20. 비목(Bimok: Wooden Cross at the Tomb of a nameless Soldier) by 한명희 English translation by Myung-Ho Lee, M.D.

[무대뒤의예술가]

20. 비목(Bimok: Wooden Cross at the Tomb of a nameless Soldier)
by 한명희
English translation by Myung-Ho Lee, M.D.

초연이 쓸고간 깊은계곡
깊은계곡 양지녘에
비바람긴세월로
이름모를 이름모를 비목이여
Swept once away by the smokes of gun powder,
On a sunny hillside of a deep vale,
A wooden cross stands at tomb of a nameless soldier,
Struck by ages of rainfall and gale.

머어언 옛날
초동친구 두고온 하늘가
그리워 마디마디
이끼되어 맺혔네.
Just as for the longing for his pals of boyhood
And the sky left far at home behind,
Sorrows, piece by piece,
Turned into moss, and seatin’ deep on that cross.

궁노루 산울림 달빛타고
달빛타고 흐르는 밤
홀로선 적막감에
울어지친 울어지친 비목이여
When cries of musk roe deer echoed in the vale,
As the night stream’d riding on moonlight,
Worn out by wailings over tranquil silence
O’ standing alone, you, wooden cross at the tomb.

그옛날 천진스런 추억은 애달파
서러움 알알이 돌이 되어 쌓였네.
For those ever old innocent days
Memories are heartaching,
Sorrows, piece by piece
Turned into stone, and piling up around.