그 날 (That Day)

29 June 2011

     여름날 아침 낡은 창문 틈새로 빗방울이 들이 친다. 어두
운 방 한복판에서 金은 짐을 싸고 있다. 그의 트렁크가 가장 먼저 접수
한 것은 김의 넋이다. 창문 밖에는 엿보는 자 없다. 마침내 전날 김은
직장과 헤어졌다. 잠시 동안 김은 무표정하게 침대를 바라본다. 모든
것을 알고 있는 침대는 말이 없다. 비로서 나는 풀려나간다, 김은 자신
에게 속삭인다. 마침내 세상의 중심이 되었다.

     나를 끌고 다녔던 몇 개의 길을 나는 영원히 추방한다. 내 생의 주도
권은 이제 마음에서 육체로 넘어갔으니 지금부터 나는 길고도 오랜 여
행을 떠날 것이다. 내가 지나치는 거리마다 낯선 기쁨과 전율은 가득
차리니 어떠한 권태도 더 이상 내 혀를 지배하면 안 된다.

     모든 의심을 짐을 꾸리면서 김은 거둔다. 어둑어둑한 여름날 아침
창문 밖으로 보이는 젖은 길은 침대처럼 고요하다. 마침내 낭하가 텅
텅 울리면서 문이 열린다. 잠시 동안 김은 무표정하게 거리를 바라본
다. 김은 천천히 손잡이를 놓는다. 마침내 희망과 걸음이 동시에 떨어
진다. 그 순간, 쇠뭉치 같은 트렁크가 김을 쓰러뜨린다. 그곳에서 계집
아이 같은 가늘은 울음소리가 터진다. 주위에는 아무도 없다. 빗방울
은 은퇴한 노인의 백발위로 들이친다.

 
 
 
 

     The raindrops beat their way into the cracks of the old window in the dusky summer morning. In the middle of the dark room, Gim is packing up. The first thing the trunk received was Gim’s soul. No one is peeping in at the window. The day before, Gim finally left his job. His face expressionless, Gim looks at the bed for a moment. The bed, which knows everything, is silent. At last I’ll be free, Gim whispers to himself, and finally he became the center of the world.

     I’ll forever banish those roads that dragged me around with them. The leadership of my life has now passed from my heart to my body, and I will embark now on a long, distant journey. With each road I pass, I will be filled with strange happinesses and horrors, and henceforth, no lassitude must ever govern my tongue again.

     Packing up all his suspicions, Gim gets everything together. The wet road visible outside the dusky summer morning window lies as quiet as the bed. Finally, the door opens, sounding a hollow cry in the corridor. For a moment, Gim looks at the road, his face expressionless. Gim slowly puts down the handle. In the end, his hopes and his steps both fall. That instant, the trunk knocks Gim down like a pig-iron. From the spot bursts a cry as thin as a girl. There is no one around. The raindrops thunder down on the gray head of an old hermit.

 
 

English translation by Gabriel Sylvian

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Gi Hyeongdo

About Gi Hyeongdo


Gi Hyeongdo was born in 1960 in Gyeonggi Province, Korea. He began publishing poems during his college years at Yonsei University, where he majored in Political Diplomacy. He received the Yun Dongju Literary Prize as a university student. While working as a reporter for the Jungang Ilbo in 1984, he began publishing poems marked by powerful individuality and “an intensely pessimistic world view”. His formal debut was the New Year’s Poetry Contest sponsored by the Donga Ilbo for his celebrated poem FOG (Angae). On March 7, 1989, he died of apoplexy seizure at a late-night theatre in Jongro. Collections include BLACK LEAF IN MY MOUTH (1989, published posthumously), a collection of prose writings entitled RECORDS OF SHORT JOURNEYS (1990), and his COMPLETE WORKS (1999).

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