생이 끝났을 때
메리 올리버(1935~ )
죽음이 찾아올 때
가을의 배고픈 곰처럼
죽음이 찾아와 지갑에서 반짝이는 동전들을 꺼내
나를 사고, 그 지갑을 닫을 때
나는 호기심과 경이로움에 차서
그 문으로 들어가리라.
그곳은 어떤 곳일까, 그 어둠의 오두막은.
그리고 주위 모든 것을 형제자매처럼 바라보리라.
각각의 생명을 하나의 꽃처럼
들에 핀 야생화처럼 모두 같으면서 서로 다른.
생이 끝났을 때 나는 말하고 싶다.
내 생애 동안 나는 경이로움과 결혼한 신부였다고.
세상을 두 팔에 안은 신랑이었다고.
단지 이 세상을 방문한 것으로
생을 마치지는 않으리라.
When death comes
Mary Oliver
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.