ご飯・ダンス

'「ご飯・ダンス」は自分の居場所で最善を尽くして生きる平凡な人々を描いた絵本です。慌ただしく過ごす毎日や何気なく通り過ぎる人生の一瞬一瞬。しかし、動かない人生はなく、おかげで今日も町はせっせと動いています。暮らしのために働く人々の動きは、リズムに合わせて踊るダンスのように見えもします。熟練の働き手の身のこなしはまるでダンスを連想させるほど、ダンサーの動きに通ずるものがあります。人生の現場で得た彼らの素朴な身振りは、もしかすると世界とコミュニケーションを取る真摯なダンスかもしれません。今日という舞台に登る人生というダンス、私たちの知らない間に世界は毎日踊っています。

Dancing for Eating

With a rustle, clothes brush each other. The old lady from the vegetable shop holds a bunch of green onion in one hand and picks up a plastic bag with the other. An express delivery lady, who delivers document envelops, accelerates her motorcycle. A  street cleaner sweeps the ground with her broom. Everyone is working so hard – the lady delivering food, the lady who sells sugar-filled griddlecakes, the shoeshine lady.

The picture book Dancing for Eating describes ordinary people who do their best in their jobs to make a living. There are some moments in life that we don’t really pay attention to because we are too busy and such moments are too familiar. But no life stays still, and that is why my neighborhood is always bustling.

“A day without work is a day without food,” said the Zen master Baizhang Huaihai. This may sound like too much, but the most important meaning is about "making a living." We need to eat to stay alive, so we cannot stop making a living. We must do it until we die: it  is insignificant, yet divine. Sometimes, the movements of those who work to make a living look like a rhythmical dance. When an old lady in a laundry shop elegantly stretches her arms and legs, her movement is like the arabesque of a ballerina. The sharp, yet soft movement of an old lady working in a vegetable shop remind readers of sword dance. 

An old lady carrying food trays piled on her head for delivery, an old policewoman controlling traffic in a well-disciplined manner... The skilled movements of experienced workers are very similar to those of dancers, so much so that they look like dance moves. 

The simple movements of workers seen in the workplace are perhaps genuine dance performances for communicating with the world. The dance of life performed on the stage of today. The world dances every day, even though we barely notice it. 

『밥ㆍ춤』은 자기 자리에서 최선을 다해 살아가는 평범한 사람들을 그린 그림책입니다. 정신없이 돌아가는 일상과 익숙함에 무심코 지나치는 삶의 순간들. 그러나 움직이지 않는 삶은 없고, 덕분에 오늘도 우리 동네는 부지런히 움직입니다.

밥벌이하는 사람들의 움직임은 리듬에 맞춘 춤처럼 보이기도 합니다. 세탁소 아주머니가 우아하게 팔다리를 뻗은 모습은 마치 발레의 아라베스크 동작 같고, 채소 가게 아주머니의 날렵하면서 부드러운 몸짓에 칼춤 동작이 겹쳐집니다. 겹겹이 쌓은 식판을 머리에 이고 아슬아슬 음식을 배달하는 아주머니, 절도 있게 교통 신호를 보내는 경찰 아주머니……. 숙련된 일꾼의 노련한 몸놀림은 마치 춤 동작을 연상시킬 만큼 춤꾼의 동작과 통합니다. 삶의 현장에서 건져 올린 이들의 소박한 몸짓은 어쩌면 세상과 소통하는 진솔한 춤인지도 모르지요. 오늘이라는 무대에 올리는 삶이라는 춤, 우리가 모르는 사이 세상은 날마다 춤추고 있습니다.