어릴적 악몽 같은 순간을 소환한 이스마엘(모비딕 챕터4 침대커버편)

모비딕 챕터 4는 이불 소제목으로 시작합니다. 퀴퀘그가 이스마엘 몸을 이불처럼 덮쳐서 이스마엘이 어릴 적 악몽같던 순간을 가위 눌림을 동반하여 소환이 된 것인지 길고 장황한 서술입니다.

 

 

 

마치 다정한 부부처럼

 

Upon waking next morning about daylight, I found Queequeg's arm thrown over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost thought I had been his wife. The counterpane was of patchwork, full of odd little parti-colored squares and triangles; and this arm of his tattooed all over with an interminable Cretan labyrinth of a figure, no two parts of which were of one precise shade-owing I suppose to his keeping his arm at sea unmethodically in sun and shade, his shirt sleeves irregularly roled up at various times- this same arm of his, I say, looked for all the world like a strip of that same patchwork quilt. Indeed, partly lying on it as the arm did when I first awoke, I could hardly tell it from the quilt, they so blended their hues together; and it was only by the sense of weight and pressure that I could tell that Queequeg was hugging me.

 

 

 

눈을 뜨니 퀴퀘그의 팔이 자신을 덮고 있었고 이스마엘은 마치 그의 다정한 와이프가 된 것 같았겠죠. 그리고 특이한 문양의 침대 커버와 퀴퀘그의 문신은 거의 구분되지 않을 정도였고 팔로 자신을 덮친 그의 팔은 한없이 무거웠고요.

 

 

 이상해진 감각

 

 

 

My sensation were strange. Let me try to explain them. When I was a child, I well remember a somewhat similar circumstance that befell me; whether it was a reality or a dream, I never could entirely settle. The circumstance was this. I had been cutting up some caper or other- I think it was trying to crawl up the chimney, as I had seen a little sweep do a few days previous; and my stepmother who, somehow or other, was all the time whipping me, or sending me to bed supperless,- my mother dragged me by the legs out of the chimney and packed me off to bed, though it was only two o'clock in the afternoon of the 21st June, the longest day in the year in our hemisphere. I felt dreadfully. But there was no help for it, so up stairs I went to my little room in the third floor, undressed myself as slowly as possible so as to kill time, and with a bitter sigh got between the sheets.

 

이런 상황에서 이상함을 느낀 것인지 이스마엘은 어릴적 기억을 소환합니다. 그것이 꿈인지 현실인지는 헷갈리지만 상황 설명을 합니다. 어릴 적에 그에게는 계모가 있던 모양입니다. 걸핏하면 밥을 굶기고 트집을 잡아 혼을 냈던 것 같은데요. 하루는 그가 굴뚝으로 올라가려는 것을 막고 벌을 준다면서 저녁도 거른 채 방에다 가둬 놓았습니다. 해가 가장 길었던 6월 21일에 이불 속에 들어가 꼬박 16시간을 침대에서 보낼 생각을 하니 생각만 해도 등허리가 아팠다고.

 

 

 

 

 악몽같던 어린 시절

 

 

I lay there dismally calculating that sixteen entire hours must elapse before I could hope for a resurrection. Sixteen hours in bed! the small of my back ached to think of it. And it was so light too; the sun shining in at the window, and a great rattling of coaches in the streets, and the sound of gay voices all over the house. I felt worse and worse- at last I got up, dressed, and softly going down in my stockinged feet, sought out my stepmother, and suddenly threw myself at her feet, beseeching her as a particular favor to give me a good slippering for my misbehaviour; anything indeed but condemning me th lie abed such an unendurable length of time. But she was the best ane most conscientious of stepmothers, and back I had to go to my room. For several hous I lay there broad awake, feeling a great deal worse than I have ever done since, even from the greatest subsequent misfortunes. 

 

 

16시간 후에나 부활해야 한다고 하니 그는 벌써부터 등이 아파오는 것 같았습니다. 그런 가운데 여전히 밖은 눈부시게 빛나고 밖에는 유쾌한 혹은 쾌활한 소리가 나니 이스마엘은 슬슬 약이 오르기 시작합니다. 이래선 안되겠다 싶었던 거죠. 그래서 나름 의복을 정제하고 새엄마 발 아래 납작 엎드려서 용서를 구했습니다. 다시는 안 그럴테니 용서해 달라고 했겠죠. 그러나 그의 새엄마는 누구보다 양심적인 사람이엇따고 합니다. 얄짤 없었다는 거겠죠. 그래서 그는 방으로 돌아와 갇혀있게 되었는데 생애 그렇게 불행한 순간은 없었다고 느낀 것 같습니다. 

 

 

 

At last I must have fallen into a troubled nightmare of a doze; and slowly waking from it- half steeped in dreams- I opened my eyes, and the before sunlit room was now wrapped in outer darkness. Instanly I felt a shock running through all my frame; nothing was to be seen, and nothing was to be heard; but a supernatural hand seemed placed in mine. My arm hung over the counterpane, and the nameless, unimaginable, silent form or phantom, to which the hand belonged, seemed closely seated by my bedside. For what seemed ages piled on ages, I lay there, frozen with the most awful fears, not daring to drag away my hand; yet ever thinking that if I could but stir it one single inch, the horrid spell would be broken. I Knew not how this consciousness at last glided away from me; but waking in the morning, I shudderingly remembered it all, and for days and weeks and months afterwards I lost myself in confounding attempts to explain the mystery. Nay, to this very hour, I often puzzle myself with it.

 

다시 현실로 돌아온 걸까요? 무슨 악몽을 꾼 것인지 기억을 소환한 것인지는 모르겠으나 그는 순식간에 몸을 관통하는 충격을 받았고 눈을 떴는데도 눈앞이 캄캄해지는 아찔한 경험을 한 것 같습니다. 악몽으로 기인한 가위가 눌린 것인지는 모르겠으나 결과를 생각하면 이스마엘은 참 엄살도 심한 사람이 아닌가 싶은 생각이 들기도 하고요.