라글란가에서 (시) / On Raglan Road poem

라글란 길에서는 (On Raglan Road) 오랫동안 내가 제일 좋아하는 노래이자 시입니다. 이제는 에이레가 가장 좋아하는 곡이기도 하죠. 이 시는 시골에서 겨우 초등학교 교육만 몇년 받은 사람에게 씌여졌지만 후일 그는 아일랜드에서 제일 유명한 시인중의 하나가 되었답니다. (시인:패트릭 카바나)

이 시는 1950년대 더블린에서 카바나가 겪은 사랑에 대한 내용이에요. 슬프면서도 아름다운 노래죠. 시인은 처음 그녀를 만난 순간, 그녀를 사랑하게 되고 결국엔 슬픈 사랑으로 끝날것을 알았다고 해요.

카바나는 시의 첫 부분에 너무나 사랑하는 사람을 만났을때 갖게되는 두려움을 신비로움과 위험이라는 감정으로 묘사했는데요. 끝으로 갈수록 시인의 사랑이 끝나갈때 쯤엔 그가 느끼는 쓰디쓴 절망감을 읽을 수 있죠. 'rue'같은 단어를 통해서요. (후회라는 뜻인데 굉장히 시적인 단어에요)

곡의 분위기와 톤을 유지하면서 한글로 번역하기에는 다소 무리가 있을 것 같아요. 곡을 들어보시면 아름답지만 슬픈, 한때 가졌었으나 지금은 잃어버린 사랑에 대한 그의 마음을 느낄수 있을거에요.

이 시는 아일랜드 포크송 가수 루크 켈리에 의해 노래로 만들어졌습니다. 켈리는 시에 오래된 아일랜드 고전 멜로디(이 멜로디는 하프 연주자들을 따라 거슬러 추척해보면 1600년대부터 전해진다고 해요)를 덧붙여 더블린의 아담한 펍에서 처음 이 노래를 불렀는데요, 한 번 들어보세요.

 

 

On Raglan Road has been my favourite song and poem for many years; now it's Eire's and my favourite. It's written by someone who had only a few years of elementary education in his farming village, Patrick Kavanagh, but later became one of Ireland's most famous poets.

 

The poem tells us about a love affair Kavanagh had in 1950s Dublin. It's both a sad and a sweet song; the poet tells us he knew from the first moment he loved her that he would eventually have his heart broken.

 

The first few lines fill us with a sense of mystery and of danger as Kavanagh describes the worries he has upon meeting such a lovely person. Towards the end we see his bitter dispair when the love affair ends, using words like “rue”.

 

It's hard to translate this poem into Korean while keeping it's atmosphere and tone but you can feel from the music the bittersweet love he had once and lost:

On Raglan Road

On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge
Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge,
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay -
O I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.

I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that's known
To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint. I did not stint for I gave her poems to say.
With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of May

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had wooed not as I should a creature made of clay -
When the angel woos the clay he'd lose his wings at the dawn of day.

 

This poem was made into a song by a traditional music singer, Luke Kelly. Kelly first sang it in a cozy pub in Dublin after pairing the lyrics with an old Irish tune, one that can be possibly traced back to a harpist in the 1600s. Here it is: