당신이 무심코 곰파*에 들어섰을 때
–지친 여행으로, 온기는 메마르고
허파에는 물이 가득 차—
겨울 해가 경전을 비췄다.
검은 서리를 내리게 한 산의 빛은
밤 바람을 남풍으로 바꾸었고
동굴을 침입했고
서쪽 벽을 때렸다.
만 쪽의 종이가 상자 안에서 잠을 잤다.
그들이 내는 수 십 만개의 소리들은
사프란색 천에 쌓여 있었다.
두루마리 책은 따로 포장된 과자처럼 떨어져 담겨 있었다.
그 때, 벽에 불이 붙었고
모든 박스들이 오래된 석탄처럼 타오르니
당신은 당신 안에서 쪼개지는
종자음절들을 들을 수 있을 것이다.
– 다즐링 2005
*곰파: 라마교 사원
*종자음절: 불교에서 말하는 모든 말과 소리의 씨가 되는 음절
Barry Hill is a distinguished Australian writer in several genres. He has won Premier’s Awards for poetry, history, non-fiction and the essay, and in 2009 was short-listed for the Melbourne Prize for Literature. His fiction has been widely anthologized, he has written extensively for radio, and his first libretto, ‘Love Strong as Death,’ was performed at the Studio, at the Sydney Opera House in 2002. He is possibly best known for his monumental, multi-award winner, Broken Song: TGH Strehlow and Aboriginal Possession (Knopf 2002)— ‘one of the great Australian books,’ (Professor John Mulvaney) and ‘a landmark event in the history of Australian high culture.’ (Professor Robert Manne). His poetry regularly appears in the annual editions of The Best Australian Poems. Of his most recent books of poems, As We Draw Ourselves, was short-listed for the 2008 Victorian Premier’s Awards, and Necessity: Poems 1996-2006 won the Australian Capital Territory’s 2008 Judith Wright Prize. Between 1998 and 2008, he was Poetry Editor of The Australian. He has recently completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Melbourne. He has been writing full-time since 1975, and lives by the sea in Queenscliff, southern Australia, with his wife, the singer-songwriter, Rose Bygrave.
