안녕하세요.
복날은간다님의 단편 소설들을 읽고 감흥을 받아 영문 번역을 시도하게 되었습니다.
다행히도 복날은간다님께서도 흔쾌히 허락해주셔서 이렇게 첫번째로 완성된 번역본을 올려봅니다.
이 번역본은 레딧이라고 불리우는 해외 사이트에 업로드할 예정으로, 저에게 돌아오는 수익은 없을 것입니다.
혹시 오유저분들중 레딧 외 타 해외 사이트에 올릴만한 곳이 있다면 덧글로 남겨주세요.
그리고 제가 전문적인 번역가가 아니다보니 오역, 오타가 있을수도 있습니다. 이 글을 쓰는 이유중에 하나도 이것때문인데요. 영어를 잘하시는 오유저분들께 검수를 부탁드리고싶습니다. 혹시 읽는 도중 에러가있다면 덧글로 남겨주세요.
마지막으로, 본문 내에 고의로 바꾼 부분이 몇몇 있습니다. 예를들어 "!!"를 "..."로 바꾼다던가, "?!"를 "?" 혹은 "!" 한가지로만 바꾼 점, 혹은 문장 내 단어를 바꾼다거나 한 부분이 있는데요. 이 부분들은 영문에서 좀 더 깔끔하게 읽히기 위해 수정한 부분이며, 스토리, 묘사내에서 벗어나지 않습니다. 혹시라도 이 부분이 마음에 안드신다면 말씀해주세요.
감사합니다.
The man wanted to try killing someone.
His life was great. He was born in a wealthy family with nice education, and he had a well-paying job. He had good friends from the old days, and he was in a passionate, romantic relationship. He often went on trips, and he had quite a few hobbies. He completed a lot of things that he wanted to do in his life; except one: murder.
He was not a bad person. It’s not that he had any mental problems or hatred toward someone. He just wanted to try it once in his life. He was curious how it would feel like to murder a human. He wanted to know how his point of view will change afterwards. Because he was not a bad person, he used imaginations. Until he heard a weird rumor.
According to the story, there existed something called ‘murder pyramid scheme’. He couldn’t find any more details other than the fact he could murder if he joined the organization. He took vast interest in this, which, after an investigation, led him to a butcher shop in a street market.
“I want to give a lot of meat to someone who is going to die.”
As soon as he spat out the secret phrase, the butcher scribbled an address with a melancholy smile. This secretive act itself was enough to cause the man’s heart to beat fast. It was like he was in a movie.
The address belonged to one of the apartments in Yong-San. He pressed the doorbell, to which a masked man opened the door. The masked man surveyed the man without a word. The man lost some confidence, but he showed him the memo.
“Ah, um, I got this address fro –“
The masked man cut him off and asked, “You need to decide right now. Will you join?”
“What? Um, I’d like more details abou –“
“No.” The masked man stopped him assertively. “You cannot know anything until you join. Also, you cannot quit once you join.”
“Ah.”
The man thought for a quick second, but his purpose to come here was to join it.
“I’ll join.”
“Welcome. Come in.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the masked man took his mask off and opened the door for the man. Judging from his face, he was a middle-aged man. The room was small and empty, except for two chairs facing each other. When they both sat down, the middle-aged man started explaining.
“The murder pyramid scheme is grouped into three tiers. Bronze, Silver, and Gold. You, a new member, will be in the bronze tier.”
“Yes…”
The middle-aged man took out a bronze card from his shirt pocket.
“This is your membership card.”
“Thanks.”
It was a simple design with a small ‘m’ engraved at the corner. The middle-aged man continued his explanation with some pride.
“It will be useful. Our members are active in many parts of the society. Many members are high up in the society, like police chief, director of a hospital, cable channel producer and CEO, prosecutor, military general, government agents, politicians… and even a former president.”
“P, president?”
The man’s eyes enlarged from the surprise. There was a huge organization like this, hidden under the cover? The middle-aged man took out his golden membership card, with an expression as if the man’s reaction satisfied him.
“If you are in a pickle sometimes, try showing the membership card covertly. To tell you my experience, I was able to get out of jail time at a police station. I also found a hotel room at a vacation spot during summer. Getting half-priced check from a fancy restaurant is an easy business with this card. At my son’s wedding, a famous celebrity ‘Kim’ came and sang a song for us.
“’Kim’? Wow!”
The middle-aged man smiled to the man’s unhidden remark.
“It’s because we, members of the organization, have some kind of bond between us. There are two kinds of people. Those who killed and those who didn’t.”
“…”
“A person with such experience sees the world differently. How worthless a human’s life is… Members usually find a new mindset with a new lifestyle. The evidences are those who are in the important positions in the society. Difference between regular people and people with opened eyes, you will see.”
“Umm…”
It was shocking, but the man had uncertainties, because everything sounded amazing, like a common pyramid scheme.
“So, is there a membership fee or… how much do I need pay?”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
The middle-aged man shook his head assuredly.
“We ‘murder pyramid scheme’ do not ask from the members. Our purpose is to kill, not to sell. Sometimes members donate voluntarily, but it’s totally free. In reality, I myself never paid a dime.”
“Ah, really?”
The man’s face brightened, and the middle-aged man smiled comfortably.
“You know, members of ‘murder pyramid scheme’ are not at all bad people.”
“What?”
You are not bad, even if you murder? The ironic sentence caused the man to wonder, but there was a reasonable explanation.
“There are different opportunities to murder according to the tier. Simply put, a bronze member can kill the criminals in death row.
“Criminals!”
“The members with high social status, thankfully, are giving the opportunities. As such, the bronze members can be at the execution day and press the ‘button’. Can you imagine?”
The middle-aged man made hand gestures.
“There is a scared, or maybe given up, human across a glass window. Deep in his mind, there is a fear. I can kill him with just one finger. You can see a person dying, holding on to his last breath, struggling to keep his life. He will die because of a pressed button.”
“…”
“Did you know? There are actually three buttons, and three people press them at the same time. Though there is only one real button to hide which of the three killed the criminal. We do it differently. One person presses all three buttons. It’s quite nerve-wracking to press a button for the first time. Your hands will shake and sweat. So if you pressed a fake button, you involuntarily let out a sigh. Even though you are pressing the button to kill the person, you get a relief that he didn’t die. Well, he dies either on the next button or the last one. You’d know if you did it… murder is a wondrous and amazing experience.”
The man’s throat became dry as he listened to the story. He couldn’t hide how he also wanted to try it.
“Unfortunately… it’s difficult for bronze tier members to kill someone at this time.”
“What?”
“As you know, Korea is close to banning executions. You know that the last execution was in 1997? So the bronze members after that time couldn’t experience any murder.”
“That’s- but-” the man was disappointed. After all that explaining, he couldn’t murder “So there was no murder afterwards… ‘murder pyramid scheme’ was just a name?”
“No, there is a silver tier.”
“Ah, silver!”
His eyes brightened again. The middle-aged further explained.
“Silver tier members can kill suicidal people.”
“Suicidal?”
“Yes, we recruit ones on the verge of killing themselves, and we kill them instead. We kill who were going to die anyway, so we are not doing a bad deed, no?”
“Sure…”
“Of course, we reward the people for volunteering. If they had no family, we might take care of their funeral. If they want to give money to someone else, we do as much as they want. If they had one last wish, we fulfill the request, and we can let them travel to where they wished to die at."
“That’s understandable.”
The middle-aged man deepens his voice.
“Ultimately, silver tier has different a feeling to it.”
“Feeling?”
“Bronze tier is just pressing buttons, but silver tier lets you kill more directly. You can pull the rope, or use a gun. Maybe knife, axe, or it may be disturbing… but there is a well-known member who likes to use a chainsaw.”
“Wow…”
“Of course, it's done with the agreement of the volunteer. Most people agree if they received a lot of reward; if not, we try to let them go as comfortably as possible. Even if that’s the case, the feeling is incomparable to bronze tier. You would know the difference without much explanation, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, yes…”
The man’s heart started to beat again. What he explained was closer to what the man imagined for a murder, rather than an execution.
“So, how can I obtain tsilver tier?”
The middle-aged man smiles meaningfully without an answer. Then, “you need to recruit three suicidal volunteers.”
“What?”
“We are ‘murder pyramid scheme’.”
“Oh…”
The man was shocked, but he undertood as soon as he heard the name. That’s why it was called murder pyramid scheme!
“Don’t worry too much. Korea has highest rating of suicide, so it won’t be too difficult. Actually, silver tier has the most members out of the three tiers.”
Although the middle-aged man spoke with an assuring tone, the man’s face was grim. Pressing buttons or even killing someone on a prepared stage was fine. He felt like he could do it, and he wanted to. Finding suicidal people and asking them to die? That was out of his comfort zone.
“There isn’t much you can do anyway. You have to bring one person every year no matter what.”
“What!”
“It’s a membership rule. That’s how the organization stays up.”
“What the hell! Why didn’t you tell me that beforehand?”
“That’s not something you can say to a stranger. It’s a murder, you know.”
“Fucking…”
“If you wanted to kill someone, you should have had a better mindset.”
The man had horrible feelings. He regretted joining before thinking it through.
The middle-aged man spoke as he got up, “Don’t think too hard. There are only three rules to remember. No quitting, keep the secret, and bring one volunteer per year.”
“…”
“Well, I’ll be going. Maybe I’ll see you next time.”
The middle-aged man passed by the man. Desperate, the man quickly turned to ask, “Wait! What happens if I fail to keep the three rules?”
The middle-aged man stopped completely, then turned around with a smile.
“Who do you think gold tier members can kill?”
“…”
The middle-aged man’s smile creeped the man out.
“We are not bad people. We only kill criminals, suicidal people, and ‘murder pyramid scheme’ members. We don’t hurt innocent people.”
Author: 복날은간다 (Pronunciation: Bok-Nal-Eun-Gan-Da)
Original Korean Text: http://todayhumor.com/?bestofbest_331889
Translator: Precel
