시 공항에서 영역 At the Airport

[원평재]

시 공항에서 영역

At the Airport

Hey, grandson, Dylan—

You came for a moment and already you are leaving.

Having completed your studies, now employment awaits;

yet before stepping into that new sky

you came to share the finest, most relaxed days of your life

with your grandpa.

How deeply proud I am of you.

My grandpa, long ago,

during one of those brief chances to meet,

grafted a persimmon branch onto a date-plum tree,

and showed with his own hands that kinship between generations

and the dawning of a new world could grow from one living body.

And I wonder—

did I tell you to move toward wider, higher spaces,

to gather momentum from the wisdom accumulated by years,

to borrow gravity and travel farther—

calling out to you:

Swing by.

Let us meet again when our persimmons ripen,

And share a high-five, a high-ten!

‘스윙 바이(Swing-by)’는 우주항행의 중력 도움(gravity assist) 의미