한 알의 모래 속에서 하나의 세상을 보고,

한 송이 들꽃에서 하나의 천국을 보며,

손바닥 위에 무한을 싣고서,

한 순간 속에서 영원을 느낀다.

윌리엄 블레이크, [순수의 전조 中]

[#M_원어시 전문|less..|Auguries of Innocence

                            – William Blake

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.

A dove-house fill’d with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell thro’ all its regions.
A dog starv’d at his master’s gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.

A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The game-cock clipt and arm’d for fight
Does the rising sun affright.

Every wolf’s and lion’s howl
Raises from hell a human soul.

The wild deer, wand’ring here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misus’d breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher’s knife.

The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won’t believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever’s fright.

He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be belov’d by men.
He who the ox to wrath has mov’d
Shall never be by woman lov’d.

The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider’s enmity.
He who torments the chafer’s sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother’s grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh.

He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The beggar’s dog and widow’s cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.

The gnat that sings his summer’s song
Poison gets from slander’s tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of envy’s foot.

The poison of the honey bee
Is the artist’s jealousy.

The prince’s robes and beggar’s rags
Are toadstools on the miser’s bags.
A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro’ the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

The babe is more than swaddling bands;
Every farmer understands.
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;

This is caught by females bright,
And return’d to its own delight.
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar,
Are waves that beat on heaven’s shore.

The babe that weeps the rod beneath
Writes revenge in realms of death.
The beggar’s rags, fluttering in air,
Does to rags the heavens tear.

The soldier, arm’d with sword and gun,
Palsied strikes the summer’s sun.
The poor man’s farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afric’s shore.

One mite wrung from the lab’rer’s hands
Shall buy and sell the miser’s lands;
Or, if protected from on high,
Does that whole nation sell and buy.

He who mocks the infant’s faith
Shall be mock’d in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne’er get out.

He who respects the infant’s faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child’s toys and the old man’s reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

The questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of knowledge out.

The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar’s laurel crown.
Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour’s iron brace.

When gold and gems adorn the plow,
To peaceful arts shall envy bow.
A riddle, or the cricket’s cry,
Is to doubt a fit reply.

The emmet’s inch and eagle’s mile
Make lame philosophy to smile.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne’er believe, do what you please.

If the sun and moon should doubt,
They’d immediately go out.
To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.

The whore and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation’s fate.
The harlot’s cry from street to street
Shall weave old England’s winding-sheet.

The winner’s shout, the loser’s curse,
Dance before dead England’s hearse.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro’ the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day._M#]


[#M_사담|less..|

오랜만에 영화 한 편을 봤는데, 말미에 이 시가 등장했다. 잠시 먹먹한 상태로 있다가, 내 책꽂이를 뒤졌는데, 있다, 있어. 윌리엄 블레이크의 시집. 좀처럼 시는 잘 읽지 않는데, 이런 건 또 사놨다. 시집 마지막에 위 시가 수록되어 있었다. 그런데 이 시는 본래 132행의 꽤 긴 시이다. 하지만 보통 저 유명한 첫 4행만이 여기저기 잘 인용되는 모양이다. 시집에도 달랑 4행만이 실려 있었다.

사실 이름만 알고 있던 이 사람의 존재가 내 안에 각인 된 것은, 그의 시가 아닌 그의 그림을 통해서였다. 서양미술사를 읽고 있는 와중에 윌리엄 블레이크의 그림, ‘태곳적부터 존재하시는 이’를 보게 된 것이다. 소묘상의 오류를 안고 있는 어딘가 불안정해 보이는 그의 그림이, 몽환적이면서 신비로운 분위기를 풍기며 ‘환상’의 위엄을 보여주었던 것이다. 사실 그는 르네상스 시대부터 이어져 오던 오랜 전통이 점차 힘을 잃고 회화 사상 어떤 혁명의 기운이 감지되던 시기에 자신의 확실한 위치를 점지했던 뛰어난 화가였다.

나는 어딘가 현실에서 유리된 이 신비스러운 그림이 좋았고, 내가 지금까지 메신저의 대화화면으로 쓰고 있는 그림이 사실 이 ‘태곳적부터 존재하신 이’의 패러디화인, ‘태곳적부터 존재하신 고양이님’이다.

위의 시는, 그림과 마찬가지로 블레이크의 신비주의적 면모를 잘 드러내준다. 한 알의 모래 속에서 하나의 세상을 보고, 한 순간 속에서 영원을 느끼는 것은, 어떤 언어와 논리를 초월하여 완전한 아름다움을 느끼는 지고한 감수성의 경지를 보여준다. 물론 나처럼 학(學)을 지향하는 인간은, 온전히 순수함만을 찬양할 수 없지만, 결국 내가 배움을 통해서 도달하고자 하는 경지도 이런 감수성의 채득이다.

_M#]