2005-2162

Poetry
A Slug
민달팽이
냇가의 돌 위를
민달팽이가 기어간다
등에 짊어진 집도 없는 저것
보호색을 띤, 갑각의 패각 한 채 없는 저것
타액 같은, 미끌미끌한 분비물로 전신을 감싸고
알몸으로 느릿느릿 기어간다
햇살의 새끼손가락만 닿아도 말라 바스라질 것 같은
부드럽고 연한 피부, 무방비로 열어놓고
산책이라도 즐기고 있는 것인지
냇가의 돌침대 위에서 午 睡 라도 즐기고 싶은 것인지
걸으면서도 잠든 것같은 보폭으로 느릿느릿 걸어간다
꼭 술통 속을 빠져나온 디오게네스처럼
물과 구름의 運 行 따라 걷은 운수납행처럼
등에 짊어진 집, 세상에 던져주고
입어도 벗은 것 같은 衲 衣 하나로 떠도는
그 우주율의 발걸음으로 느리게 느리게 걸어간다
그 모습이 안쓰러워, 아내가 냇물에 씻고 있는 배추 잎
사귀 하나를 알몸 위에 덮어주자
민달팽이는 잠시 멈칫거리다가, 귀찮은 듯 얼른 잎사귀
덮개를 빠져나가버린다
치워라, 그늘!
A slug is crawling
Over a streamside stone.
With no house on its back
wrapped in protective colors, without any shell,
its whole body shielded in a slippery secretion like saliva,
naked, it is idly crawling along.
With its tender, soft skin open, defenseless
— a little finger of sunlight would reduce it to powder —
the slug seems to be enjoying a stroll
or perhaps it hopes to enjoy a nap on a streamside stone bed,
crawling along at so idle a pace, it seems to be walking in its sleep.
Just like Diogenes emerging from a wine barrel,
following the movement of water and clouds like a wandering
monk,
abandoning to the world the house on its back,
roaming in robes that it seems barely to wear,
It goes walking slowly, so slowly, with footsteps following cosmic
laws.
Feeling sorry at the sight of it, my wife covers its naked body
with a cabbage leaf she has just washed in the brook.
But the slug, after wavering for a moment, soon emerges from
beneath the leaf as if finding it bothersome.
Clear off, shade!
From “Poems from Dojang Valley” by poet Kim Sin-yong
Kim Sin-yong was born in Busan in 1945. He made his literary debut in the journal Contemporary Poetry & Thought in 1988. His poetry collections include Deserted
People (1988), Record of Wretched Days (1990), Walking Inside a Dream (1997), Phantom Pain (2005) and Poems from Dojang Valley (2007). His novels include
Where Is the Moon 1, 2 (1994) and Mechanical Parro (1997). He is the winner of the 7th Cheon Sang-byeong Poetry Prize (2005) and the 6th Nojak Literary Award
(2006).
Provided by the Korea Literature Translation Institute
December 2009 korea 47