번역: 타임머신
Time Machine
Time Machine
It was an exhausting day.
I’d hardly slept the night before and
it was the day I taught the most.
I’d lectured unusually loudly, straining my voice
so, whilst talking with my wife during dinner at home
I finally lost my voice.
During the eleven to one o’clock
Undergraduate lecture break time
I’d somehow wanted to call my father.
I’d also wanted to call my mother.
However, I had not.
I arrived home and had a late dinner
sat with my wife on the sofa and was watching an old film called Time Machine
when I got the call.
I drove quickly
towards Daejeon.
My mother, sister and brother who had arrived before us
were holding my father’s body and wailing.
My father wearing a serene expression was looking up at the ceiling.
Whilst alive he’d appeared blackish red
but now his whole body appeared to be bathed in white light.
I touched my father’s once robust now thin thighs and
unchanged sturdy hands
Warmth still remained
It was as if at any moment he would see me, rise and greet me with a smile.
My eldest son’s here!
However
My father no longer
Looked at me, my family
Only looked at the ceiling with a serene face.
My father had passed away.
During the funeral
In a dream like daze
I listened carefully to my mother.
Children don’t know,
Children don’t know,
How parents feel.
You forgive once,
If that doesn’t work,
You forgive twice,
If that doesn’t work,
You forgive three times.
If that still doesn’t work
You forget that there’s anything to forgive
Children don’t know how parents feel
They don’t know,
My mother said to her children, to me
Her nose running.
Like a fool
I realised then.
How my father had forgiven me countless times.
I realised then.
How I must have caused him pain.
I realised then.
How I could no longer talk with him.
I told my students who came to the funeral.
Be good to your parents when they are alive.
You cannot do anything when they pass away.
Mercifully
I believe my father has gone to heaven.
A few days after the funeral
As if nothing had happened
My wife and I watched the film Time Machine again.
From the part we’d hurriedly left off when we received the phone call.
The phone did not ring again.
Everything was the same.
Except my father no longer exists in this world.
*한국어 원문:
*안내 글
영국인 아내가 한국인 남편의 생각을 깊이 이해하고 싶다며 번역을 자청했습니다. 번역이 언제 모두 끝날 지는 모르겠지만, 적어도 아내가 남편의 생각을 이해하며 번역해 나가는 과정 그 자체가 가장 의미 있는 일일 것입니다. 아내의 손끝에서 나의 생각은 언어의 옷을 갈아입습니다.
