Korean Title: Du-gyeob-eui Norae
Author: Yi Mun-yol
Publisher: Hollym
112 pages

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>>>This book is written in Korean and English.

About This Book

Yi Munyeol, one of Korea's most distinguished novelists, reflects on our life, love and the world we live in his short story "Twofold Song." Beginning with the line, "Life is loneliness. Or it is not loneliness," the story starts with a seemingly contradicting set of sentences. This book discusses love and desire to show us that our lives and the world we live in are composed twofold. Our lives are twofold in that they can be both lonely and not lonely. The world is twofold in that it consists of men and women. When a man meets a woman and together they create a fold; it is called love. The infinite twofoldness of love, however, frustrates lovers who want to become and remain one-fold. On a lonely autumn afternoon when trees premonish the cold winter, a man and a woman who have dated for the past few years are on a bench about to break up. They talk to each other but the message one wants to send does not reach the other. When the man speaks of snow, the woman comes up with sunlight. They recall their three-year relationship differently, as if they are singing a two-part song. For example, the woman's once dazzling beauty is for the man a "flower's sorrow just before it withers." In this way, the man and the woman sing the twofold song that cannot be mingled as they anticipate their separation. Through the couple, author Yi compares the dual nature of the world to that of a male-female dichotomy. The "two-folds" want to become one through love, but love in itself is twofold, as is life, and thus their efforts to become one fail. Yi made his literary debut in 1979 with "Saehagok" winning the New Spring Literary Contest sponsored by The Dong-a Ilbo. His other works include "Our Twisted Hero", "Portrait of Youthful Days For the Vanished Things", and "The Son of Man".


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