그의 무덤 주위 단단한 꾸러미 하나.
자석에 잘 붙는 좋은 강철, 공통점이라는
온기로 탁해진 하늘.
나는 그들을 모두 몰랐네
하지만 그들 무리는 나를 알았지. 그들의 리더는
그들에게 책벌레 아들에 대해 이야기했고
모였던 손자들에 대해 이야기했지, 보라—
드넓은 평원의 딱딱한 지표 위
용암평원에 있는 내 팔꿈치 근처를
엉겅퀴, 석벽, 검댕 근처와
폭죽의 불길이 솟아오르는 곳을
아이들이 도마뱀을 잡으러 다니던 시절
한때 두루미가 날아다녔던.
그때는 슬퍼하기보다는 만들어나가던
단단한 이야기들의 시간이었다.
가족과 함께 있는, 이 무리는 결의다.
나는 기억한다, ‘진흙은 너무
끈적해서 어떤 조합원도 빚을 수 없다.’라고 어리석게 생각했던 것을.
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.
