길이 불편하다

[이재모]

The road is uncomfortable

I must remove my shoes I've worn for 20 years from my shoe-shelf.

The cobbler says he cannot resole them any more.

The shoes quietly carried me through my middle years.

I was not on good terms with them at first.

For the first few months, my relationship with them was creaky.

Their stiffness made me cover the blistered top of my foot

with paper or cloth, loose the string that tightened my soles;

sometimes, I had to soothe them.

At some point my obstinate shoes started getting along with me

despite my fastidiousness.

I preferred them to all other shoes in the shelf and we walked

together on a long road until today.

Their toecap is still firm and their smile is still vivid in my memory

but the cobbler says he cannot operate them any more, so, I think

the road I must walk alone will be uncomfortable from now.