A Traditional Korean Folktale An
original tale written by This is a tale of undying love between a young couple who won the struggle to be together. Long ago, there was a village named 'Sa-rang' in Korea. The village had two flowers that cried when a couple passed nearby. These flowers never died. A long time ago there was a couple, Soo-il and Soon-ae, living in Sa-rang. They loved each other so much that they wanted to get married, but Soon-ae's father, who was very rich, never allowed her to marry Soo-il, who was very poor. A few days later, her father lied to her. He told her that Soo-il got married to another girl and pushed her to marry a rich guy named Jung-bae. She was very sad because she believed her father and agreed to marry Jung-bae. But, Soon-ae' and Jung-bae were not happy because they did not love each other. He hung out with friends, met other girls, and seldom came back home. They would not stay together long. One day, Soon-ae heard a strange, continuous sound from outside the window, so she slowly went to the window and opened it up. When she looked down, there was Soo-il. Her heart started beating faster, and she made up her mind to go to him. She jumped down from her room, which was on the second floor, and then she felt a big pain and fainted. When Soon-ae was able to open her eyes, she saw the people she loved. There were members of her family and Soo-il. They all looked at her with concern, but at that moment she discovered that she could not move at all. She knew her father had lied to her, and she cried every day. Soo-il came to see her every day, but her father would not let him see her. Soo-il decided to secretly take her to a small town in the country where nobody could find them. In that town. he cut trees and sold them to make a living, while Sa-rang slowly recovered and was able to move again. One day when Soo-il was coming back home after cutting trees, he saw a rose on the edge of a cliff. Because Soon-ae liked roses, he tried to pick the rose. Unfortunately, he slid and fell over the cliff. While she was waiting for him as usual, some people living in the town came to her with his possessions. Immediately, she went to the place where his possessions were found even though she could not walk well. However, when she got there, she could not find his body, only a strange flower. After that, she never ate or drank and never talked to anybody. She only thought about Soo-il, who could never return to her. A couple of days later, she closed her eyes for ever and ever. She was buried near the place where the flower was found. After a while, her grave disappeared, and another flower appeared in the same place as the first one. Return to: More Folktales | It's International | Home Page TOPICS
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