Magical Pond

70 x 70 x 4cm / 27.5 x 27.5 x 1.5″
Acrylic on canvas
The sides of the painting are finished in gold enamel

This painting is available from StART Art Korea.

There once was a nice old couple living in a town.  This couple were very popular for their kindness.  Providing help to those in need was their number one priority.  This couple had just one wish, and that was to have a beautiful child of their own as they had not been blessed with one.  

There was also a mean old man living in the town and not many people liked having him around for his misconduct. A little hungry girl came by to ask him for something to eat.  He replied with a lie saying “I am starving myself, go away!”  

The kind old man of the couple called her over and shared a roll of rice.  This was for his own lunch but he couldn’t let the little girl go hungry. The kind old man was in a good mood for his act of kindness and he started humming.  Birds in the mountains sang along with him and they made beautiful music together.  The old man kept wandering after the music finished and he ended up deep in the woods. This led him to a pond in the mountain.  He started to drink the water from it as he was starving and then he fell asleep shortly after.  

The old woman was worried since her husband had not returned on time for dinner, so she left for the woods to find him.  A young man from afar started to wave at her and called her “wife”.  She was surprised that this man called her his wife, he was shockingly young so she could not believe him. She started to quiz him: “If you truly are my husband, can you tell me what our one wish was?”

He easily replied: “Of course, that is for us to have our own beautiful child.”

She was convinced with his answer and believed that he truly was her husband.  She followed his lead and drank the same water from the pond.  Soon they realised that her wrinkles went away.  She became a beautiful young lady and he was a good looking young man.  

The mean old man heard what had happened and was envious of the couple, so he went into the woods and drank from the same pond.  As he took a sip of water, he was no longer bald.  Then he drank more and he shrank and became a little kid. As he took three more gulps he became an infant.

Back in the village the kind couple were worried that the mean old man had not returned from the woods yet and took off to find him.  When they got to the pond there was a little baby crying on the grass beside it, instead of the mean old man they were looking for.  The couple believed that their special wish had been answered so they brought the baby home and they all lived happily ever after together.