The Happiest Day/가장 행복한 날
by Linda Pastan/린다 파스탠
It was early May, I think
a moment of lilac or dogwood
when so many promises are made
it hardly matters if a few are broken.
내 기억에, 아마도 그때가 5월 초순이었나 보다
라일락꽃이나 도그웃 꽃이 만개하고
여러 가지 결심을 할 때이기도 하고
그중 몇 개가 지켜지지 않아도 괜찮은 때였지.
My mother and father still hovered
in the background, part of the scenery
like the houses I had grown up in,
and if they would be torn down later
that was something I knew
but didn’t believe.
Our children were asleep
or playing, the youngest as new
as the new smell of the lilacs,
and how could I have guessed
their roots were shallow
and would be easily transplanted.
I didn’t even guess that I was happy.
The small irritations that are like salt
on melon were what I dwelt on,
though in truth they simply
made the fruit taste sweeter.
So we sat on the porch
in the cool morning, sipping
hot coffee. Behind the news of the day—
strikes and small wars, a fire somewhere—
I could see the top of your dark head
and thought not of public conflagrations
but of how it would feel on my bare shoulder.
If someone could stop the camera then…
if someone could only stop the camera
and ask me: are you happy?
Perhaps I would have noticed
how the morning shone in the reflected
color of lilac. Yes, I might have said
and offered a steaming cup of coffee.
한글 번역: Nancy Helen Kim©
(번역된 시는 잠시 후 내립니다.)
이제 겨우 마른 가지에 새순이 올라오는 라일락 꽃이
얼른 활짝 피어서 집 안팎을 그 은은한 향기로
그득 채워져서, 잠시라도 진정으로 행복해지고 싶다.