Avi, Crispin

The Cross of Lead (Paperback) - 2003 Newbery
Avi 지음 / Hyperion / 2004년 6월

진짜다.

어려울 거 같아서 그냥 번역본으로 읽고 지나가려고 했는데 찾아볼 땐 재고도 없던 서점에 어느 날 갑자기 미국애들이 읽는 책이라고 버젓이 내놓고 팔길래 냉큼 사서 거의 단숨에 읽었다.

중세 역사를 다룬 소설이니까 공부도 할겸 착실하게 단어도 정리해 가며 천천히 읽자고 다짐했건만, 긴박한 일들이 연달아 터지는 줄거리라 문장을 천천히 음미하는 건 커녕 모르는 단어를 찾는 것조차 사치에 가까웠다.

그렇다고 해서 곱씹어 읽고 싶은 강력한 문장들이 없었던 건 아니다.

어디선가 번역본 리뷰에서도 소개되었던 이런 문장은 차마 잊을 수가 없겠다.

In the end I followed the path of the misty sun, which stared down at me from the gray sky like the dead man's blank and solitary eye. (65)

이에 앞서 교수대에서 죽어 썩어가는 그 남자(시체)의 모습을 묘사한 장면은 여러모로 중요하다.

중세의 리얼리티를 살리는데 필요한 부분이기도 하겠지만, 어머니를 여의고 거의 삶을 포기하다시피 한 크리스핀이 그래도 죽는 것보단 살아남아야겠다는 다짐을 하는 계기가 되기 때문이다.

On the third morning of my escape I woke to a wool-like world of misty gray. Thick and clammy air embraced me like the fingers of some loathsome toad. Sounds were stifled. Solid shapes were soft as rotten hay. No sun jeweled the sky. My entire world had shrunk down to the frayed margins of the sodden road. I walked as solitary as Adam before the creation of Eve.

As I pressed on through the boundless mist, my damp feet sucking soggy soil, the road went up an incline. Suddenly, I spied what appeared to be a man hovering in the air. Heart pounding, I halted and peered ahead.

……

It was a man-for so he had once been. Now his face was moldy green and much contorted, with a protruding tongue of blue that reached his chin. One eye bulged grotesquely. The other was not there. His body oozed from open wounds. Swollen legs and arms flopped with distended disjointedness. Bare feet pointed down with toes that curled upon themselves like chicken claws. Such clothing as he wore was nothing more than a loinchoth of filthy rags. Sitting on his left shoulder were blue-black crows feasting on his corruption. He stank of death.

……

How long I stared at the corpse, I do not know. But as I knelt, the mist seemed to ensnare my body like a sticky shroud, intent on dragging me down.

Except-as Jesus is my Savior-as sure as my heart understood anything-I knew then how much I wished, not to die, but to live.

I can give no explanation how I came to this understanding, save that I did not want to become the blighted man who dangled before me, pillaged by the birds. (62-65)

애비는 장면이 전환될 때마다 적절한 공간과 상황 묘사로 몰입하게 만드는 거 같다.

이 책에서도 크리스핀의 시각으로 숲속을 헤맬 때와 그레이트 웩슬리에 처음 들어설 때 인상을 실감나게 이야기하고 있다.

예를 들면 도시의 악취를 설명하면서 건물에서 창밖으로 오물(똥물)을 마구 내버려서 지나던 사람들이 뒤집어 쓴다든지 하는 그런 장면(168)이나 크리스핀이 도시를 헤매다가 성당에 들어설 때를 묘사한 장면들(190).

아마도 저자는 중세의 도시를 설명하기 위해 역사책 좀 많이 뒤졌을 것 같다. 이 책 말고도 역사소설을 많이 썼다고 하지.

아래는 크리스핀이 그레이트 웩슬리 대성당에 들어섰을 때.

But when I stepped past the vestibule, I gasped. Before me was a space of such immense size, height, depth, and breadth, that I never would have thought it could exist on mortal earth. Burning candles blossomed everywhere, enough to awe the stars. Through sweet and smoky air, great columns rose to dizzying heights, while enough multicolored light poured down through stained glass so as to turn the hard stone floor into pools of liquid hues. From somewhere unseen a chorus of swelling chant rolled forth, filling this celestial space with sounds that made me think of the measured beating of angels' wings. It was as if I had entered paradise itself. (190-191)

소설에 나오는 존 볼(John Ball)이라는 사람은 이 당시(14세기)에 영국에서 농노해방운동을 이끌었던 실존 인물이라고 한다.

크리스핀을 도와주는 베어도 이들과 한 패다. 아래는 크리스핀이 엿들은 존 볼의 연설.

"… that no man, or woman either, shall be enslaved, but stand free and equal to one another. That all fees, obligations, and manorial rights be abolished immediately. That land must be given freely to all with a rent of no more than four pennis per acre per year. Unfair taxes must be abolished. Instead of petty tyrants, all laws shall be made by the consent of a general commons of all true and righteous men.

"Above all persons, our lawful king shall truly reign, but privileged or corrupt parliaments or councilors.

"The church, as it exists, should be allowed to wither. Corrupt priests and bishops must be expelled from our churches. In their place will stand true and holy priests who shall have no wealth or rights above the common man…" (228)

그리고 베어를 구해내야 한다는 크리스핀의 각성.

I saw it then: Bear and Ball were talking about the very word Father Quinel had used, freedom. Something I had never had. Nor did anyone in my village, or the other villages through which we had passed. We lived in bondage.

To be a Furnival was to be part of that bondage.

As time passed in the darkness of my hiding place, the one thing I knew for sure was that as Bear had helped to free me, he had given me life. Therefore I resolved to help free him-even if it cost me that new life to do so. (253)

지금 곧바로 2편(Crispin: at the Edge of the World)을 읽고 있다.