Billy Collins 시와의 만남

최근에 얼마 동안 좋은 시를 읽고 싶다는 욕구를 느껴 왔었다. 어떤 특별한 계기가 있었던 것도 아닌데, 아주 오랫 동안 시를 읽지 않았다는 깨달음과 함께 예전에 시 읽기를 즐겼던 것을 그리워하게 된 것. 그러던 중 오늘 한 라디오 프로그램을 듣다가 우연히 Billy Collins라는 시인의 이름을 듣게 되었고, 인터넷으로 그의 시들을 찾아보았다. 한마디로 'witty' 하면서도 마음에 와 닿는 시들이 많이 있어서 기뻤고. 오늘 읽은 그의 시 중에서 특히 'Forgetfulness'와 'On Turning Ten'이라는 시가 좋았는데 그 중 하나를 소개한다. 누구나 공감할 수 있는 시.
  


                         On Turning Ten
                                                            - Billy Collins


The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.