[단편번역]The Interlopers – H. H. Munro

The Interlopers – H. H. Munro 침입자들 The British writer H. H. Munro, also known by the pen-name Saki, is well-known for surprise endings. This story has perhaps the shortest surprise ending of all. It is just a single word, and doesn’t come until the last line of the story. Two families have been fighting for years over the use of a poor piece of forest land. The heads of the families find themselves facing a difficult situation together. This helps them see how silly they have been, and they promise to be friends for life. But just as they are looking forward to a future without fighting, some unexpected visitors spoil it all. "Two enemies become trapped beneath a fallen tree and soon begin to reconcile. Based upon the short story by Saki. Starring Adam Johnson and Larry Bagby."

In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Carpathians, a man stood one winter night watching and listening, as though he waited for some beast of the woods to come within range of his vision, and, late; of his rifle. But the game for whose presence he kept so keen an outlook was none that figured in the sportsman’s calendar as lawful and proper for the chase; Ulrich von Gradwitz patrolled the dark forest in quest of a human enemy. The forest lands of Gradwitz were of wide extent and well stocked with game; the narrow strip of precipitous woodland that lay on its outskirt was not remarkable for the game it harboured or the shooting it afforded, but it was the most jealously guarded of all its owner’s territorial possessions. A famous lawsuit, in the days of his grandfather, had wrested it from the illegal possession of a neighbouring family of petty landowners; the dispossessed party had never acquiesced in the judgment of the Courts, and a long series of poaching affrays and similar scandals had embittered the relationships between the families for three generations. The neighbour feud had grown into a personal one since Ulrich had come to be head of his family; if there was a man in the world whom he detested and wished ill to it was Georg Znaeym, the inheritor of the quarrel and the tireless game-snatcher and raider of the disputed border-forest. The feud might, perhaps, have died down or been compromised if the personal ill-will of the two men had not stood in the way; as boys they had thirsted for one another’s blood, as men each prayed that misfortune might fall on the other, and this wind-scourged winter night Ulrich had banded together his foresters to watch the dark forest, not in quest of four-footed quarry, but to keep a look-out for the prowling thieves whom he suspected of being afoot from across the land boundary. The roebuck, which usually kept in the sheltered hollows during a storm-wind, were running like driven things to-night, and there was movement and unrest among the creatures that were wont to sleep through the dark hours. Assuredly there was a disturbing element in the forest, and Ulrich could guess the quarter from whence it came. He strayed away by himself from the watchers whom he had placed in ambush on the crest of the hill, and wandered far down the steep slopes amid the wild tangle of undergrowth, peering through the tree-trunks and listening through the whistling and skirling of the wind and the restless beating of the branches for sight or sound of the marauders. If only on this wild night, in this dark, lonely spot, he might come across Georg Znaeym, man to man, with none to witness – that was the wish that was uppermost in his thoughts. And as he stepped round the trunk of a huge beech he came face to face with the man he sought. The two enemies stood glaring at one another for a long silent moment. Each had a rifle in his hand, each had hate in his heart and murder uppermost in his mind. The chance had come to give full play to the passions of a lifetime. But a man who has been brought up under the code of a restraining civilisation cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbour in cold blood and without word spoken, except for an offence against his hearth and honour. And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action a deed of Nature’s own violence overwhelmed them both. A fierce shriek of the storm had been answered by a splitting crash over their heads, and ere they could leap aside a mass of falling beech tree had thundered down on them. Ulrich von Gradwitz found himself stretched on the ground, one arm numb beneath him and the other held almost as helplessly in a tight tangle of forked branches, while both legs were pinned beneath the fallen mass. His heavy shooting-boots had saved his feet from being crushed to pieces, but if his fractures were not as serious as they might have been, at least it was evident that he could not move from his present position till someone came to release him. The descending twigs had slashed, the skin of his face, and he had to wink away some drops of blood from his eyelashes before he could take in a general view of the disaster. At his side, so near that under ordinary circumstances he could almost have touched him, lay Georg Znaeym, alive and struggling, but obviously as helplessly pinioned down as himself. All round them lay a thick- strewn wreckage of splintered branches and broken twigs. Relief at being alive and exasperation at his captive plight brought a strange medley of pious thank-offerings and sharp curses to Ulrich’s lips. Georg, who was nearly blinded with the blood which trickled across his eyes, stopped his struggling for a moment to listen, and then gave a short, snarling laugh. “So you’re not killed, as you ought to be, but you’re caught, anyway,” he cried; “caught fast. Ho, what a jest, Ulrich von Gradwitz snared in his stolen forest. There’s real justice for you!” And he laughed again, mockingly and savagely. “I’m caught in my own forest-land,” retorted Ulrich. “When my men come to release us you will wish, perhaps, that you were in a better plight than caught poaching on a neighbour’s land, shame on you.” Georg was silent for a moment; then he answered quietly: “Are you sure that your men will find much to release? I have my men, too, in the forest tonight, close behind me, and they will be here first and do the releasing. When they drag me out from under these damned branches it won’t need much clumsiness on their part to roll this mass of trunk right over on the top of you. Your men will find you dead under a fallen beech tree. For form’s sake I shall send my condolences to your family.” “It is a useful hint,” said Ulrich fiercely. “My men had orders to follow in ten minutes’ time, seven of which must have gone by already, and when they get me out – I will remember the hint. Only as you will have met your death poaching on my lands, I don’t think I can decently send any message of condolence to your family.” “Good,” snarled Georg, “good. We fight this quarrel out to the death, you and I and our foresters, with no cursed interlopers to come between us. Death and damnation to you, Ulrich von Gradwitz.” “The same to you, Georg Znaeym, forest-thief, game-snatcher.” Both men spoke with the bitterness of possible defeat before them, for each knew that it might be long before his men would seek him out or find him; it was a bare matter of chance which party would arrive first on the scene. Both had now given up the useless struggle to free themselves from the mass of wood that held them down. Ulrich limited his endeavours to an effort to bring his one partially free arm near enough to his outer coat-pocket to draw out his wine-flask. Even when he had accomplished that operation it was long before he could manage the unscrewing of the stopper or get any of the liquid down his throat. But what a Heaven-sent draught it seemed! It was an open winter, and little snow had fallen as yet, hence the captives suffered less from the cold than might have been the case at that season of the year; nevertheless, the wine was warming and reviving to the wounded man, and he looked across with something like a throb of pity to where his enemy lay, just keeping the groans of pain and weariness from crossing his lips. “Could you reach this flask if I threw it over to you?” asked Ulrich suddenly; “there is good wine in it, and one may as well be as comfortable as one can. Let us drink, even if to-night one of us dies.” “No, I can scarcely see anything; there is so much blood caked round my eyes,” said Georg, “and in any case I don’t drink with an enemy.” Ulrich was silent for a few minutes, and lay listening to the weary screeching of the wind. An idea was slowly forming and growing in his brain, an idea that gained strength every time that he looked across at the man who was fighting so grimly against pain and exhaustion. In the pain and languor that Ulrich himself was feeling the old fierce hatred seemed to be dying down. “Neighbour,” he said presently, “do as you please if your men come first. It was a fair compact. But as for me, I’ve changed my mind. If my men are the first to come you shall be the first to be helped, as though you were my guest. We have quarrelled like devils all our lives over this stupid strip of forest, where the trees can’t even stand upright in a breath of wind. Lying here tonight, thinking, I’ve come to think we’ve been rather fools; there are better things in life than getting the better of a boundary dispute. Neighbour; if you will help me to bury the old quarrel I – I will ask you to be my friend.” Georg Znaeym was silent for so long that Ulrich thought, perhaps, he had fainted with the pain of his injuries. Then he spoke slowly and in jerks. “How the whole region would stare and gabble if we rode into the market-square together. No one living can remember seeing a Znaeym and a von Gradwitz talking to one another in friendship. And what peace there would be among the forester folk if we ended our feud tonight. And if we choose to make peace among our people there is none other to interfere, no interlopers from outside. You would come and keep the Sylvester night beneath my roof, and I would come and feast on some high day at your castle. I would never fire a shot on your land, save when you invited me as a guest; and you should come and shoot with me down in the marshes where the wildfowl are. In all the countryside there are none that could hinder if we willed to make peace. I never thought to have wanted to do other than hate you all my life, but I think I have changed my mind about things too, this last half-hour. And you offered me your wine-flask. Ulrich von Gradwitz, I will be your friend,” For a space both men were silent, turning over in their minds the wonderful changes that this dramatic reconciliation would bring about. In the cold, gloomy forest, with the wind tearing in fitful gusts through the naked branches and whistling round the tree trunks, they lay and waited for the help that would now bring release and succour to both parties. And each prayed a private prayer that his men might be the first to arrive, so that he might be the first to show honourable attention to the enemy that had become a friend. Presently, as the wind dropped for a moment, Ulrich broke silence. “Let’s shout for help,” he said; “in this lull our voices may carry a little way.” “They won’t carry far through the trees and undergrowth,” said Georg, “but we can try. Together, then.” The two raised their voices in a prolonged hunting call. “Together again,” said Ulrich a few minutes later, after listening in vain for an answering halloo. “I heard something that time, I think,” said Ulrich. “I heard nothing but the pestilential wind,” said Georg hoarsely. There was silence again for some minutes, and then Ulrich gave a joyful cry. “I can see figures coming through the wood. They are following in the way I came down the hillside.” Both men raised their voices in as loud a shout as they could muster. “They hear us! They’ve stopped. Now they see us. They’re running down the hill towards us,” cried Ulrich. “How many of them are there?” asked Georg. “I can’t see distinctly,” said Ulrich; “nine or ten.” “Then they are yours,” said Georg; “I had only seven out with me.” “They are making all the speed they can, brave lads,” said Ulrich gladly. “Are they your men?” asked Georg. “Are they your men?” he repeated impatiently as Ulrich did not answer. “No,” said Ulrich with a laugh, the idiotic chattering laugh of a man unstrung with hideous fear. “Who are they?” asked Georg quickly, straining his eyes to see what the other would gladly not have seen. “Wolves.”

카르파티아 산맥의 동쪽 산 어딘가에 있는 숲속에서 어느 겨울 밤 한 남자가 지켜보면서 귀를 기울이고 있었다. 남자는 사냥을 하러나온 듯해 보였고 숲에서 어떤 야생 동물이 나오기만을 기다리고 있었다. 하지만 그가 찾고 있는 사냥감은 그 숲에 사는 동물이 아니었다.  Ulrich von Gradwitz는 한 남자를 찾고 있었다. Gradwitz는 숲의 넓은 지역을 소유했으며 그 지역 대부분 훌륭한 사냥감으로 넘쳐났다.  Ulrich가 서 있는 가파른 산의 능선이 사냥하기에 좋은 곳이 아니라 해도 그것은 Gradwitz의 모든 땅의 가장 가깝게 보호된 땅이었다. 그의 할아버지는 이웃한 Znaeyms 집안으로부터 가장 유명한 법정 다툼에서 이겨 그 땅을 얻었다. Znaeyms 집안은 여러 해 동안 그 산들에서 사냥했지만 땅소유 증서를 가지고 있지 않았다. Znaeyms 집안은 법정의 판결을 받아들이지 않았고 그 숲에 들어가 계속 사냥을 했다. 이 일로 인해 두 집안은 3세대를 걸쳐 수많은 논쟁과 다툼을 하게 되었다. Ulrich가 집안의 우두머리가 되면서 두 집안의 다툼은 개인적인 다툼으로 커져갔다. 세상에서 그가 증오하고 해치고 싶은 사람이 단 한 명 있다다면, 그 논쟁과 지칠줄 모르는 사냥감 날치기꾼의 유산상속인이자 이 분쟁이 있는 변경의 숲의 침입자인, 그 사람은 바로  Georg Znaeym였다. 두 사람의 개인적인 원한이 그런 식으로 서 있지 않았다면 그 싸움은 아마도 점점 사그러졌거나 잊혀졌을 것이다. 어렸을 때 그 둘은 서로의 피에 목말라 있었다. 성인이 되어서는 서로 불행한 일이 생기도록 기도했다. 바람이 부는 이 겨울밤 Ulrich 는 이 숲을 계속 지켜보기 위해 여러 사람을 함께 데려왔다. 그 사람들은 네 발 달린 사냥감을 사냥하러 나온 것이 아니라 두 다리로 걷는 사냥감 도둑을 잡기 위해 왔다. 이날처럼 폭풍이 치는 동안 보통 바람을 피해 조용한 곳에 숨는 사슴은 내몰린 짐승처럼 숲을 이러저리 뛰어다니고 있었다. 해가 진 캄캄한 시간에 보통 잠을 자는 다른 동물들의 움직임도 있었다. 오늘밤 이 숲의 생물들을 겁에 질리게하는 무언가 있고 Ulrich는 그게 무엇인지 짐작할 수 있었다. Ulrich 는 그가 데려온 남자들을 산 꼭대기에 숨어 있게 했다. 그런 다음 그는 가파르 경사진 산허리 먼 곳까지 걸어 내려가  빽빽한 숲 속으로 들어갔다. 그는 적의 낌새가 있는지 찾기 위해 주시하고 귀를 기울였다. 그리고 그것이 단지 그들의 둘이었을 수도 있다면+아무도 지켜보지 않은 채로! 그는 세상에서 그 무엇보다도 그러길 바랐다. 거대한 나무의 줄기 주위를 돌며 걷고 있을 때 그가 그토록 찾던 남자와 정면으로 마주쳤다. 두 숙적은 서로 노려보며 서 있었다. 두 사람의 손에는 총이 들려 있었다. 두 사람은 가슴 속에 증오를 품었고 머릿속에는 살인을 생각했다. 그들은 평생 원했던 것을 할 수 있을 그 때가 온 것이었다. 하지만 우선 그들은 잠깐 멈춰서 생각했다. 자신의 이웃에서 아무 말도 하지 않고 총을 쏴서 쓰러뜨리는 것은 옳지 않은 듯했기 때문이다. 정적의 순간에서 말을 건내려고 하기 전에 자연이 그 상황을 바꿨다. 그들의 머리 위로 뭔가 부러지는 소리가 났고 커다란 나무의 맨 위쪽 가지가 그들 머리 위로 떨어졌다. Ulrich von Gradwitz는 자신이 땅바닥에 누워 있음을 알았다. 팔 한쪽이 감각이 없었고 그 팔은 그의 아래에 잡혀 있었다. 다른 팔은 떨어진 가지들 사이에서 거의 힘없이 잡고/견디고 있었다. 거대한 나무의 커다란 줄기가 그의 다리 위로 떨어져 있었다. 그는 가지와 줄기를 밀어낼 수 없었으나, 그가 신은 묵직한 장화가 그의 다리가 부러지는 것을 보호했다. 다른 사람이 도와주지 않으면 떨어진 나무 밑에서 빠져 나오지 못할 거라는 사실은 불을 보듯 환했다. 그의 얼굴에는 상처가 났고 두 눈에 핏방울이 맺혀 있었다. 그는 고개를 재빨리 이쪽저쪽으로 흔들어 핏방울들을 없앴고 주위를 살펴볼 수 있었다. Georg Znaeym는 Ulrich von Gradwitz의 옆에 누워 있었고, 그 거리가 너무 가까워서 Ulrich von Gradwitz의 팔을 뻗으면 Georg Znaeym와 닿을 것만 같았다. Georg Znaeym는 살아 있었고 빠져나오려고 애를 쓰고 있었지만, Ulrich 처럼 떨어진 나무 밑에 꼼짝없이 갇혀 있었다. 그 두사람 주위에 온통 부러진 가지들이 널려 있었다.  Ulrich는 살아있어서 행복했지만, 움직일 수 없어서 화가 났다. 신에게 감사인사를 한 뒤  Ulrich는 큰 목소리로 악담을 하기 시작했다. Georg는 두 눈으로 가로질러 흐르는 피때문에 앞을 잘 볼 수 없었고, 나무에서 빠져나오려는 것을 잠시 멈추고 무슨 소리가 들리지는 들었다. 그는 짧고 미친듯이 웃으며 말했다. "이제 당신은 죽지 않았어, 죽었어야만 했는데, 하지만 아무튼 이렇게 꼼짝못하고 있군." 그는 소리쳤다. "빠르게 잡혔군! 허! 웃기는군! Ulrich von Gradwitz가 그의 할아버지가 우리 집안에서 빼앗은 숲에서 잡혀 있다니. 자네에게 내린 진정한 정의/응보지!" Georg는 자신이 생각하기에도 너무 재미있는지 다시 웃었다. "내가 내 숲에서 잡혀 있다고?" Ulrich가 대답했다. "내 사람들이 우리를 구해주러 오면 아마도 자네는 자네가 이웃의 땅에서 슈팅 게임에 잡혀혀 있지 않다고 하기를 기도할 걸." Georg 잠시 침묵했다. 그런 다음 그는 나지막히 대답했다. "자네는 정말 자네 사람들이 빼내줄 정도로 많이 찾을 거라고 확신하는가? 나도 오늘 이 숲에 내 사람들을 데리고 왔네. 그들은 내 뒤에 바짝 따라왔으니 그들이 여기에 먼저 도착할 걸세. 그들은 나를 나무 밑에서 나를 꺼내 주고 나서 일부로 이 줄기를 굴려 자네를 덮치게 할 수 있어. 자네의 사람들은 넘어진 나무 밑에서 죽어 있는 자네를 발견할 거야. 물론 자네 가족에게 이 불의의 사고를 당해 얼마나 유감인지를 대한 나의 감정을 표하는 서신을 보내 주겠네." "꽤나 쓸모있는 생각이군." 화를 내며 Ulrich 가 말했다. "내 사람들에게 10분이 지나면 따라오라고 지시를 해 뒀지. 이미 7분이 지났음이 분명해. 나는 그들이 나를 여기서 꺼내 줄 때 자네가 말한 것을 기억할 거야. 다만, 내 땅에서 내가 사냥감을 쏘는 동안 자네는 죽음을 맞이하게 될 거야. 그러니 자네 가족에게 이렇게 죽은 일로 얼마나 슬픈지 말하는 서신을 보내는 건 옳지 않다고 생각되네만." "훌륭해." Georg가 큰소리로 말했다. "좋아. 죽을 때까지 이렇게 싸워 보자고. 자네와 나, 우리의 사람들. 우리 사이에 어떠한 침입자들이 오지 않는 상태에서. 그것은 자네에게 죽음과 지옥불이 될 거야. Ulrich von Gradwit." "두 말하면 잔소리지.Georg Znaeym. 이 숲속 도둑, 사냥감 강도야. " 두 사람 모두 그들이 말할 때 걱정이 되었다. 각자 그들의 사람들이 자신들을 찾으러 오려면 시간이 오래 걸릴 것이란 걸 알았기 때문이다. 그들은 어느 쪽 사람들이 먼저 여기로 올 것인지 전혀 알 수 없었다. 둘 다 그들을 누르고 있는 나무에서 빠져나오려는 노력을 이제는 단념했다. Ulrich는 그의 코트 주머니에서 충분히 가까운 일부분은 자유로운 팔을 가져다가 술병을 꺼내려고 열심히 애를 썼다. 간신히 술병을 꺼냈을 때에도 그가 술병을 따서 조금이라도 마실 수 있는 데 까지 아주 오랜 시간이 걸렸다. 얼마나 황홀해 보이는가! 술은 몸을 따듯하게 했고 기분이 훨씬 좋아졌다. 그는 숙적이 누워 있는 곳을 건너다 보았다. 그는 고통으로 소리를 지르지 않으려고 분투하고 있었다/안간힘을 쓰고 있었다. "술병을 자네 쪽으로 던지면 닿을 수 있겠어?" Ulrich가 갑자기 물었다. "술병 안에 좋은 술이 들어 있어. 될 수 있으면 그 술을 즐기는 편이 나을 거야. 함께 마시자고. 우리가 오늘밤 죽는 한이 있어도." "아니. 내 눈 주위에 피가 너무 많이 흘러서 어떤 것을 보기기 힘들어." Georg가 대답했다. "그리고 어떤 경우라도 내 숙적과 함께 술을 마시는 일은 없어." Ulrich는 잠시 동안 말을 하지 않았고 바람이 부는 소리에 귀를 기울였다. 한 가지 생각이 그의 머리속에서 천천히 형성되고 자라고 있었다. 그 생각은 그가 고통과 지침에 맞서 힘겹게 싸우고 있는 Georg를 건너 볼 때마다 더욱 강해졌다. Ulrich가 자신의 고통과 지침을 떠올리자, 그의  Georg에 대한 광기어린 분노가 점점 작아지고 줄어드는 것 같았다.  마침내 그가 입을 열었다. " 여보게. 자네 사람들이 먼저 오면 자네 하고 싶은데로 하게. 그것은 우리가 방금 맺은 공정한 합의였어. 하지만 내 입장에서는 나는 생각을 바꿨다네. 내 사람들이 먼저 오면 자네를 먼저 돕게 할 거야. 자네가 비록 여기서 나의 손님이었다 해도. 우리는 나무가 매우 미세한 바람에 똑바로 서 있지도 못하는 이어리석은 숲떼기를 두고 우리 일생을 숙적으로 지내왔어. 오늘 여기 누워서 생각해보니 우리가 정말 어리석었다는 것을 알게 되었다. 우리의 땅이 시작하고 끝나는 곳에 대한 논쟁에서 이기는 것보다 인생에는 더 좋은 것들이 있지. 여보게, 자네가 이 해묵은 논쟁을 잊어버릴 수 있다면, 나..나는 자네가 내 친구가 되어달라고 요청할 거야. " Georg Znaeym는 오랫동안 아무 말이 없었다. Ulrich는 그가 입은 상처의 고통 때문에 그의 의식이 희미해졌으리라 생각했다. 그리고 나서 그는 그의 말을 매우 조심스럽게 선택하려는 듯이 천천히 말을 이었다. "우리가 시장 광장에 함께 말을 타고 나타나면 얼마나 온 동네 사람들이  깜짝 놀랄까. 이 동네에 사는 그 누구도 Znaeym 집안 사람과 Gradwitz집안 사람이 우정을 맺고 서로 이야기하는 걸 본 걸 기억할 수 없지. 우리가 오늘밤 우리의 싸움을 끝낸다면 우리 두 집안에 어떤 평화가 오게 될까. 그리고 우리가 우리 사람들 사이에 평화롭게 지내자고 결정한다면, 우리를 막아서는 사람이 없고 외부로부터 오는 침입자도 없겠지. 자 네는 우리 집에 와서 지붕 밑에서 새해를 즐겁게 보내고 나는 자네 성에 가서 다른 휴가/휴일들을 보낼 거야. 자네가  손님으로 내게 요청하지 않는다면 절대로 자네 땅에서 다시는 총을 쏘지 않을 거야. 그리고 자네는 내 땅에 들어와서 물새를 쏴도 좋아. 나는 내 평생 자네를 증오해서 기뻤지만, 나 역시 이런저런 것에 대한 나의 생각을 바꿔야 겠어. 이 마지막 30분을 보고서 말이야. 자네는 네게 술도 주지 않았나. Ulrich von Gradwitz, 자네와 친구가 되겠네." 한 동안 두 사람은 말이 없었다. 그들은 서로 마음 속으로 이 싸움을 끝내는 것을 일으킬 황홀한 변화들을 계속 생각하고 있었다. 춥고 캄캄한 이 숲에서 바람은 나무들을 할퀴고 지나갔다. 그들은 누워서 이제는 그 둘 모두에게 자유와 도움을 가져다 줄 사람들을 기다렸다. 각자 자신의 사람들이 먼저 이곳에 오기를 조용하게 기도했다. 그들은 서로 친구가 된 숙적을 진실로 보살폈다는 것을 보여 줄 첫번째가 되고 싶었다.  *tear through: To move through something with destructive force:  바람이 잠시 잠잠해지자 Ulrich가 말했다. "도와달라고 소리를 지르자. 바람이 잠깐 쉬는 사이에 바람이 우리의 목소리를 조금이라도 실려보낼 거야." "바람이 이 나무숲을 통과해 멀리가지 않을 거야. 그래도 해 보자. 함께 말이야." Georg가 대답했다. 그 둘은 길고 크게 사냥하려는 동물소리를 내질렀다. "다시 같이 소리 지르자." 답하는 콜이 성공없이 들려온 뒤에  Ulrich가 몇 분 뒤에 말했다. "아까 무슨 소리를 들은 것 같아." Ulrich가 말했다. "바람 소리 밖에 듣지 못했어." Georg가 말했다. 얼마 동안 다시 침묵에 휩싸였고, 그때 Ulrich가 행복하게 울부짖었다. "숲사이로 사람들이 오는 것을 볼 수 있어. 그들은 내가 산허리를 내려왔던 그길을 따라오고 있어." 두 사람은 있는 힘껏 크게 소리를 질렀다. "그들이 들었어. 그들이 멈췄다고. 이제 그들이 우리를 봐. 그들이 우리를 향해 언덕을 내려오고 있어." Ulrich가 큰 소리를 말했다. "몇 명이나 돼지?" Georg가 물었다. "잘 안 보이는데. 아홉에서 열." Ulrich가 대답했다. "그렇다면 그 사람들은 자네 사람들이야. 나는 일곱 명만 데리고 나왔거든." Georg가 말했다. "그들이 가능한 한 빨리 오고 있어. 용감한 녀석들이야." Ulrich가 기뻐서 말했다. "자네 사람들이야?" Georg가 물었지만 Ulrich는 대답하지 않았다. "자네 사람들이냐고?" 이번에는 더 큰소리로 Georg가 다시 물었다. "아니." Ulrich가 껄껄 웃으며 말했다. 그것은 겁에질려서 정신이 나간 사람의 광기어린 웃음소리였다. "그럼 뭐야?" 다른 이는 그에게 보이지 않기를 바라는 것을 보려고 열심히 애쓰려 하며 Georg가 재빨리 물었다.   "늑대들."

Pre-Intermediate Vocabulary Help / Exercises

The words and expressions in our Pre-Intermediate level Simplified English story which are not in our 1200 word list are: branch, creature, curse, deer, faint, generation, guest, harm, Hell, injure, interloper, justice, murder, pain, pray, silence, steep, thief, trunk, and wolf.

There is also a word that is in our Pre-Intermediate word list but has a meaning in the story which is different to the one most commonly used. In the first paragraph we are told that the game Ulrich was looking for was not from the forest. Here the word game means animals that are hunted.

Intermediate Vocabulary Help / Exercises

The words and expressions in our Intermediate level Simplified English story which are not in our 1800 word list are: curse, deer, faint, feud, flask, generation, heal, hideous, injure, interloper, marsh, naked, rifle, savage, shame, snarl, split, steal, steep, tangle, thunder, trickle, trunk, twig, undergrowth, and whistle.

There are also three words that are in our Intermediate word list but have a meaning in the story which is different to the one most commonly used:

• We are told that if there was a man in the world whom Ulrich hated and wished ill to, it was Georg Znaeym. Here the word ill is a noun meaning harm or bad luck.
• Ulrich’s legs were pinned under the trunk of the tree. The word pin here means to prevent or stop something from moving by pressing firmly against it.
• While pinned under the tree, Ulrich brings his partially free arm near enough to his coat pocket to draw out his wine flask. In this case the word draw means to move (something) by pulling.

Who or What are The Interlopers?

An interesting question is just who or what are the “Interlopers” referred to in the title of the story.

Georg uses the term to describe two different groups of external characters. First he talks about people who are trying to stop the fighting between the two families:

We fight this quarrel out to the death, you and I and our foresters, with no cursed interlopers to come between us.

Later he refers to other people who would try to stop them if they wanted to make peace:

And if we choose to make peace among our people there is none other to interfere, no interlopers from outside.

It could be said that these human interlopers are mirrored in the story by two interlopers from nature. First, the falling tree comes between the two men and stops them fighting to the death. Then the wolves arrive, seemingly preventing the families from making a lasting peace.

I like to think that there may also be another set of interlopers: Ulrich and Georg themselves. They disturb the natural order of things by bringing their feud into the forest. Munro uses personification to give the storm and the forest an almost human quality:

the whistling and skirling of the wind and the restless beating of the branches… a fierce shriek of the storm… the weary screeching of the wind… where the trees can’t even stand upright in a breath of wind… with the wind tearing in fitful gusts through the naked branches and whistling round the tree trunks…

Could it be that the death of the two men is nature’s way of punishing them for being interlopers?

Or could there be a deeper meaning in the story? It is likely that the story was written between 1914 and 1916 during the period that Munro served in the British army in World War One. Although officially too old at 43, he had volunteered for service and was sent to France where he fought and wrote between battles.

It has been suggested that The Interlopers is an allegory about the war. Two families (groups of countries) are fighting over a number of unimportant issues. There are outsiders who try to stop the war, and others who oppose them. The men doing fighting on both sides, who in other circumstances could have become good friends, suffer and die together. We will never know the answer to this question because Munro was killed during the war. The Interlopers was first published three years after his death in a book called The Toys of Peace and Other Papers, available in various e-book forms from Project Gutenberg here, and as an audiobook from LibriVox here.

http://ajarnjohn.com/short-stories/the-interlopers/

Author Biography

Hector H. Munro—who took the pen name of Saki when he became a professional writer—was born December 18, 1870, in Burma, to a British army officer and his wife. After the death of his mother in 1873, Saki and his siblings were sent to Britain to be raised by their aunts.
Saki’s father retired from the army in 1888 and thereafter took Saki and his sibling on many trips to the European continent. Saki went to Burma in 1893 as a police officer. However, he soon contracted malaria and returned to Britain the following year. He moved to London in 1896 with the hopes of becoming a writer.

In 1899 Saki published his first short story, “Dogged,” and the next year he published a nonfiction book about the history of Russia. Also that year, Saki collaborated with political cartoonist Francis Carruthers Gould to create “Alice in Westminster,” a series of satirical pieces that attacked the British government’s handling of the Boer War in South Africa. The series was published in the Westminster Gazette and later collected in a book titled The Westminster Alice (1902). Saki and Gould collaborated again two years later on a similar project.

In 1902 Saki became a foreign correspondent for the Tory Morning Gazette. At the same time, he continued publishing short stories in the Westminster Gazette. In 1908 Saki left the field of journalism to devote himself to fiction writing. He published short stories regularly through 1914, by which time he had also resumed work as a journalist.

With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Saki enlisted for military service. He was sent to the trenches in France in November. He served in numerous battles, but continued to write during the war years. He wrote many articles about the military life for the army newspaper. Saki was killed by sniper fire on November 14, 1916.

The Toys of Peace, and Other Papers, which included “The Interlopers,” was published in 1919. Another posthumous collection, The Square Egg, and Other Sketches, with Three Plays, was published in 1924 and included Saki’s wartime writings.

Plot Summary

The characters in “The Interlopers,” Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym, have been enemies since birth. Their grandfathers feuded over a piece of forestland. While the courts ruled in the Gradwitz family’s favor, the Znaeym family has never accepted this ruling. Throughout the course of Ulrich and Georg’s lifetime, the feud has grown into a personal, bloodthirsty one. As boys, they despised each other, and by the evening that the story takes place, the two grown men are determined to bring a final end to the feud by killing their enemy.

On this fateful evening, Ulrich gathers a group of foresters to patrol the land in search of Georg. Separated from his men, he hopes to meet Georg alone and, when he steps around a tree trunk, he gets his wish. The two men face each other with rifles in hand, but neither can bring himself to shoot the other. Before either man can act, a bolt of lighting strikes a tree. It falls over and pins them underneath its limbs.

The men are pinned down side-by-side, almost within touching distance. Both are dazed, injured, and angry at the situation in which they find themselves. Georg tells Ulrich that his men are right behind him, and threatens that, when they arrive, they will free him but roll the tree on top of Ulrich. To this threat, Ulrich replies that his men will arrive first and kill Georg. Both men know it is only a matter of waiting to see which group of foresters will reach them first.
Ulrich manages to draw his wine flask out of his coat pocket. He drinks some wine and, feeling something akin to pity, offers it to Georg. Georg refuses on the grounds that he does not drink wine with an enemy. During a few moments of silence, an idea comes to Ulrich. He proposes to Georg that they bury their quarrel. He believes that they have been fools and asks Georg for his friendship. After a long silence, Georg answers, accepting Ulrich’s proposal.

The men decide to join their voices together to shout for help. Suddenly, Ulrich sees figures coming through the woods. They shout louder and the figures come down the hillside toward them. Georg, who cannot see as well as Ulrich, asks which men are approaching. Ulrich does not reply. He has seen something horrible: it is not men who approach them—it is wolves.

독자서평

Love everyone. Never hate. Forgive, but never forget. Forgive your enemies (sometimes it can even annoy them!). If you don't, it might be too late when you realize that you could have been good friends. It might be too late to know that you both together could have done a great deal better than what you each did alone.

It was a pretty good short story, the only one I've ever actually been interested in. I liked how the author addressed the fact that in life threatening circumstances it is better to come together than to pull apart. In The Interlopers this happens after the tree falls and pins the two characters to the ground. After realizing that they would be there a while, they had a change in heart about each other. For years their families had been sworn enemies, but this one situation made them realize how stupid it all was and still is. The ending was also a great twist

I've arranged my thoughts into a haiku:

"It's all well and good,
Making peace, ending our strife,
But we're the squatters."

"The Interlopers" was surprisingly a really good short story to red! I liked it a lot. The story is about two enemies who are out to kill each other and then a tree falls and they become friends because they actually got to talk to each other. They realized that the disagreement they had for years was silly and when they were hollering for help the worst that could ever happens while trapped in the woods happens. I really liked the "The Interlopers" because it shows how friends can come out of the worst of times. I would recommend this book for young faults because of the dark humor this boom is.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5531957-the-interlopers