑥쑥 향상됩니다. 일단은 공부한다는 생각을 버리고 재미있게 읽는데 촛점을 맞추시기 바랍니다. 욕심을 버리고 재미있게 읽다보면 독해실력은 저절로 따라오죠. 욕심을 버리는 것! 이게 어렵습니다.

말이 나온 김에, 단어 이야기도 좀 하겠습니다. 모르는 단어도 여러번 실제 상황 속에서 만나게 되면 대충의 뜻을 저절로 알게 됩니다. 심지어 그 단어의 분위기나 색깔은 사전에서 보다 더 정확히 알 수 있습니다. 또 이렇게 체득된 단어는 아주 오래 갑니다. 단어실력을 유지하는 데도 독해가 최고죠. 최소한의 독서량을 유지만 해도 단어실력은 줄지 않습니다. 독서량이 늘면 어휘력이 증가되는 것은 물론, 기존의 어휘력이 유지 되며, 더 나아가 대충 알고 있던 의미가 더 정확해지고 뚜렷해 집니다. 평소에 무식하게 단어만 따로 외웠더라도 나중에 독해를 많이 하게 되면, 여러 상황 속에서 그런 단어들을 접하게 되므로 독해를 하면서 외운 단어들처럼 깊이 체화됩니다. 한 마디로, 독해야말로 어휘력을 늘리고 유지하고 정확히 하는 데도 최선의 방법입니다. 그래서 독해는 종합공부인 것이죠.

제가 약 200개 정도의 Grimm 형제 동화를 올릴 예정인데, 이것들을 다 읽을 수만 있다면 아무리 독해가 약했던 사람도 초기 상급자의 수준까지는 갈 수 있음을 장담합니다. 당근 그 이상의 수준으로 갈 수도 있습니다.

참고로, 상급자라 해도 다 같은 실력은 아닙니다. 하늘과 땅 차이일 수도 있습니다. 그러면 초기 상급자란 무엇인가? 일단 독해에 자신감이 있고 어떤 문장에 대해서도 거부감이 없는 상태이며 모르는 문장들이  나오더라도 실망하기 보다는 의욕과 투지가 불타는 수준을 말합니다. 어떤 상황에서도 포기하지 않고 오히려 모르는 문장들을 발전의 기회로 바라보는 수준이죠. 이 수준까지 가면 일단 그 사람은 영어가 강점이 되었으며 더 이상의 단계로 가는 것은 그냥 시간문제입니다. 미안하지만 이런 사람은 결코 다시 중급자나 하급자가 될 수 없습니다. 한 동안 영어를 놓았더라도 약간만 하면 금방 이전 수준으로 회복 됩니다. 영어실력 자체는 변동이 있을 수 있지만 마음 속에 한 번 자리잡은 자신감은 결코 사라지지 않습니다. 마치 자전거를 한 번 배운 사람은 언제라도 다시 자전거를 탈 수 있듯이요.^^

아래 판본은 여러 종류의 Grimm 형제 동화 번역본 중에서 최상급의 번역본입니다. 영어가 깔끔하고 정제되어 있습니다. 웬만한 원어민 작가도 이 정도의 문장을 쓰기가 쉽지는 않습니다.
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The Peasant's Wise Daughter

There was once a poor peasant who had no land, but only a small house, and one daughter. Then said the daughter, we ought to ask our lord the king for a bit of newly-cleared land. When the king heard of their poverty, he presented them with a piece of land, which she and her father dug up, and intended to sow with a little corn and grain of that kind. When they had dug nearly the whole of the field, they found in the earth a mortar made of pure gold. Listen, said the father to the girl, as our lord the king has been so gracious and presented us with the field, we ought to give him this mortar in return for it. The daughter, however, would not consent to this, and said, father, if we have the mortar without having the pestle as well, we shall have to get the pestle, so you had much better say nothing about it. But he would not obey her, and took the mortar and carried it to the king, said that he had found it in the cleared land, and asked if he would accept it as a present. The king took the mortar, and asked if he had found nothing besides that. No, answered the countryman.

Then the king said that he must now bring him the pestle. The peasant said they had not found that, but he might just as well have spoken to the wind, he was put in prison, and was to stay there until he produced the pestle. The servants had daily to carry him bread and water, which is what people get in prison, and they heard how the man cried out continually, ah, if I had but listened to my daughter. Alas, alas, if I had but listened to my daughter, and would neither eat nor drink. So he commanded the servants to bring the prisoner before him, and then the king asked the peasant why he was always crying, ah, if I had but listened to my daughter, and what it was that his daughter had said. She told me that I ought not to take the mortar to you, for I should have to produce the pestle as well. If you have a daughter who is as wise as that, let her come here.

She was therefore obliged to appear before the king, who asked her if she really was so wise, and said he would set her a riddle, and if she could guess that, he would marry her. She at once said yes, she would guess it. Then said the king, come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding, not walking, not in the road, and not off the road, and if you can do that I will marry you.

So she went away, put off everything she had on, and then she was not clothed, and took a great fishing net, and seated herself in it and wrapped it entirely round and round her, so that she was not naked, and she hired an ass, and tied the fisherman's net to its tail, so that it was forced to drag her along, and that was neither riding nor walking. The ass had also to drag her in the ruts, so that she only touched the ground with her big toe, and that was neither being in the road nor off the road. And when she arrived in that fashion, the king said she had guessed the riddle and fulfilled all the conditions.

Then he ordered her father to be released from the prison, took her to wife, and gave into her care all the royal possessions. Now when some years had passed, the king was once reviewing his troops on parade, when it happened that some peasants who had been selling wood stopped with their waggons before the palace, some of them had oxen yoked to them, and some horses. There was one peasant who had three horses, one of which was delivered of a young foal, and it ran away and lay down between two oxen which were in front of the waggon. When the peasants came together, they began to dispute, to beat each other and make a disturbance, and the peasant with the oxen wanted to keep the foal, and said one of the oxen had given birth to it, and the other said his horse had had it, and that it was his. The quarrel came before the king, and he give the verdict that the foal should stay where it had been found, and so the peasant with the oxen, to whom it did not belong, got it.

Then the other went away, and wept and lamented over his foal. Now he had heard how gracious his lady the queen was because she herself had sprung from poor peasant folks, so he went to her and begged her to see if she could not help him to get his foal back again. Said she, yes, I will tell you what to do, if you will promise me not to betray me.

Early to-morrow morning, when the king parades the guard, place yourself there in the middle of the road by which he must pass, take a great fishing-net and pretend to be fishing, go on fishing, and empty out the net as if you had got it full, and then she told him also what he was to say if he was questioned by the king. The next day, therefore, the peasant stood there, and fished on dry ground. When the king passed by, and saw that, he sent his messenger to ask what the stupid man was about. He answered, I am fishing. The messenger asked how he could fish when there was no water there. The peasant said, it is as easy for me to fish on dry land as it is for an ox to have a foal.

The messenger went back and took the answer to the king, who ordered the peasant to be brought to him and told him that this was not his own idea, and he wanted to know whose it was. The peasant, said the king, must confess this at once. The peasant, however, would not do so, and said always, God forbid he should, the idea was his own. So they laid him on a heap of straw, and beat him and tormented him so long that at last he admitted that he had got the idea from the queen.

When the king reached home again, he said to his wife, why have you behaved so falsely to me. I will not have you any longer for a wife, your time is up, go back to the place from whence you came - to your peasant's hut. One favor, however, he granted her, she might take with her the one thing that was dearest and best in her eyes, and thus was she dismissed.

She said, yes, my dear husband, if you command this, I will do it, and she embraced him and kissed him, and said she would take leave of him. Then she ordered a powerful sleeping draught to be brought, to drink farewell to him, the king took a long draught, but she took only a little. He soon fell into a deep sleep, and when she perceived that, she called a servant and took a fair white linen cloth and wrapped the king in it, and the servant was forced to carry him into a carriage that stood before the door, and she drove with him to her own little house.

She laid him in her own little bed, and he slept one day and one night without awakening, and when he awoke he looked round and said, good God, where am I. He called his attendants, but none of them were there. At length his wife came to his bedside and said, my dear lord and king, you told me I might bring away with me from the palace that which was dearest and most precious in my eyes - I have nothing more precious and dear than yourself, so I have brought you with me.

Tears rose to the king's eyes and he said, dear wife, you shall be mine and I will be yours, and he took her back with him to the royal palace and was married again to her, and at the present time they are very likely still living.