All language subtitles for The People in White 1995 WEB

A film by Yong-Kyun Bae

The People in White

Script : Yong-Kyun Bae

Film & Lighting : Yong-Kyun Bae

Editing, Art & Props : Yong-Kyun Bae

Music: Dong-Wook Park, In-Ho Park, Gun-yong Lee, Kyung-Hwa Lee, Sung-Ho Hwang, Stephan Mikus

Recording: Dae-Sung Kang
Effects: Dae-Ho Yang
Print: The Korean Film Council

Line Recording : Sang-Hyun In
Background Sound Recording : Yong-Kyun Bae
Assistant Director: Dong-Hyun Kim, Hong-Wan Kim, Jung-Ho Go

Directed and Produced by Yong-Kyun Bae

Many Years From Now...

Hello, is anybody there?

Hello?

Excuse me, is there a room to sleep?

It’s under repair.
We don’t accommodate any guests.

...They're gonna die.

Wait. It’s too dangerous to walk around.

If you hadn't come,
the fish would have died.

I'm sorry about your hand.
People don't come here often.

It's fine.
I'm not seriously hurt.

Would you like to try “Jin-Ja” liquor?

There's some left after I
prepared the food for the workers.

Not that good?

It is.

What is “Jin-Ja” liquor?

It’s hazelnut liquor.
The liquor is made of hazelnut.

In ancient times
they used it for bronchial tubes.

Oh?

Don't you know it?

It grew at the foot of the mountain
in this area.

Well, it’s rare nowadays
because of the excavations.

It looks like an acorn...

When the spring comes,
the flowers bloom on the hazelnut trees.

You might have gathered their nuts
when you were young.

It’s been forty years?

Yes...

It was...

1951...

or '52.

Maybe it was 1953.

I left during the war anyway,

that’s for sure.

If my son doesn’t come back,
you can spend the night in his room.

I’m sure everything will be fine.
I was so anxious, I couldn’t bear it.

I feel better talking with you.

He must have gone to the church meeting.
Nothing will happen.

It’s dangerous tonight.

He went too far on a day like this.

Ha...strange.

You're Korean,
so is your name really "Alex Kaufmann"?

What’s your original name?

It's strange...

I don't remember it.

I should...

know my own name.

Then...

When I was away,

nobody called me by my name.

So... I forgot it.

When I grew up, I knew only Alex.

Alex Kaufmann.

How do you
speak Korean so fluently, then?

Well, I spent...

about...twenty years...

...maybe twenty three...

I don't know...

...but anyway...

I lived...

...in the...

special place.

It was about twenty years...

Some people there were Koreans...

...And my doctor often spoke it to me.

The "special place"?
Where is it?

Is it a secret?

Secret?

It's not a secret.

It's just a dark story...

I didn't want to mention it.

I just want to know...

...where my life
started to get messed up.

This morning, at the station...

a young mother called her child...

in English.

I was surprised, and yet...

my heart was full of...

longing.

Then... your English name
might be your real name?

No.

I don’t think so.

I've had...

similar situations to this before.

But the names were all different.

There was a girl-like name...

"Sun-e"... Sun-e.

When I recall the names I heard...

It gets unfamiliar.

Isn't it weird?

They could be friends...

people I knew...

when I was younger.

Did you have any...

brothers or sisters?

I don't have any memories.

Maybe it could be...

that the woman...

had a similar voice to my mother.

She looked about...

thirty years old.

My mother, was she thirty...

those forty years ago?

Nobody...

There is nobody...

to tell me anything.

Everything is uncertain.

It's dangerous, but we're safe here.

I’d like to inform you
that the nationwide emergency alert

will be lifted 23:00 tonight.

The gang of armed fugitives

who caused the alert

were all killed or captured,

with the help of the people.

All the weapons and bombs
they seized were recovered.

Also, the armored vehicle they stole

was successfully recovered.

We have succeeded

in getting our peace and security back.

The military and
police's cooperative action

to protect people’s precious
lives and property

was successful.

In order to maintain security
and clean up,

all exits are blocked by the army
until 09:00 tomorrow.

Of course,

Haecheon and the roads are closed.

All riots will be put down by the army.
Do not worry...

If I finish converting
downstairs into a teahouse,

it won't be messy like this.

I'm going to
decorate all of this really nicely.

Also, if I make a small indoor fountain,

these fish are going to live there.

Think about it.

Wouldn’t it feel so nice
if you were a fish,

getting rained on?

Are you listening?

Yes?

What's that noise?

I heard it a while ago.

He's a worker
who sells children's books.

He catches the train at dawn

but he always gets drunk.

He begged me to let him stay here,

so I made space on the second floor.

Have you...

...run an inn here long?

No, this is my hometown.

I left when I was a child,
and only came back four years ago.

I lived in Seoul because my husband

worked at a poetry publisher there.

Oh, next door is a pub.

They leave the neon sign
running all night long.

The entrance is closed,

but they still turn on the dance music.

Look, someone is dancing.

Don’t you remember?

I don't know...

How do you remember
that this place is your hometown?

You forgot your own name.

That’s…

the US Army...

who took me there...

...they found me at Haecheon Station.

Even if your adoptive father
found you at Haecheon Station,

you might have come from someplace else?

Many sought refuge back then.

Well...

not really.

I remember parts of that day itself...

My family packed up our home,

I took something,

and went to the train
station right away.

I don’t know
how I walked to get there.

It is too vague to remember.

See, you are unsure about it.

It’s a 40-year-old memory.

If you go further to the south,
there is a place called Haejin.

You might be mistaken,
because it has a similar name.

Why are you
so doubtful it could be here?

I'm sorry, but you won't find a
single well with a persimmon tree here.

Here things have changed a lot

since the industrial complex
was built nearby.

Here, where you're standing right now,

would have been a field or hillside
ten years ago.

According to my memory,

my village also had wide fields.

Do you really think that your village
is the only place like that?

Hello?

Yes.. yes.. no.

Yes... okay...

no.

Okay...

alright, goodbye.

Did your son call?

No.

Had you heard the story
from your adoptive father?

That never happened.

That man, Mr. Kaufmann,
didn't adopt you?

No...

there is no child between them.

But Mrs. Kaufmann

strongly opposed adoption back then.

So, they sent me to their parents.

I got back on the plane...

from the East...

to the West again.

I met good people, thankfully.

They welcomed me into their home.

That was the first time
I could be myself.

Are they still alive?

No, they aren't.

Both of them passed away.

I believe that

when it happened...

Both of them...

both of them died

when I was thirteen.

Then... didn't you see
Mr. Kaufmann afterward?

I finally found his address

and visited his house after 30 years.

He had dementia.

Was he dead?

No, have you ever heard of
Alzheimer’s disease?

It’s a disease where you
don't remember the past at all,

and disappear into the dark...

For them,
yesterday and today is the same.

He didn't even know who he was.

Did he become senile?

Senile? Well...I'm not sure.

How did you get the town's
name "Haecheon" from him?

Simply the name ''Haecheon"
is vague information.

He didn’t...

bring up the name...

Mrs. Kaufmann’s daughter did.

An arthritic old lady who
couldn’t move...

was asleep inside.

But, I couldn’t sleep.

I opened the door, turned on the lamp...

and walked down to the basement.

I went down to the rusty iron gate,

which, for ten years...

maybe no one had passed through.

When the light faded,

I closed my eyes and fumbled around.

But...

when I turned the lights back on,

I saw under the dim light...

That the relics which were slowly...

crumbling...

and dispersing in the dark.

I held them close to the light.

At one time, they were so precious.

I found them
on the night of Memorial Day.

It was...

a bunch of mold and damp.

There were unrecognizable letters
and sheets of paper...

which were from the battlefield,

all those forty years ago...

I finally...

encountered this feeling...

I found that...

my sense of self...

was fading away.

Also,
the name "Haecheon" in the letter...

Was the name of the place
written in Korean?

No, it was written in English.

But the doctor, who saved my life,
translated the letter.

He said that it’s "Hae cheon".

He did not know of "Haecheon" town.

"I can’t help recalling
when the oil-tanker train was attacked,

"even though you would feel horrified,
and scared to read it.

"Train parts rolled around,
columns of fire rose everywhere,

"and pieces of burning iron
poured out of the sky.

"I saw many people,

"burning like red charcoal

"inside the train.

"The entrance of the station

"turned day into night

"because of the black smoke.

"It was hell...

"there were refugees there,
fleeing from Changyang,

"who had escaped from the attacks.

"In the midst of it all,

"I saw a bleeding child
who had been hit by the debris.

"He must have run toward his family

"in the fire pit...

"and fainted away.

"I still don’t know

"why and how the child...

"was able to stay out of the train,

"all alone.

"He had a fistful of roasted chestnuts

"in his hand.

"It was so strange.

"I couldn’t let this child die,

"who collapsed in Haecheon
where everything went to ruin."

You remember that day too, right?

It must have been shocking.
You were just a child.

According to Kaufmann’s letter, I...

had fainted on the spot.

From then on,

I had nightmares...

of that time...

which have followed me into adulthood.

I also dreamt that I
was going somewhere...

holding tightly onto
my father’s clothes,

in the midst of chaos.

But it turned out
that he was not my father.

I wandered around to find my parents,

but...

I couldn’t see them.

Everyone was bleeding,
with scalded faces,

and I could only see strangers.

I’ve had...

too many traumatic dreams,

and I woke up crying,
all through my childhood.

So,

when I became an adult...

I couldn’t figure out
if it was a dream or a reality.

I’ve seen the burning train
several times in my dreams,

so it had felt more like a dream...

until I read Kaufmann's letter.

It said in his letter
that you'd collapsed and were bleeding.

Where did you get hurt?

I don't know.

Don’t you have a scar?

There is no scar left.
It wasn’t that bad.

He said that you were hit by debris.

It’s not a big deal.

You're like Mrs. Kaufmann
when you talk about the scar.

When he first brought me

to his American house,

she couldn’t believe the story
in letter, because there was no scar.

She might have been doubtful

because she opposed
the wish of her husband

to adopt me into the family.

However...

the wound could have healed quickly,

and he might have
exaggerated the injury.

That doesn’t matter, does it?

Well, hmm...

Why?

Nothing...

What time is it now?

Night is coming.

I'm reminded of the time
when I drove the express-train.

I'd just taken a train
on a new railroad track.

It was so big,
but it rolled like a coin.

I passed a monastery,

but it was so quiet
that it was otherworldly.

I was scared...

and turned my head halfway.

There was a thick curtain...

covering a cage...

on the side wall...

like a prison.

I could hear the music far away.

"Why do all the prisoners sing?"

Train passengers muttered who they were,

and who had locked them up.

Were you in the train at that time?

No.

There was a quiet, holy song
coming from it.

There were many purposes to the song:

To free the trapped people,

to have my sins forgiven,

to save the trapped people's lives…

The passengers murmured...

"Who do you want you to save?"...
"Who’s talking to who?"

I quickly turned on the
lights in the room, like streetlights.

And then, I rode the train
with the sounds of a miracle.

Passengers clapped their hands
and sang in chorus.

"Let’s go home!... Come on!"

"Don't take away the evening
newspapers and the nice dinners!"

The express train started going faster,
and ran through the night!

There’s only one way.
There’s only one last stop.

Do you know what I saw?

Sir, have you lived here a long time?

Yes, quite a while.
Forty... fifty years?

You might not remember
me from forty years ago,

but it was a very hot day...

We have many hot days in summer.

It was a terribly hot day then.

There were many hot days.

It was not an ordinary hot day…
people died from the heat.

Killed by the heat?

Yes...

we could make a ball or beads...

from the melted asphalt...

when we went out on the road.

Then, a car appeared and...

someone screamed "ran away!"

People ran like hell because
if we were caught here,

we would get our eyes pulled out.

I ran across the field ceaselessly,

and a huge bird came down like a bullet,

and followed me, right above my head.

I was passing by the entrance of a town,

and there were many people
gathered around a big car.

The driver had died because
of the heat,

but...

when I looked at the driver’s seat,
fearfully,

there was no one there.

When I saw something on
the ground, I couldn’t look.

I was too scared.

Later, when the people went back,

the driver wasn’t there.

I stepped carefully there,

and found a piece of tissue
and a towel...

towel that looked like a mop.

Also, there was vomit,

with flies clinging beneath.

I cried behind the car...

You have a great memory.

You explained your memory of
forty years ago like a great story.

It’s because it’s the first time
I’d ever seen it.

What do you mean? What did you see?

It was the first time...

that I'd seen...

death.

No...maybe it was life.

Your story reminds me of something...

a 3-track truck driver
who died a long time ago.

Truck driver...?

He was a driver
who did logging in the mountains.

Yes... right...
the trailer was loaded with trees…

Or charcoal.

No...there were three of them.

He had lunch with some liquor,

slept and passed out.

Then he was taken to the hospital,

but he died after a few days.

He was a driver,
but he was always drunk.

I feel sorry for his little daughter.

She was raised without a mother,

and was taken from place to place,
as far as I remember...

Then, you must have lived near the town?

No, I only stayed on occasion,

to sell some essential goods, but
I knew people who resided there.

Do you know the hill
where they planted and cut down trees?

I could see it from the living room
of my house.

Well... there’s no mountain anymore,

because most of the
mountain has been mined out.

It's all an industrial complex now.

This place
used to be just a hillside, too.

Then, you don’t know
where the driver died.

I don’t know.
I've just heard the story.

And anyway, how do I know,
as there’s no trace left?

It may be only left in my memory.

Isn’t it somewhere around here anyway?

Sir, have you ever seen a house

with a well next to a persimmon tree?

It’s been forty years.

What are you going to do,
even if you find the well?

The world that you remember is gone.

I am looking for a stream, myself.
Not in the past, but now.

To find a stream, put your ears to
the bottom of the concrete like me.

Come on!

The sound of oil
leaking from the broken pipe.

I only can consider you
a stranger or a fugitive.

I have work to do.

Patrolling around this area

and checking tickets.

That's the reality of it.

Do your memories and thoughts...

Emotions, hopes, and things like that...

come together and inform you?

Could they have actually happened,

the things
you have seen and experienced?

Then... don’t the facts really exist?

The facts exist,

but only the interpretations
of facts exists to people.

People don’t have the rights,
or capacity, to keep facts.

Or maybe, people don’t even have
the ability to keep facts.

Do you really exist in your memory?
Or do you exist?

The fact that you kept...

is the fact you took on in your own way.

It's a fact that is...

"altered" in your way.

You don’t have the ability

to keep facts.

Like for everyone, the past is altered

the moment you revive it.

You...

the fact that
you know as a fact is nothing.

The reality you believe
is nothing more than a dream.

So maybe you’re...
the one who can be defined as nothing.

Did you know
that you’re being watched and followed?

Being followed?

Who are they?

The people responsible...

for the security of this place.

Today was a state of emergency,

but don't worry.

I know now.

You're nothing.

Things I cannot see,

can be seen by a person
with clear eyes,

but the things which you cannot see,

can be seen by me.

I know, you're already a ghost

What do you mean?

...from a past that's gone.

What was the world that you
lived in and disappeared from?

I mean your home.

I don't know.
I think it's somewhere in this area.

I'm pretty sure that my
house was next to the well.

When a hot summer night came,

I could hear a ghostly scream

from under the water.

If you've lived around
here for a long time,

don't you know the village
where there was a communal well?

There was at least one in town.

In the past.

Was there?

There were small yellow
flowers floating in the well,

and they gathered around
the water flow bucket.

Once I made them into
a necklace with thread.

I don't remember clearly, but it
must have been a persimmon flower.

I am sure that a persimmon tree
was standing by the side of the well.

Of course, it happened
more than 40 years ago.

Don't you know the well
where the persimmon tree stood?

There is no such thing as a yellow
flower in a world of blind folk like me.

It's in your mind or in your thoughts.

I have a memory of my town, too.

When I turned right in the third alley,
I felt the stone on my feet.

The stone path continued
at the end of my stick.

Then I smelt something boiling
just beyond the fence.

And at the end of that alley...

a sudden cool wind blew in front of me,

and I stopped under the shade of a tree.

I used to think:
"where should I go today"?

Was there a well around that place?

You can't say that you know
what you see in front of you,

just because you're an open-eyed person.

I do not know what I feel
at the end of my cane.

But...

don't you know what a well is?

Have you ever drunk
from its spring water on a hot day?

I can never know the reality of the sky,

but I don't deny that there is a sky.

Maybe it's true that the well
you're talking about actually existed.

But the well is no longer there.

The old wells
were almost all removed

in 1953 after the war,

and the ones that have been
made since then

are different.

After the pipes were installed,
they didn't even work properly.

Do you mean that, by the end of the war,

almost all of the old wells
were removed?

Pasts should be buried

so that they become
fertilizer for the present,

just like a house or factory stands.

Now everything has changed,

I don't know… it’s nonsense.

If you dig up your ancestors,
you'll end up a traitor.

Maybe it's not a good idea
to bring back the past.

But...

I didn’t do that.

You are nothing but a ghost
who walked out of the tomb.

Even if you can’t turn back time,

the memories accumulate in your mind.

It’s all in one’s mind,

which easily can be distorted.

Well...

I just remembered something.

The sound that repeated every evening...

came from far away.

sometimes, the distance...

made it fade away...

with the wind...

I completely forgot about the sound
since then.

I can teach you about that.

Follow me.

Hey... can you hear the sound?

For announcing the evening service?

Once upon a time, there was a
temple somewhere in the factory,

but it was burnt down during the war.

People say...

that this sound can travel
at least ten miles.

Is it similar
to what you've heard before?

Brother!

Ho!... Ho!
Have a meal before you go!

Who's there?

Who are you?

Did you call me?

I heard some noise while I slept.

I called you.

Did my son come home yet?

No.

I also fell asleep for a while,
but I thought I heard my son come in.

He urgently called “Mom!”,

and when I turned around,

he passed by me, limping.

Maybe I was dreaming.

He even doesn’t call me "Mom".

Get some sleep.
I'm sorry for waking you up.

It's been several hours

since the emergency alert ended.

Has it happened before?

Yes, ever since the prison was built
under the mountain.

Prison?

I am not sure...somebody said it...

but I do not know.

How can I know
what's under the mountain?

Under the mountain...
which mountain are you talking about?

Can I see it from here?

Do you hear the sound
of motorcycle? Do you?

I heard it between the military alarms.

No... maybe a bit farther than that.

Can’t you hear
the sound of the motorcycle?

Oh, it’s coming this way…

at full speed.

I cannot hear it.

Yes. It’s getting farther…
farther and farther.

It’s not coming here…

It faded completely.

It’s not my Jeongho.
My son loves motorcycles deeply.

I begged and pleaded with him to stop,

but he says that he is only alive
when he rides at full speed.

Once, he told me that he knew how to
stop time when he rode like that.

He said, “When time stops,
there’s no past or future,

there’s only the present.”

The demons of anxiety and loneliness...

You understand my concern.

He wakes up in the middle of the night

and takes his "Savior" out for a ride.

It’s the name he has on his motorcycle:

Savior.

Jeongho’s savior is dangerous and scary,

isn’t it?

Recently, he's been immersed

in all-night gospel prayer
and revival meetings.

That's good, right?

I think I can understand your son,

but how old is he?

He's eighteen now...

Eighteen?

Don’t worry.

But, I can’t just wait,

seeing him go around
doing dangerous things like that.

One day, all of a sudden...

My heart rate increased

when I heard the phone ring.

Of course,
there was a reason for ringing,

but when I get caught
in the feeling of sudden dread,

my heart aches so much.

The whole world is turning its back.

I am really scared to be alive
when I feel like I cannot get help.

Really.

When I feel that, sometimes,

I think I can understand my son.

You asked me to wake you up.

Please get up.

You said you were planning
to take the train tonight.

Do you hear me?

What’s wrong?

You said that your wife
was about to give birth, right?

Don’t you even
want to see the baby being born?

Are you going to miss the train?

Are you listening?

Are you listening?

My dad told me to take you.

Who?

The person who whistles through a pipe.

What?

I asked my dad,

and he said that he would
be the blind messenger.

Why did your dad ask you to take me?

I asked my dad,

"why is the blind man
whistling through the pipe?",

and he said that I should ask him.

Hey, I asked, why did your dad
ask you to take me?

My dad can’t sleep.

The doctor said that my dad is
going to die within few months.

He said, if someone
would relieve his sickness,

he would give his eyes to him.

Sun-e...

Mom, look over here.

It’s strange. Come here!

Shh! Be quiet.

Mom, come here please.
Look over there. It’s weird.

What do you mean?

What is weird?

Mom, come here. Hurry!
Look at the cross.

The hand...I mean the cross...

the blood is flowing down...

not tears.

Baby, What are you talking about?
You're dreaming again.

Mom, look! The blood!
The blood is flowing down the wall.

Stop talking, and go to bed.

Heo, don’t make noise.

There are strangers
wandering around right now.

Heo? Where are you?

Heo, where are you?
Heo...?

Hey, wait there a minute.
Don't raise your head.

Move, move forward.

You have no idea
how long I’ve been waiting.

A man walking alone at night.

Well, I don’t have anything
special to say, but...

Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?

Oh, well.

You look like someone I knew.

My colleague lit up the last cigarette,

and got killed on the spot.

I can smell the same
scent from your pocket.

Don’t you understand?

You don’t know manners...

don't you?

Oh, there’s no need to grovel.

If I look familiar,
maybe we can be friends.

What?

You'd be friends with a
condemned criminal and a murderer?

Have you ever killed a man?

I’ve also come out of prison.

Sure, there's no one
you wouldn't kill...

Just smoke.

I can't remember much,
as I was on drugs...

but I’ve killed two cops.

What? Two cops?

Then you’re a definitely a ghost
whose escaped from the death row.

I've been completely held back
by incidents in the past two years,

dealing with my father’s resentment.

Even if I escape from the past,

my life is filled with the past,

not the future.

But how can you wander around
without being killed?

Because...

it was drug-related...

so they sent me to a hospital
for psychotic criminals, for 20 years...

Instead of the electric chair.

Electric chairs?

Don't lie on this dark night.

I can... cannot believe it, either.

I saw those people in my dream.

Just like this in this alley.

We saw them on our
way through here last night.

They were like that yesterday.

You had the same dream as me...

You are invited
to the house’s fireworks.

Countless fireworks
are coming down from the sky.

The flame invites you.

You are invited to the fireworks.

Welcome. We welcome you.

You’re losing your soul
to the fireworks.

The flame gradually burns you,
and burns your present life.

You’re looking down
at your present life,

which burns in the rousing fire.

You’re gradually going down,

on an unfamiliar train,

leaving the present, for the past.

The train is going
down from the mountain.

You're a passenger on the train.

You're a passenger on the train.

You hear the train’s sound.

The sound flows into your ears.

Can you hear it?

If you hear it...

you’ll grip your fist…

grip it lightly.

When you hear the sound
of the train, grip it lightly.

Make a fist.

A fist. A fist!

My son hasn’t come back yet, has he?

Don’t worry. He is a strong child.

You should know that. He can
jump over a high embankment,

and he can do somersaults.

Once, twice, three times...

well, twice.

"I’m immortal", he'd say,
and he was right.

I believe it.

When the night comes...

he starts the motorcycle engine.

It's silly!

He dresses in black under the moonlight

and doesn’t slip on the ice at all,
even in winter.

Then he turns around in the alley,
runs down the road… over the hills.

weaves around the trees, goes back
onto the road,

crosses the bridge.

When time drags along...

I mean, when I come back into reality,

I...

I just pour the
alcohol into the glass,

and just watch the streetlight
fade like a dot by the window...

I add water when I cough badly.

However, I cannot finish drinking..
and just sip, little by little.

The world outside has already
disappeared on this kind of night.

My grandmother died
on such a heavy, rainy night,

when I was only six.

She died after her daughter,
without ever finding peace.

It wasn’t long after the war ended.

I still have her portrait on the wall...

and she is looking at me.

I have several pictures.

But the time is already over.

It’s not easy to remember now.

Her voice was charred, like black smoke.

Do you know what the
strongest thing in the world is?

Have you ever thought
about the power of time?

If you have, tell me:

what in this world
is not changed by time?

I heard that even space has a lifespan.

Not today, but in the distant past.

On a night like this,

when I heard
the rain pounding on the tin roof,

I came up with the memory

that she lit candles

because the electric light went off.

How did the lights go off?

But it was quite common at that time.

Remember? You might not know that.

Do you remember this?

I tried to make a dog turn
into a fox in the shadows,

make it howl at the moon.

I often imitated it well.

She lit the candle on
rainy nights like this,

and she held her two fingers

with her other hands,
so she raised her thumb…

How... how can I do this?

In the past, I played alone like that.

I was the only child who
had no sisters, nor brothers.

I didn’t figure out

that hatred grew inside of me…

for a long time…

How can children not remember?

How could a three or four-year-old
have been carried by her grandmother,

crying without knowing why?

Even if I don’t remember
the memories of that time,

when she was looking
through straw mats one by one,

I still expect those hundreds of flies,
buzzing to life after a nightmare.

She finally opened her mouth
on a rainy night.

She was calm,

so my young heart
didn’t feel sad or scared.

She was as calm as the sound
of rain hitting the tin roof.

She was calm,

as if she remembered
the history in her mind.

But the hatred that has grown with me

was planted that day,
and it tied me up for a long time.

Oh, I am about to cough.

I'll add some water in this case.
Of course not a lot, a bit.

Which way was it?

While I spent life with hatred
for the years,

someone told me.

Did my grandmother tell
me on that rainy night?

Didn’t I remember?

If not, no. I know now.

Even my grandmother doesn’t know.

The finger pointing one way
ended up making us this way...

or that way.

I realized that after forty years.

The realization that
brought me out of the hatred.

Grandmother doesn’t know,
and I don’t know either.

The only thing I can know for now...

is the truth that everything
in the world changes,

and the flow of the time is eternal.

The past has already passed by,
like a river.