The Grass Tomb (초분)
A Two-Act Drama From Korea
By Oh, Tae-sok
Translated
By Ryu, Yung-kyun (Professor of Drama, University of Seoul)
Dong Nang Repertory Theatre of Korea
<ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION>
The Grass Tomb : A Drama of Personified Abstractions
Ryu, Yung-kyun
Oh Tae-sok's The Grass Tomb is an "unusual" piece of dramatic creation. It is unusual since it attempts to break away from realistic or naturalistic trends which have predominated in Korean theatre since its modern inception. However, the play is an unusual piece not simply because it is unconventional or non-realistic.
The uniqueness of the play lies in its highly sophisticated rendering of the playwright's philosophical insight into universe and society, which is based on time-honored traditions of Oriental philosophy. In some respect, the play as a whole is an allegory of life itself as viewed by Oriental philosophers.
According to the playwright himself, quoted in the program of the play's 1973 production, the initial incentive for writing this play came from what he had learned about a funeral custom practiced in a small island in the Yellow Sea off the west coast of the Korean peninsular.
As it is implied in the play, the altitude of this island is so low that only one or two feet of its surface remains above sea level. For this reason, the islanders have been unable to bury their dead underground. For generations, a funeral custom quite unusual in any other part of Korea has been practiced on the island. It is the so-called grass tomb funeral. Instead of burying a dead body underground, the islanders soak the body in the sea and keep it inside a ventilated structure of dried grass.
With this funeral custom as the basic framework of the play's plot structure, the playwright added to it purely fictional events fused with ritualistic elements. The plot evolves initially around the missing body of an old woman. Her funeral is yet to be performed. Her body suddenly disappears before the execution of the funeral ceremony. It is IMJA, the granddaughter of the deceased, who hides the body in the seaweed bed. The seaweed bed is where the islanders cultivate a special kind of brown seaweed, an expensive delicacy relished by people of Far Eastern countries. The cultivation of the seaweed is the primary--or perhaps the only--source of income for the islanders.
The initial complication of the play comes from this seaweed bed as it becomes ruined by a plague. Because of this unexpected disaster, the islanders face the imminent threat of starvation. Another complication follows immediately after the first one. KOONJA, the magistrate of the island issues a decree that all the dead bodies be either cremated on the spot or exhumed from the grass tombs and shipped out of the island to be buried in the mainland.
The islanders are represented in the play by the two separate chorus groups of young men--FOUR YOUNG MEN and THREE YOUNG MEN. As an expediency for survival, they choose to leave the island. As the play begins, FOUR YOUNG MEN enter. They are after the body of the old woman. They want to follow the decree and ship all the dead bodies out of the island so that they themselves could eventually go to the mainland. Imja comes in and confronts FOUR YOUNG MEN to stop them taking away her grandma's body. She proclaims that the grass tomb is the order of the island, which must be kept intact. She is determined to have a grass tomb funeral for her grandmother inspite of the decree that prohibits it.
SOJA, IMJA's uncle and son of the deceased is serving a prison term in the mainland. He was convicted five years ago of a murder case. He allegedly killed the mate of a ferryboat that regularly stops by the island. Upon the news of his mother's death, he gets a three-day-long special leave from the prison to attend his mother's funeral. Escorted by DANGJA, the prison officer or lawman, SOJA arrives at the island only to find out his mother's body is missing.
-1-
The islanders make a desperate search for the missing body because the law forbids anybody to leave the island unless the missing body is recovered. SOJA reminds them of the order of the island in which none of the islanders is allowed to move out of the island in which none of the islanders si allowed to move out of the island. However, a criminal who commits a murder is usually sent to the mainland to be imprisoned there. SOJA insinuates that this same order that once drove him out to the mainland could be an expedient to save people form the present situation. Soja suggests that he and his escort will help people out somehow.
As it is revealed by Imja, the actual murderer of the mate was not SOJA but his mother who wanted to send her son to the mainland. Since every islanders wishes to go to the mainland against the order of the island, to commit a murder was the only possible expedient to fulfill that wish under the given circumstances. To SOJA, the social order means an expedient to achieve something or to get him somewhere. He tries to convince people that order is only a means to protect and save people. If it drives people to destruction, he suggest that that must be an obsolete one no longer serving its original purpose. He concludes that whatever expedient that could save them from the dilemma they face now should replace the old one. In a roundabout way, SOJA hints people that the only way out is to kill DANGJA and turn his body in as the replacement for the missing body.
In Act Two, the two choruses of young men are very much agitated. They are almost on the verge of killing DANGJA when IMJA comes in to stop them. To save DANGJA's life, IMJA confesses that it was her who hid her grandma's body. and she promises to bring the body out so that they could all go to the mainland. While IMJA is gone to get her grandma's body out of where she hid it, KOONJA announces that the escort (DANGJA) has been murdered. SOJA confesses to people that he himself killed the escort so that islanders could have a body to take with them to the mainland as the replacement for his mother's body. IMJA enters but without her grandma's body. She couldn't find the body there in the seaweed bed since it must have floated away by the low tide.
KOONJA comes in with anther decree. It says that all the islanders are free to go where they choose to go and that they must burn all the grass tombs and dead bodies before they take off. Everybody takes off leaving behind SOJA and IMJA wrapped up in a fishing net. And the play concludes as several offstage voices recall to our mind that the two murder cases turned out to be purposeless.
As it is often the case with many other pieces of dramatic literature particularly those by Beckett, Ionesco and Sartre, this play also questions the very basic and fundamental problems in our lives--namely, the meaning of life or the value of existence. Naturally, neither this play nor any others provide any feasible answer to any of those questions. They only reassure us that we don't know mush about these fundamental problems of life.
Yet the play we discuss here differs from those in the Western absurdist tradition in some basic ways. Although it shares much of the view that life is absurd with its Western counterparts, it also attempts to seek the ultimate energy of beauty and harmony inherent in life. These notion has much to do with the ideas of the Taoist tradition of ancient China. In the play, there are many elements which we can identify with symbols associated with the Yin and Yang principles and the ideas of the I-ching (Book of Change) from Taoism
For instance, every character in the play can be practically identified with either Yin or Yang symbols although it is not always plausible to identify him with one symbol only. When one character confronts another in a particular scene, that one can be identified as a Yang element while another character is naturally a Yin element. Of course, this can be reversed when one meets with the third character in the next scene. The first character could be a Yin element this time when he runs into somebody who is a Yang element.
The names of the characters in The Grass Tomb also suggest a certain interrelationships among the characters. IMJA means a person who owns something. She is a proprietor and custodian--a mother figure of the island. The name SOJA means a prime factor or element. Thus, we can assume that he is the cause of the conflict in this drama. If not the one and only cause, he is at least one of several major causes of the dramatic events developing in the play. DANGJA means the very person involved or the victim. The name KOONJA originally means a true gentleman or a man of virtue. This oriental term connotes that whoever is called by this term, he is expected to have an extraordinary capability of exercising temperance in his life. The name thus fits the character Koonja who represents the law--particularly the positive law as opposed to the natural law.
Within the play's symbolic context, the island represents the natural law (often called the Order of the Island in the play) which Imja tries to keep intact throughout the play. On the other hand, the mainland represents the positive law which Koonja tries to impose on the islanders.
It is now somewhat obvious that the play is symbolically about our contradictory life which constantly swings on a continuum with the positive law (self-control or temperature) on the onr extreme end and the natural law (instinct or impulse) on the other.
-2-
However, what is not quite clear in the play is exactly how all these elements are put together to achieve some coherence for the play as a whole. According to the Taoist concept of universe, one element never stays the same. It constantly changes its form. The movement of these elements are often compared to the flow of water. These symbolic Yin and Yang elements conflict, interact among themselves, and interlock one with another to constitute the constant tension maintained throughout the play. Looking into the particulars of the play by identifying all those elements of Taoist implication, all we could possibly see might be an extremely confusing and incoherent mass of events chaotically interwound with bits of highly insufficient information.
Yet, the playwright attempts to create through his seemingly incoherent and loosely constructed work an artistic entity of a unifying and harmonizing force. Such a technique can be comparable to that of Chinese paintings created under the predominant influence of Taoist or Zen Buddhist perception of an artistic creation. Much of the rea;istic details are left out in these paintings to leave ample portion of the negative space on the paper. In this manner, a few dots and some bold lines constitute a rough and yet economically well-defined image of a pine tree frequently depicted in Oriental paintings.
Likewise, in Oh's play The Grass Tomb, much of the realistic information is deliberately left out. The play does have a liner plot. Simply following the plot does not give us a clear picture of what is going on in the play or what the play is about. All the events of the play are ostensibly linked together by cause-and-effect relationships. They cause each other and act on each other. One event is expected, without any further detailed information, to be a sufficient cause for another event. There are three major events occurring in the play. They are presented in the following three sentences :
"The seaweed bed is being ruined by a plague."
"The body is gone."
"The escort has been killed."
-3-
We must admit that in order to establish its logical context, a conventional play--particularly a realistic drama--should have a lot more details of informaton than these three short and predicative sentences.
Yet within the context of this particular play, three short pieces of information are supposedly interrelated with one another to create a cyclic linkage of events occurring with one following after another as a sufficient cause for the next.
Oh Tae-sok : The Playwright
Oh Tae-sok, the playwright of The Grass Tomb, made his professional debut as a playwright with a short The Wedding Dress produced by the Korea Drama Center in 1967.
In the following year(1968), his first full-length play The Change of Season presented at the Korean National Theatre won him The Playwright of the Year Award from a daily newspaper, The Hankook Ilbo, which annually sponsors Korea Theatre and Film Arts Award. In the same year, his second full-length play, Judas, Before the Rooster Crows, was awarded the grand prix of the Seoul Newspaper Drama Awards. In 1973, his play The Grass Tomb was produced by Dong Nang Repertory Company, an affiliate of the Korea Drama Center. In 1973, Yoo Duk-hyung, the director of the play, was invited to direct an original Korean play at the World Theatre Festival sponsored by La Mama E.T.C.,New York. Yoo took Oh's play The Grass Tomb to the festival. He retitled its English version as "Jilso," a Korean word meaning order. After six months of extensive workshop rehearsal, it was performed in February, 1975 by an international group of actors.
In April,1975, a revival of The Grass Tomb was prepared back in Seoul by Dong Nang Repertory Company led by Director Yoo. It enjoyed a capacity audience each night. It attracted a total of nearly 10,000 people during its thirteen days of performances. The play thus proved itself to be an example of both artistic and commercial success, a rare event in Korean theatre which had long been clogged by financial difficulties. Oh Tae-sok graduated from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, with a major in philosophy. His other plays are :
The Hey Fever (1968)
The Baby Carriage on the Overpass (1968)
The Transplant Operation (1970)
The Rollerskating Tumbler (1970)
The Umblical Cord (The Cycle) (1974)
The Wife of the Spring Wind (1967)
The Bell (1977) and many others.
-4-
The Grass Tomb
A Two-act Drama from Korea
by
Oh, Tae-sok
Translated into Korean
by Ryu, Yung-kyun
Dong Nang Repertory Theatre of Korea
CHARACTERS :
IMJA
SOJA
DANGJA
KOONJA
THREE YOUNG MEN
FOUR YOUNG MEN
ACT ONE
--Luring Fish into the Net--
A clamoring gong sounds from a distance. It's the fog signal. Four Young Men rush onto the stage like jackals running after a prey. They instantly start rummaging in a grass tomb. Imja enters. She carries a fishing net over her head.
IMJA : What the hell are you doing?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : (In chorus) The seaweed bed is being ruined by a plague.
IMJA : A plague?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The seaweed is rotting.
VOICE OF KOONJA : (Offstage) Bodies of the dead must be exhumed and buried in the mainland. Shipping service will be provided by this office. dead bodies must be shipped out of the island prior to everything else.
IMJA : Where are you going?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : To the ferryboat.
IMJA : No, you can't leave here.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We'll be burnt.
IMJA : Deserting this island !
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Everybody will leave.
-5-
IMJA : No, I can't. I've got to have a funeral for Grandma.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The deceased must go too.
IMJA : No, she can't ! It was her wish to have her body in the grass tomb.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The seaweed is rotting.
IMJA :The grass tomb is the order of the island.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : You want to starve to death?
IMJA : we all . . . .
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Let's go ! Hurry up !
IMJA : We are all brothers.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Come on !
(FOUR YOUNG MEN exit. IMJA pulls out the corpse fo her grandma from the grass tomb and hides it offstage.)
(SOJA and DANGJA enter.)
SOJA and DANGJA : (Together) "Mother died at the 23rd hour last night." "A three days and four nights' leave granted for the funeral."
DANGJA : Convict No. 1970 !
SOJA : Convict No. 1970 !
(SOJA steps forward. DANGJA catches up with him.)
SOJA : With you?
DANGJA : It's the law here that tells me to go with you. "Escort No. 1970 to th funeral and report back with no mishap to the prison office after four days."
-6-
(The two exchange their clothes.)
(Fishermen singing offstage) :
I drift my boat out to the waves
Riding the wind off the yellow sea.
Woes and worries I leave ashore.
Let the waves and the wind be my guides.
DANGJA : What's that?
SOJA : It's a fishermen's dirge. They are fishing for the spirit of the dead.
DANGJA : Fishing for a spirit?
SOJA : Has somebody been drowned?
SOJA : If you dig the earth even on feet deep here, you get water immediately. That's the kind of soil we have here on the island. thus, digging the soil is considered as an act to bring misfortune. The order of the island states that if anybody digs the soil, he will get his hands chopped off. That's why we dip a dead body into the sea and let it dry on what we call a grass tomb.
DANGJA : You let the dead body dry?
SOJA : Yes, like we dry fish. As long as it's dry, it doesn't decay, you know that.
DANGJA : So, that's what you call a funeral here?
SOJA : We call it " a grass tomb funeral." it is every islander's wish that his body be placed in a dry place after his death. So, we first soak the corpse in the sea water, let it dry by the wind, and put it in a tomb-like structure made out of dried grass to keep it off the damp ground.
-7-
(Fishermen's song continues)
Should I have left my wine glass somewhere !
Breaking that diamond heart of my sweet girl,
Why ma I here out in the sea?
Whirl, whirl, whirl, in a whirl,
Flirting idly with mindless herons.
(Fishermen enter. They carry a fishing net their shoulders. They go around the stage in a circle shouldering the net as if they were bearing a bier in a funeral procession.)
Bereaved of my sweet love,
On a long, long journey I saill out.
Sea birds fly over my head
Wailing along with my heart.
The billowy waves wirthe to and fro
Bitterly slashing my desolate soul.
(KOONJA enters. He is carrying a lamp in his hand. Fishermen put the net down and scamper off the side.)
KOONJA : Who is the chief mourner in this funeral? Permit me to ask which of you is he. (He unwraps the fishing net. the net is empty.) It's not in here ! Where is the body? What happened? Where did you hide it? Who is the chief mourner?
-8-
(IMJA is pushed forward by the crowd, who point at her with vague and hesitant gestures.)
KOONJA : There was no body in there even out at the beach ! I knew it ! The body suddenly disappeared into the thin air? Where did you hide it? I'll help you. If you want to move the body out of the island, you'll have to pass my jurisdiction. Where do you have the body? Just let me konw where. And I won't tell anybody about you. Come on ! Just tell me ! (With a shriek, IMJA collapses. She crouches down with her face buried in her skirt.)
KOONJA : Search for the corpse ! We can't leave this island unless the body is recovered. Without the body, we'll all be arrested on the charge of corpse abduction the minute we get to the mainland. Don't let anybody get off the shore! Not a single soul can leave the island. That's the law.
(Exits in a hurry.)
(The crowd get agitated.)
FOUR VOICES : make her confess! put her on the rack! burn mugwort on her!
THREE VOICES : Make a bornfire!
FOUR VOICES : Or else, we are doomed to perish hers!
THREE VOICES : Where did you hide the body?
FOUR VOICES : Burn her with mugwort!
THREE VOICES : Cut her head off?
FOUR VOICES : Speak up!
THREE VOICES : We'll burn mugwort on your head!
FOUR VOICES : You are going to die!
THREE VOICES : Your limbs will be twisted around!
-9-
FOUR VOICES : Burn her with mugwort!
THREE VOICES : Make a bornfire!
FOUR VOICES : Speak! Speak!
THREE VOICES : Where did you hide it? Where?
FOUR VOICES : Your head is burning!
THREE VOICES : Mugwort is burning!
FOUR VOICES : (Scream)
THREE VOICES : The seaweed is rotting!
FOUR VOICES : The plague is spreading!
THREE VOICES : You want us starved to death?
FOUR VOICES : Stop! Hold her!
THREE VOICES : We can't let you go!
FOUR VOICES : Speak up!
THREE VOICES : Where? Tell me where?
FOUR VOICES : Your head is burning!
THREE VOICES : Mugwort is burning!
FOUR VOICES : Your head is shrinking!
Your limbs are shriveling!
Speak up! or your head will be drilled!
Speak up! or your limbs will be chopped off!
Mugwort is burning! Make a bornfire!
Your head is bruning!
Speak up! Speeeeeeeee......!!!!
(Screams)
-10-
(As if they were startled by their own fanatic screams, the crowd abruptly scamper away.)
(On stage, IMJA is seen alone. She is left flat on the floor with her face down like a piece of soggy laundry that is dropped form the clothesline. Her palms are turned over like dead leaves blown by a gale of wind.)
(SOJA enters followed by DANGJA.)
DANGJA : I bet they really meant to kill her.
SOJA : Take that off.
DANGJA : Huh?
SOJA : That jacket you have on.
DANGJA : Oh, yes! (He takes it off.)
SOJA : Put this on.
DANGJA : Where? It's so dark here. I can't see very well.
SOJA : There will be no moon rising for the next four days. Things are going to happen for these four days.
DANGJA : Things?
SOJA : Things like whhat you've just seen. I'd better go.
DANGJA : Where?
SOJA : I've got to find out my mother's whereabout.
DANGJA : No, you can't. Everybody is getting insane out there.
SOJA : I have to find her no matter what happens.
DANGJA : Can't you wait until dawn?
SOJA : I'll just take a peep in there and come back in no time.
-11-
DANGJA : Well, if you insist, I guess I'll have to come along with you.
(He follows SOJA to leave the stage)
IMJA : Uncle!
(DANGJA stops for a moment SOJA goes out.)
DANGJA : Don't let yourself get involved in any of what's happening over there! don't you ever forget that!
IMJA : Uncle!
DANGJA : It's me.
IMJA : Where did you....!?
DANGJA : He went down to the village. He said he's going to just look in there. He won't be long, I hope.
IMJA : Oh, no! You must stop him! They might kill him to replace Grandma. Grandma's body disappeared last night, you konw.
DANGJA : That's why he went. To find your grandmother.
IMJA : (Violently shaking her head.) No, no! He'll never find her! Somebody will be killed instead!
DANGJA : Who?
IMJA : Anybody.
DANGJA : You mean your uncle . . .?
IMJA : It could be him.
DANGJA : Let's go! If he dies, I'll have to serve the rest of his prison term.
IMJA : You? Serve in prison for him?
DANGJA : We are bound together like one person.
-12-
IMJA : Wait! They are coming up. They are heading this way!
DANGJA : Where?
(He edges his way through a split into the grass tomb. IMJA follows him into the stack. The two hide out inside the grass tomb.)
(THREE YOUNG MEN rush in, look around, and search the grass tomb.)
SOJA : (Coming in) Who the hell are you?
THREE YOUNG MEN : We're fishermen.
SOJA : Well, if you are, I don't believe you have any business up here to dig into somebody else's tomb.
THREE YOUNG MEN : An old woman's body disappeared last night.
SOJA : Where is the magistrate of the island? I've got to have a word with him.
(KOONJA enters.)
KOONJA : Who are you... if you don't mind me asking?
SOJA : I am from the mainland. I just arrived here a while ago.
KOONJA : You must be none other than the inspector from the mainland.
Please pardon our rudeness. I should have known better . . .
SOJA : Who ordered these people to search this grass tomb? Was it you?
KOONJA : Sir, I hope you would kindly consider the inevitable circumstances under which I had to order these people to search the tomb . . . We had an excellent seaweed bed along ten miles-long coast in the southeastern part of the island. However, the inshore water around the island started getting polluted since late last year. Tons of waste have been surging in shore with the tide. the seaweed bed is completely ruined now. We are unable to collect even a single shred of seaweed at the present moment. If things go on like the way is has been, I figure we can barely survive three more days.
-13-
SOJA : Well, I guess you have no other choice but to leaves the island.
KOONJA : But an unfortunate thing happened last night. The body of an old woman vanished even without going through the proper funeral procedure. Unless her body is recovered, we're not allowed to leave the island. Without the body, we'll all be arrested on the charge of corpse abduction the minute we land in the mainland. Not a single soul can leave the island under the present circumstances. That's the law. We have no way other than recovering the missing body somehow.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The seaweed is rotting! Inspector, are you there?
SOJA : There is an order governing our life here in the island. You know that.
FOUR YOUNG MEN :(Moan in agony)
KOONJA : Do you have any idea how we could find the corpse? Sir, please tell us if you have any thoughts.
SOJA : In this thick fog, it's perhaps not easy to recognize anybody. Having been convicted by the law, I am not allowed to use my own name. Yet, I am what I was five years ago. There hasn't been much change in my face. And I hope you would find it familiar. I am the very young man who disappeared from this island five years ago. Convict No. 1970 who still has three years and seven months of prison term to serve. That's who I am. Thanks to the condolence extended by the law because of my mother's death, I am temporarily free with my prison term suspended for the next three days. Since it's my hometown here, I didn't want to show up here as a convict . . . especially for my mother's funeral . . .with the generous permission of my escort the law, I put on his clothes to impersonate him . . .
-14-
SOJA : (Continues) So, here I am for my mother's funeral and all these wholly unexpected going-on . . . the seaweed bed is ruined : Mother's body is gone : and you people are asking for the mercy of the law . . . asking me . . . this convict . . . (Pause) When the mate was killed five years ago, you drove me out to the mainland . . . because I was the murderer. That's the law--the order of the island. Only a murderer could get off this island. That very order that once drove me off the island is now a way to save you all. Order is a means to protect the island from crimes. It is an expedient to save you and the island. It is the life of the island itself. (Pointing at KOONJA and himself) we are going to help you out. (SOJA exits. KOONJA follows him.)
(As THREE YOUNG MEN are picking the net up on their shoulders. FOUR YOUNG MEN enter.)
THREE YOUNG MEN : That's a dreadful idea. How dare he even think of such thing! He didn't really mean to move the grass tomb and set fire all over the place, did he?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The seaweed is rotting.
(THREE YOUNG MEN turn the net over.)
THREE YOUNG MEN : What's the matter?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : It's Uncle.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Where are you going to take him?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We're going to put him in a boat and send him out to the sea. It'll be much better that way. After all, that's where his spirit is. We'll do anything but leave him here in the fire.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Send him out to the sea! Are you out of your mind? You must be all crazy! Heaven will punish you for that!
-15-
(One of THREE YOUNG MEN starts in a stentorian voice a chant that sounds like a slow and rhythmic incantation.)
YOUNG
MAN :
Let me rest on a heap of hay.
Though not a perfect place my flesh to lie,
Might just as well lay me there to decay.
Cover me with plantain lilies and keep me dry.
An eternity wouldn't make a difference in any other way.
Yet, till my soul crosses the threshold into the nil,
Nil-lee-lee, nil-lee-lee, nil-lee-lee, nil.
Let me rest on a heap of hay.
THREE YOUNG MEN :
The soul floats away to the sea!
Off the net, it goes out in the sea!
YOUNG MAN :
Sprit, don't dally on your way.
Rare flowers and fragrant herbs are in full bloom.
Paradise must be near at hand.
Nil-lee-lee, nil-lee-lee, nil-lee-lee, nil
THREE YOUNG MEN : It gets wet! Scales grow on the spirit! The seaweed is rotting soaked in the blood! Uncle! The grass is rooted out by the plague! The grass blows in a violent gale!
-16-
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Stop! Stop it please!
(All of them eventually get entangled in the net. They are fluttering as if blown by a strong wind.)
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Let go of me! Let my feet go! We're getting wrapped up by the net. Let me go! We're all ging to die!
THREE YOUNG MEN : Call the spirit back! Tear up the net! Save our brothers! Scales! Scales are growing on the seaweed! Uncle! Uncle! The plague! The scale!
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Stop! Stop!
(All of them are entangled together in the net. Their bodies move topsy turvy as if they were dead drunk.)
THREE YOUNG MEN : Fling off the scales! Uncle! The scales are growing on the spirit! Fling them off! Off! They are on your feet! On your shin! On your back! All over your body! Uncle! Save brothers! Take these scales off from us! They are on our heads!
(Fishing nets are flying into the stage from all directions. Covered by the nets, they repeat a rhythmical movement. It is at first like the movement of fresh seaweed shreds fluttering up and down with the waves under the sea. And it gradually becomes slow and languid. In a way, it resembles the movement of rotten seaweed shreds wilting in the water. As the movement slows down to an almost imperceptible one, the lights slowly fade out.)
(DANGJA and IMJA are on stage.)
IMJA : The fog is getting thick. Pretty soon it will shroud the entire island. Whenever this happens, the island a female. Like when we girls are in flowers once a month, the entire island goes crazy. You came at just the right time. Uncle!
-17-
DANGJA : Uncle?
IMJA : You told me a while ago that the two of you are bound together like one person. You even have to serve his prison term just in case something happens to him.
DANGJA : Well, it's true, but only for four days.
IMJA : The population of this island is about two hundred. There are forty-three families living here. Except for his won parents, everybody is either uncle or nephew to everybody else. We are all very close relatives in one big family. But we are actually very distant from each other. We hate each other. Each of us is like an island. Everybody cares about nothing but himself. You are the first man who cares about . . . . who has ever come here from the mainland.
DANGJA : I heard that a mate was killed five years ago?
IMJA : He tried to lay his hands on me.
DANGJA : So, your uncle was angry. And he killed the mate?
IMJA : No.
DANGJA : No?
IMJA : Grandma did it.
DANGJA : Your grandma?
IMJA : She wanted to send uncle to the mainland.
DANGJA : By making her son a murder?
IMJA : It is everybody's wish here to go to the mainland.
DANGJA : Just because of that wish, your uncle served in the prison in place fo your grandma?
IMJA : It all turned out well, don't you think? After all, he was able to live in the mainland. That's what he wanted anyway.
DANGJA : Why don't you try that? You can kill me and go to the mainland yourself.
-18-
IMJA : Just dip your hands here, you get water. The entire island is like that--always wet and soggy like a sponge. If you stay standing at one place for just enough time to piss, you get your feet all wet. When I see somebody standing, I sometimes wonder whether he were a tree. My body is always wet and filthy. I used to dive into the sea and wash myself whenever there was a chance. But I can not even do that now. (DANGJA nods his head.) Do you smell it? The seaweed is rotting in the sea. Even my body smells the rotten seaweed. When I touch my body, the smell stains my hands like blood.
(DANGJA sits down.)
IMJA : What are you doing?
DANGJA : You smell good.
IMJA : If this smell soaks into my body for good, I can not leave this island for ever. Do you hear it?
DANGJA : What? (The gong sounds faintly from a distance. It's the fog alarm.) It sounds like a boat whistle, don't you think?
IMJA : It's the fog signal. Things are happening at last.
DANGJA : What things?
IMJA : God only konws what. (DANGJA gets up to leave.) Where are you going?
IMJA : I think I'd better go and find him.
IMJA : Uncle will eventually be here looking for you. He's looking for grandma. Nobody knows but me where she is.
-19-
DANGJA : Well?
IMJA : Oh, no! If I let you know where she is, you're going to take uncle to the mainland and leave me here alone.
DANGJA : Leave you alone here? Why, you can come along with us.
IMJA : How could I believe that?
DANGJA : If I were you, I would.
IMJA : I am not going to ask you to take me with you. Just leave uncle along to look for Grandma. And you and me can make love for a while. I'll tell you where Grandma is on the third day. You find her and go to the mainland with Uncle. Don't you ever tell anything to my uncle, O.K? Isn't it a wonderful plan?
DANGJA : Three days!
IMJA : Yes, three days. We have all the time we need until then.
(The fishing nets are flying into the stage from all directions. It's as if the fog were floating in. A distant gong sounds the fog signal.)
END OF ACT ONE
-20-
ACT TWO
--Hauling Fish in a Net--
The fishing nets are spread all over the stage. It could be seen as the vestige of the agonizing struggle of the weary fishermen.
THE THREE YOUNG MEN : Where to?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : To the mainland! Where else!
THREE YOUNG MEN : It's rotting!
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Are we going?
THREE YOUNG MEN : The body.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : All of us.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Rotting.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : No, we are not going!
THREE YOUNG MEN : Us.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : All.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Is the boat going to sail?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The body.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Found it?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Let's go!
THREE YOUNG MEN : No, we can't.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Still a long way to go?
THREE YOUNG MEN : The body.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The seaweed.
-21-
THREE YOUNG MEN : The inspector.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Did you see him?
THREE YOUNG MEN : The body.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Too much of an ordeal for us.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Let's just run away.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Stop! stop them!
THREE YOUNG MEN : Abduction of the corpse.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We might be much better off as prisoners.
THREE YOUNG MEN : All of us.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The order . . . We can . . .
THREE YOUNG MEN : No, we can't! We are brothers!
(DANGJA enters.)
DANGJA : The chief mourner who came here with me last night . . . Did you see him?
VOICES OF ALL : Who are you?
DANGJA : I am the man who escort him here.
VOICES OF ALL : Who do you want?
DANGJA : The chief mourner. Or the magistrate.
VOICES OF ALL : Died.
DANGJA : I asked where they are.
VOICES OF ALL : The son is not here.
DANGJA : He came here. With me last night.
VOICES OF ALL : He went to the mainland.
DANGJA : I said he came back.
VOICES OF ALL : From where?
DANGJA : Where is he?
-22-
VOICES OF ALL : Are you the inspector?
DANGJA : I said I wanted to see the magistrate. Where is he?
VOICES OF ALL : Has anybody ever seen him?
DANGJA : Let's start it over. What about the chief mourner?
VOICES OF ALL : Who?
DANGJA : I am the man who escorted him here. He must be go back to the mainland with me. Please! For God's sake! Help me find him. Where is he?
VOICES OF ALL : He went to the mainland.
DANGJA : He came back with me.
VOICES OF ALL : From where?
DANGJA : Where the hell is that damned magistrate? I just want to see either one of them.
VOICES OF ALL : Has anybody ever seen them?
(Pause)
DANGJA : Here. Smell me. My body smells the seaweed, too.
VOICES OF ALL : It's rotting.
DANGJA : Right. It smells rotten. We can be friendly now--you and me. I even made love to one of your girls. Now I am like one of you. Do me a favor, will you? Where is the chief mourner?
(Silence)
DANGJA : I came from the mainland. I am from the mainland : But, by a sheer mistake, I might get stuck in here for ever. Something must be going on. And I might get involved by mistake. So, I guess I'd better see the magistrate to consult with him about this matter before it's too late.
VOICES OF ALL : We are brothers!
-23-
DANGJA : Or else, only if I could see the chief mourner . . . I will be O.K. then. Everything will be fine only if he is here with me. Where is he? Come on. You people! Find him for me! Please, please! Oh, God! I think I am in big trouble!
(The crowd suddenly become restless and turn to DANGJA as if they were a huge net thrown over him.)
VOICES OF ALL : (Singing)
Up and down,
The tide is on the flow.
Pit-a-pat
Thump and thud,
A hot wind blows in my heart.
(A shrill cry breaks through the singing.)
(IMJA runs in.)
IMJA : What's the matter with you? No! Don't! Stop it! Are you all right? It's me!
(DANGJA breaks away from the crowd. Barely able to keep himself steady, he reels the stage to exit.)
IMJA : You are all different. You were not like this before. You beasts! I am shamed of you. He is our guest. Look what have you done to him! What has got into you?
(As she runs after DANGJA , a hand grabs her ankle.)
VOICES OF ALL: We are brothers.
VOICES OF ALL : We all go to the mainland.
IMJA : I made love. To the inlander.
IMJA : The seaweed is rotting.
-24-
VOICES OF ALL : We'll never find the body.
IMJA : Don't you dare try to make a corpse out of anybody!
VOICES OF ALL : We are brothers.
IMJA : No, I am not.
(The crowd restless. They turn on IMJA as if they were a huge net thrown over her. They surround her in a complete circle. Like a sleek mudfish slips out of the grip, IMJA's body quickly escapes from their encirclement. She slips out form the crowd who encircle her as if her body were covered with sleek fish scales.)
(A distant gong sounds the fog signal. Thick of floats into the stage and descends on people like a huge dragnet.)
VOICES OF ALL : Convict No.1970.
VOICES OF ALL : Convict No.1970.
VOICES OF ALL : If he doesn't go back, he will end up as a jailbreaker.
VOICES OF ALL : We're all bound together.
VOICES OF ALL : Do something before they go back! Scales are growing. Growing on the seaweed! Brothers! Take scales off!
VOICES OF ALL : Convict No.1970.
VOICES OF ALL : We're bound together.
YOUNG MEN : Scales are growing! Growing on my feet! On my shin! On my back! Brothers! Save your brothers!
VOICES OF ALL : Convict No.1970.
VOICES OF ALL : We're all bound together.
(A faint and unidentifiable sound, either a laughter or a scream, is heard from a distance. It's a dream-like and barely audible sound.)
-25-
IMJA : (Runs in) He is not here! I can't find the escort! Do something! Something must have happened to him! Did you heart? I can't find him! Find him, please!
VOICES OF ALL : Find the body!
IMJA : I did it! I hid Grandma because you said you are going to cremate her. I put her in the seaweed bed. It's not the order of the island to burn her. I'd rather have her in the water. I hid her because you said you are all going to leave the island.
VOICES OF ALL : The seaweed is rotting.
IMJA : Wait! I'll bring her out! We'll all go together to the mainland. Such a dreadful thing! I'll bring her out! Find me the escort, please! We had made love together! Find him! and, I'll bring her for you. It's a dreadful thing! (IMJA runs out.)
(The crowd become agitated.)
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Where are we going?
THREE YOUNG MEN : To the ferryboat!
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The body has been recovered!
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Let's go!
THREE YOUNG MEN : Was the escort found?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : (Look around) Convict No.1970! Come out of the grass tomb!
THREE YOUNG MEN : The boat is leaving.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We are bound together!
THREE YOUNG MEN : We found the body!
(SOJA enters.)
SOJA : Where are you going?
-26-
THREE YOUNG MEN : To the ferryboat!
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We found the body!
SOJA : Where?
THREE YOUNG MEN : In the seaweed bed.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We are brothers.
VOICE OF KOONJA :(Offstage) Murder! Hold it, everybody! Hold it right there! Get off the boat! Get the inspector!
(KOONJA runs in.)
KOONJA : Where is the inspector? The escort has been murdered! It's a dreadful thing! Who? Who killed him? Have you all gone mad? How could you possibly murder a man in order to get to the mainland? You want to serve the prison? Who is this? If any of you attempts to shelter the murder, you are all going to end up in jail. Unless we track him down, none of us can leave this island. Not a single soul can get off the shore. It's the law!
SOJA : I've been thinking all night. And I came to a conclusion that I'd better save you brothers rather than looking for my mother's body in vain. So, I killed the inlander so that you could have a body to take with you to the mainland. (He nods his head.) Yes, I killed my escort with my own hands.
(YOUNG MEN moan in agony.)
FOUR YOUNG MEN : What year was it when the order fo the island was stained with blood?
THREE YOUNG MEN : December 4, the year of the boar.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : That blood incurred this disaster.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Blood called for more blood!
-27-
SOJA : But, now that you found my mother's body, his death became senseless. Yet, it was meant to save you. Therefore, I must say that you should impose upon yourself an obligation to repay for his senseless death.
(Pause)
It was you who drove him to death. He died a death that was meant to dismiss you from the charge of corpse abduction. At the time, it was the only possible means to send you off to the mainland without violating the order of the island. You were all doomed to perish otherwise. That's why he died.
(Pause)
Now that my mother's body is found, you're trying to ignore his death. No, it can't be ignored. It is you who killed him. All that wailing of yours . . . your silence when it was the last thing you could ever hang on to . . . . that's what killed him. And now you're trying to deny his death. How did it all happen? Why did it happen? At this very moment, we must clarify where the responsibility lies. Last night, my mother's body disappeared. It simply vanished out of sight. Why did it happen? What did it mean? It meant to remind you of the order of the island. It meant to keep you from going to the mainland when you don't maintain this order. Her body was, therefore, the order itself. Now the body has floated up from the water. What brought it out from its hide-out? Who broke the order of the island?
(Pause)
Well, you hesitated to follow the order. Yet, I wouldn't say you broke it.
(Pause)
-28-
Whose island is this anyway? Who has been guarding the island? It was the order--your uncles' order. Now is the time to pay a tribute to those people who died for the cause of guarding this order. I suggest that we observe a funeral for this inlander in the name of the island's order. I ask you to give me your consent.
(SOJA exits. KOONJA follows him.)
THREE YOUNG MEN : We killed him?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : That's a slander!
THREE YOUNG MEN : There was a suggestion. A suggestion!
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We're all brothers.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Why did she uncover the body?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : She want to send us to the mainland.
THREE YOUNG MEN : What about the island's order?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We're brothers!
(A gong sound. IMJA enters. She looks as if she had been drowned.)
THREE YOUNG MEN : The body?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Let's go to the mainland!
THREE YOUNG MEN : Have you found it?
IMJA : It's the tide. She must have floated away by the low tide. She was not there.
(There is a stir among YOUNG MEN. Their blood is up again. A violent and beastly spirit is already full in the air.)
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Where did you have the body?
IMJA : In the seaweed bed.
-29-
THREE YOUNG MEN : Can I believe that?
IMJA : Yes.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Why did you hide it?
THREE YOUNG MEN : Speak up!
IMJA : It's all of you who made me do it.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Can I believe that?
IMJA : You said you are going to burn her.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Speak up!
IMJA : I hated Uncle.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Can I believe that?
IMJA : I hate all of you!
THREE YOUNG MEN : We're brothers.
IMJA : No, I am not! I hate you!
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We are going to die.
IMJA : You all think of only yourselves.
THREE YOUNG MEN : You're going to die, too.
IMJA : No, that's not true!
(YOUNG MEN are getting more rough and violent.)
FOUR YOUNG MEN : What year was it when the order of the island was stained with blood?
IMJA : Blood?
THREE YOUNG MEN : December 4, the year of the boar.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The blood incurred this disaster.
IMJA : The escort was killed?
THREE YOUNG MEN : You killed him.
-30-
IMJA : Where is he?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The same place in the ferryboat.
IMJA : The same place! Then?
THREE YOUNG MEN : In the gallery.
IMJA : Killed in the gallery?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : A sickle!
IMJA : Who killed him?
THREE YOUNG MEN : You did!
IMJA : It's not true! He is not dead, is he? Tell me he is not!
(She starts laughing frantically.) The mate is dead. It serves him right! The hell with him!
THREE YOUNG MEN : What year was it when the order of the island was stained with blood?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : December 4, the year of the boar.
IMJA : He got stabbed in the back with a sickle.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Did you hear him?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Did you see him?
IMJA : I was in the galley with the mate. And somebody came in. I wished it were not Uncle when I heard a scream. That's all.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : A scream?
THREE YOUNG MEN : Whose?
IMJA : The mate made a short scream. And then, he was silent.
THREE YOUNG MEN : And?
IMJA : Uncle gave himself up to the authorities.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Then?
-31-
IMJA : They found the sickle.
THREE YOUNG MEN : You found it, didn't you?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : When the fog cleared up, we found the mate dead in there. There he was bloodstained like a newly blown flower. December 4, the year of the boar it was.
(Pause)
THREE YOUNG MEN : It's December again!
IMJA : What do you mean?
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The flower blooms.
IMJA : You mean somebody dies!
THREE YOUNG MEN : The mate is dead.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : December 4, the year of the boar.
THREE YOUNG MEN : The escort is dead.
IMJA : No, he is not!
THREE YOUNG MEN : Who killed him?
(IMJA makes a short scream.)
FOUR YOUNG MEN : December 4, the year of the boar.
THREE YOUNG MEN : December 4 again.
IMJA : Who killed him?
THREE YOUNG MEN : You did!
IMJA : I made love . . .
FOUR YOUNG MEN : You killed.
(Silence)
IMJA : Help! Grandma! Help me! Uncle! Where are you? I am alone. Here! Grandma! Uncle! Here! I am here!
-32-
VOICE OF KOONJA :(Offstage) It's the environmental protection law! We are all saved now!
"From now on, all the grass tombs must be incinerated on the spot.
The bodies already on board must be disembarked and cremated immediately.
Only living people are allowed to go on board.
It is a policy adopted to check the spread of the plague currently prevailing in the island
and to keep it off the island. No exception to this policy will be acknowledged by this office."
Accordingly, the islanders are free from this moment to move to wherever they choose to go.
IMJA : Why are you staring at me like that?
THREE YOUNG MEN : The mate was killed.
IMJA : Yes, he was.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The escort was killed.
IMJA : I made love to him.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Did you hide the body?
IMJA : Yes, I did.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : Find us the body?
IMJA : It floated away.
THREE YOUNG MEN : We are all going to die.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : You are going to die, too.
IMJA : No, I don't want to die!
THREE YOUNG MEN : It's the order of the island.
FOUR YOUNG MEN : You are going to die.
IMJA : No, I don't want to!
-33-
FOUR YOUNG MEN : The island will be set on fire.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Save the island!
FOUR YOUNG MEN : We are all brothers.
THREE YOUNG MEN : Maintain the order!
(YOUNG MEN go at IMJA. They wrap her in the net and pull her from all directions. They twist her like when wring water out of soggy laundry. IMJA hacks like a chicken whose neck is being twisted.)
YOUNG MEN : (Singing)
A soul crosses the threshold into nil.
Peace be with you! rest in peace!
Nil-lee-lee, nil-lee-lee, nil.
Peace be with you! rest in peace!
When you cross the threshold into the nil,
Nil-lee-lee, nil-lee-lee, nil.
(SOJA and KOONJA run in from different direction.)
KOONJA : What are you doing?
SOJA : It's the order of the island!
KOONJA : She's going to die!
SOJA : It's the murder!
KOONJA : It's the murder!
SOJA : It's inevitable.
(KOONJA knocks down SOJA and shouts as he runs out.)
KOONJA : It's the environmental protection law! Set fire! fire! Aboard the boat! Burn the grass tomb! Fire! Fire!
(Flames are shooting up. They flare up like surging waves.)
-34-
VOICE : It's the environmental protection law! Get aboard the boat!
(The crowd disperse and eventually all disappear from the stage one after another.)
(SOJA and IMJA are left wrapped up in the net.)
IMJA : Help! Somebody help! Here! Somebody, help me!
VOICE : I can not help.
IMJA : Who is this? (She looks up in the air.)
VOICE : I am the escort.
IMJA : I am over here! Come this way!
VOICE : No, I can't come.
IMJA : Why not?
VOICE : It's the law that tells me so.
"Escort No. 1970! And report back with no mishaps to the prison office."
(A gong sounds. The thick fog flows in.)
VOICE : Convict No. 1970! Come out of the grass tomb! The grass tomb you are in hiding with is set on fire!
IMJA : Here! I am here!
VOICE : December 4, the year of the boar.
VOICE : Convict no. 1970! come out of the grass tomb!
VOICE : When the fog cleared up, there he was bloodstained like a newly blown flower.
IMJA : help! somebody help me!
VOICE : Again, December 4.
(The gong sound. It's the fog signal.)
THE END OF PLAY
-35-