The End of August by Yu Miri

Author:Yu Miri [Miri, Yu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Japgwiya mulleogara! the mudang, wearing a red Janggun outfit, purified my son’s body over and over with a knife we rolled him up in a straw mat and carried him to the garden on top of the straw mat we put some dried cod to ward off evil I shoveled up some earth and covered him with it aigu, not my son! My precious, precious oldest son! The Lee family heir! Aigo! I know she told us that this heojanggeori is to trick the gods into thinking he’s already dead so they can’t steal his soul but wrapping him up like a corpse and covering him in dirt is just too much! The mudang wrote on three eggs with a brush Lee Shin-tae June 8, 1933 Daesu daemyeong his name his birthday our wish for his health and long life the mudang raised the hand holding the eggs the shells cracked with a splosh the yolks slowly ran down my son’s body binaida binaida Janggun, we pray to you please bring this boy back to life my son, carried out of the straw mat now, simply breathed out fear breathed in worry in out in out this uhwangut that started at five in the evening had still not ended by two in the morning my son withstood it all without a moan or a single tear aigu, despite the pain he must have been in so much unbearable pain aigo in the middle of the josanggeori the pounding of the drums suddenly stopped the mudang channeled my sister, now a cheonyeo ghost danyeowatseumnida aigo, Eomoni aigo, Abeoji hello, Woo-gun aigu, how big you’ve grown and this must be my niece, the one who was born the day I drowned and the girl next to her is my niece too yes I can tell yes yes even without an introduction everybody knows who you are it’s something in our blood, the smell of it smells the same as the blood I shed Oh, Shin-tae I never met or spoke to you but I’m your auntie breathe in the smell of my blood I’m all alone in a cold and lonesome place and there’s no help for it so I thought I’d close your mouth and your eyelids and take you to the other world with me but you’ve done this gut and summoned me here so I think I can wait a little longer if they hadn’t done this gut, on the next rainy night your guts would’ve jammed and you would’ve died but now your auntie has massaged them tomorrow you’ll be able to swallow food again first eat some pumpkin porridge one spoonful at a time, slowly once you can eat that then try acorn rice cakes then after that get your omma to make you some yugwa hey, In-hye unni  that day you promised me that when I got home from school we’d make yugwa together the mudang smiled at her and my wife hid her face in her hands and shook her head, sobbing all the flowers in the garden were in bloom the weeping forsythia the azaleas the dandelions the shepherd’s purse the violets if my sister had been alive she would’ve sang as she picked them and arranged them in old bottles and cups the house would’ve been filled with flowers the mudang danced, holding the knife between her teeth the baksu beat the drum and the jing as he recited the Heart Sutra mahabanyabaramildasimgyeong gwanjajaebosal haengsimbanyabaramilda dum-dum-dum ting-ting-ting! The just-sprouted leaves

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