Louise Bogan (1897–1970)
At first, we want life to be romantic;
Later, to be bearable;
Finally, to be understandable.
"나뭇잎 사이로"로 유명했던 싱어송 라이터 조동진(1947~2017) 의 곡 "제비꽃"의 노랫말이 Bogan의 구절과 유사하다는 생각이 들었다.
제비꽃 (원곡: 조동진)
내가 처음 너를 만났을때 너는 작은 소녀였고
머리엔 제비꽃, 너는 웃으며 내게 말했지, 아주 멀리 새처럼 날으고 싶어
음 ~
내가 다시 너를 만났을때 너는 많이 야위었고
이마엔 땀방울, 너는 웃으면 내게 말했지, 아주 작은 일에도 눈물이 나와
음 ~
내가 마지막 너를 보았을때 너는 아주 평화롭고
창너머 먼눈길, 넌 웃으며 내게 말했지, 아주 한밤중에도 깨어있고 싶어
음 ~
https://youtu.be/DFYzQm21qxc?si=5BRbCLkeB9z2k3XE
나이듦을 노래한 시의 클라식을 꼽으라면 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807-1882)의 "Morituri Salutamus"가 아닐까?
딴 건 몰라도 soothing 면에서는 단연.
프사의 배경으로도 오래 버틸 수 있을 듯.
Morituri Salutamus
...
But why, you ask me, should this tale be told
To men grown old, or who are growing old?
It is too late! Ah, nothing is too late
Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
Wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,
When each had numbered more than fourscore years,
And Theophrastus, at fourscore and ten,
Had but begun his "Characters of Men."
Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales,
At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;
Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,
Completed Faust when eighty years were past.
These are indeed exceptions; but they show
How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow
Into the arctic regions of our lives,
Where little else than life itself survives.
...
What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
The night hath come; it is no longer day?
The night hath not yet come; we are not quite
Cut off from labor by the failing light;
Something remains for us to do or dare;
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear;
Not Oedipus Coloneus, or Greek Ode,
Or tales of pilgrims that one morning rode
Out of the gateway of the Tabard Inn,
But other something, would we but begin;
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
(1875)
