그들은 아무 말도 하지 않았다 (They Said Not a Word)

6 August 2011

어둠에 깔린 가리봉 오거리
버스 정류장 앞 꽉 막힌 도로에
12인승 봉고차 한대가 와 선다
날일 마친 용역잡부들이 빼곡히 앉아
닭장차 안 죄수들처럼
무표정하게 창밖을 보고 있다

셋 앉는 좌석에 다섯씩 앉고
엔진룸 위에 한 줄이 더 앉았다
육십이 훨 넘은 노인네부터
서른 초반의 사내
이국의 푸른 눈동자까지
한결같이 머리칼이 누렇게 새었다

어떤 빼어난 은유와 상징으로도
그들을 그릴 수가 없다
그들은 아무 말도 하지 않았다

At Garibong five-way crossing, steeped in darkness,
on the congested road in front of the bus stop
a twelve-seater van pulls over
Laborers finishing daywork sit jammed together
like prisoners in a paddywagon,
look out of the window with no expression.

Five sit in seats made for three
one more row of workers is sitting over the engine,
from the elderly man over sixty
to the one in his early thirties,
to the blue-eyed foreigner,
everyone’s hair is discolored, all the same,

They can’t be described
with any extraordinary metaphor or symbol.
They said not a word.

 
 

English translation by Eun-Gwi Chung
This poem first appeared in 사소한 물음들에 답함 (Answer to Trivial Questions).





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송경동 (SONG Kyung Dong)

About 송경동 (SONG Kyung Dong)


SONG Kyung Dong (b. 1967) was born in Beolkyo, South Jeolla Province. His poetry would be one of the most honest, the voice of his life full of fighting and struggle. His poetry books include Sound Sleep (2006) and Answer to Trivial Questions (2009). He is well-known as the poet of the streets, poet of the workers, portraying the vivid scenes of fighting, the memory of failure and death, and the nature of heartless capital. Rooted in the concrete reality of workers, his poetic words draw the most tragic landscapes of our hard times.



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