신新 고려장 시대 (시인 :이호준 번역 : 전승희)
오늘은 숲에서 모니터 없는 컴퓨터를 발견했다
늙은 모니터가 입주한 지 한 달 만이다
기억을 빼앗긴 컴퓨터는 별만 헤아리고 있었다
승용차가 숲에서 살게 된 건 2주 전이었다
첫날 이후 꼼짝 않고 있는 걸 보면 버려진 게 틀림없다
버려진 것들은 기다림에 남은 생을 바친다
석 달 전 거의 통째로 들어온 비닐하우스에 비하면
승용차의 전입은 새삼스럽지 않다
하우스에서는 밤마다 두런거리는 소리가 습관처럼 새어 나온다
엊그제 본 나일론 끈에는 죽음의 열망이 묻어 있었다
죽음 같은 거 포기하길 잘했지, 그 인간
숲에 산다는 이유로 일면식도 없는 몸을 치울 뻔했다
나를 따라다니는 이 강아지는 지난봄 숲으로 왔다
눈을 제대로 뜨기도 전에 버려져서 나를 어미로 안다
내가 지금 비 내리는 숲을 헤치고 다니는 까닭은
혹시 쓸 만한 간이나 눈을 찾을까 싶어서다
요즘은 그런 것도 드물지 않게 들어온다
숲은 오래전부터 나무나 풀 다람쥐가 사는 곳이 아니어서
버려진 것들이 뿌리내려 물을 긷고
가지를 뻗고 잎을 피운다
사랑이나 그리움 따위가 자라지 못하는 이곳은,
이제 푸르지 않다
The Era of New Goryeojang (1)
Today I came across a computer without a monitor in the forest.
And it has been a month since an old monitor moved in here.
A computer deprived of its memory is only counting stars.
It has been two weeks since a car began living in the forest.
Given how it hasn’t budged, it’s obviously abandoned.
Things abandoned devote their remaining lives to waiting.
Given that an entire vinyl greenhouse moved here three months ago,
It’s not surprising that a car arrived.
Whisperings leak out from the greenhouse every night.
I saw a nylon rope a couple of days ago that had a passionate yearning for death.
I am glad that he gave up on death.
I almost had to remove a body that I didn’t know at all, because I’m living in the forest.
A puppy came into the forest last spring and has been following me around.
Because it was abandoned even before opening its eyes, it considers me its mother.
The reason I wedge my way around this rainy forest now
Is for the chance to find useful livers or eyes.
These days, it’s not so rare to do so.
It has been a long time since the forest stopped being a place where trees, plants, or
squirrels
lived.
Instead, abandoned things take root, draw water,
Stretch branches, and blossom with leaves.
It is a place where love or yearning no longer can grow,
It is no longer green.
(1 )Goryeojang is an ancient burial practice in which a dying older person is left to
expire in an open tomb.
[Translator’s Note]
Translated by Seung-Hee Jeon (literary critic and translator, editor of Asia: A Magazine of Asian Literature)
Featured photo by Han, NamSook
