19. Questioning Faces
The winter owl banked just in time to pass
And save herself from breaking window glass.
And her wings straining suddenly aspread
Caught color from the last of evening red
In a display of underdown and quill
To glassed-in children at the windowsill.
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어리둥절한 얼굴들
겨울 올빼미가 가까스로 빗면 비행하여
창문 유리를 깨지 않고 무사히 지나갔다.
갑자기 퍼덕이며 활짝 편 날개들이
마지막 석양의 붉은 빛깔을 받아서
유리에 둘러싸인 창문턱 아이들에게
그녀의 솜털과 깃털을 한껏 뽐냈다.
-신재실 옮김-
단상(斷想): 살다보면 갑작스런 위기를 맞기도 하지만, 간발의 차이로 그런 위기를 모면하기도 한다. 겨울 올빼미가 창문 유리를 가까스로 피해서 목숨을 구했다. 위기의 순간에 양 날개를 활짝 펴고 빗면 비행을 함으로써 살짝 빗겨 날았던 것이다. 아마도 혼비백산(魂飛魄散)했을 것이다. 때마침 붉게 타던 마지막 석양빛이 활짝 편 올빼미 날개의 속 솜털과 깃털을 빨갛게 물들였고, 올빼미는 영문도 모르는 집 안의 아이들 눈에 그녀의 화려한 날개를 뽐냈다. 아이들은 올빼미가 모면한 엄청난 위기를 이해할 것인가? 그저 어리둥절했을 것이다. 올빼미 또한 정신없지 않았을까? 사람이건 새건, 모든 생명은 항상 아찔한 순간과 순간을 사는 게 아닐까? “유리에 둘러싸인” 아이들은 창밖의 올빼미보다 더 안전할까? 만약 올빼미가 유리창을 박살내고 죽었다면, 어찌 되었을까?
-신재실 씀-
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“Questioning Faces” (1962)
The questioning faces of this lyric belong to the
“glassed-in children” who stand at the windowsill
and gaze out at nature. They see a winter owl turn
just in time to miss the windowpane. The owl puts
on a beautiful display of “underdown and quill” in
the last of the “evening red” sunset. The children
are protected from winter by being on the other
side of the glass. But the same window that protects
them from nature is dangerous to the owl, who
does not expect to have to veer to avoid a collision
with a mere reflection.
The poem was inspired by an experience Frost
once had from his own kitchen window. Frost
recalled, “The sight of that bird right close to you is
just like a favor, something you did not expect—as
if someone were on your side” (Parini, 406).
Jay Parini describes the poem as beckoning to
Wallace Stevens and more specifically to the end
ing of his poem “Sunday Morning.” The lines to
which Parini refers are “At evening, casual flocks
of pigeons make / Ambiguous undulations as they
sink, / Downward to darkness, on extended
wings.” Parini also concludes that “Frost was him
self the winter owl, banking repeatedly to avoid
smashing into the glass wall of death. Again and
again, he rose to triumph—in readings, in lec
tures, in flights of fancy—in a kind of private war
on dissolution” (406).
The poem was first published as “Of a Winter
Evening” in the April 12, 1958, issue of the Satur
day Review and was later collected as “Questioning
Faces” in In the Clearing.
FURTHER READING
Parini, Jay. Robert Frost: A Life. New York: Holt,
1999.