The Forge

[세연]

The Forge
by Seamus Heaney
All I know is a door into the dark.
내가 아는 거라곤 어둠을 향한 문이다
Outside, old axles and iron hoops rusting;
바깥쪽에는, 녹슬어가는 낡은 차축들과 쇠테들;
Inside, the hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring,
안쪽에는, 망치질 되는 모루의 짧은 리듬 소리.
The unpredictable fantail of sparks
불꽃이 번쩍거리는 예측할 수 없는 부채꼬리와
Or hiss when a new shoe toughens in water.
혹은 새 말굽을 물속에 넣어 담금질 할 때 나는 쇳소리
The anvil must be somewhere in the centre,
그 모루는 당연히 중간 어딘가에 있을 것이며,
Horned as a unicorn, at one end and square,
유니콘처럼, 뿔을 달은 한쪽 끝과, 그 나머지는 사각형 모양을 가진 채로
Set there immoveable: an altar
고정되어 그곳에 놓여있었다:
Where he expends himself in shape and music.
모양과 소리에 그 자신을 모두 던져 놓은 그 제단
Sometimes, leather-aproned, hairs in his nose,
때때로, 가죽앞치마를 두른 채로, 콧속 털까지 보이는,
He leans out on the jamb, recalls a clatter
그는 몸을 문설주에 내밀어 기대, 회상한다
Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows;
차량이 줄지어 번쩍이는 그 장소에서 발굽의 덜그덕 대는 소리
Then grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick
그런다음 툴툴거리며, 문을 쾅하고 휙돌아서는 안으로 들어간다
To beat real iron out, to work the bellows.
진짜 쇠를 두들어 필려고, 풀무질을 하려고.

1) Theme : 과거, 산업사회 이전의 사회에 대한 노스텔지어

2) Figure of speech :
simlie -- A : anvil, B : unicorn
metaphor -- A : anvil, B: alter

3) Extra :
- Forge--dark vs. light--문명화된 사회,산업사회
- Sparks : visible image , hiss- audible image
- contrast : 산업사회 vs. 쇠락하고 있는 대장간

4) Summary
- From a strictly formal point of view, “The Forge” is a sonnet. As is typical of Seamus Heaney’s work, however, and reflective of this poem’s unobtrusive depths, it is more interesting for the ways in which it departs from conventional sonnet forms than for its attachment to them. Thus, “The Forge” opens with a representative sonnet rhyme scheme. Once this is established, however, it is not adhered to. Similarly, the familiar internal organization of a sonnet into octet (the first eight lines) and sestet (the concluding six lines) seems promised but is not maintained.

“The Forge” presents the poet as an observer of a familiar childhood scene (the village “smithy” has a long history as a poetic subject). The poem is written in the first person, and there is little doubt that Heaney draws on material familiar to him and to which he has remained imaginatively attached. The elements of the scene are described in loving detail, so that the reader has a strong impression of immediacy and intimacy. The poet’s strong visual imagination—whereby evidence of the everyday catches the reader’s eye like the smith’s “unpredictable fantail of sparks”—places the reader in direct sensory relation with the subject matter.