[작가 소개]

문파 김형철(1953~, 대한민국)은 토속적 언어와 방언을 통해 독창적인 시 세계를 빚어낸 시인이다. 그의 작품은 의도된 난해함 속에서 언어 실험을 이어가며, 독자에게 낯선 울림을 통해 시적 개성과 문학적 가치를 체험하게 한다.

[비평]

김형철 시인의 「차마고도 순례의 길」은 총 6부작과 제작기를 다룬 KBS 다큐멘터리 차마고도(2007년 9월~12월, KBS 1TV)가 던진 문명적 울림을 개인적 서사와 영적 순례의 체험으로 변환한 응답시로 읽힌다. 시인은 토속적 언어와 방언을 실험적으로 변주하며 독창적인 시어를 창출했다. “흙빛 육신”은 대지와 조상으로부터 이어받은 삶의 무게를, “빙하의 계곡”은 험준한 길과 내면의 두려움을, “소금길”은 인간 존재의 결핍과 필요를 은유한다. 이처럼 함축적이고 상징적인 표현들은 육체와 영혼, 고행과 문명, 기억과 계승을 동시에 소환하는 다층적 의미망을 이루며, 시인의 언어 실험을 통해 독자에게 낯선 파동과 새로운 감각을 제공한다. 이 작품은 다큐멘터리의 역사적 사실을 언어와 상징으로 재해석하여 문학적·영적 차원으로 심화된 응답시라 할 수 있으며, 한국 현대시의 언어 실험이 세계 문학의 보편적 울림으로 확장되는 가능성을 보여주는 사례다. 특히 원문 그대로 한국어와 영어로 병행 게재한 편집적 선택은 문학의 보편적 울림을 시대와 공간을 넘어 확장하려는 의도를 담고 있으며, 차마고도의 길이 국경을 넘어 문명을 잇듯 시인의 언어 또한 다문화적 독자에게 닿는 순례의 길이 되고 있다. — 강경호(시인·개념미술가)

---------------------------------------------------------

The Pilgrim’s Path – Chamagodo

Kim Hyung-chul (Munpa)

Father, this earthen body you have passed to me—

what shall it become, trembling so restlessly?

Our ancestors have already walked the steep ridges,

and you, guarding the snow mountain,

tilled the stony fields with your hardened hands.

Then, like a breath of wind, you were gone.

Now I miss you unbearably,

and I let Mother’s hand guide me,

drawing upon the long years of living,

crossing the glacier’s valley,

until I reach the forest of the snow mountain

where our ancestors still breathe.

There, I long to call your name once more.

On a dusky evening, Mother too climbed the mountain.

She gave me a final cup of tea,

and spoke of the old legends of Chamagodo,

the pilgrim’s path carved by ancestral toil.

“One day you shall meet the peak of Meili Snow Mountain.

The purest cloud, in the language of the divine,

meets the mountain in pilgrimage.

Like a handful of grain upon the sky-road,

then your soul shall become a white cloud,

and your body, white salt.”

To become so, she said,

I must walk the pilgrim’s path our ancestors once trod.

But Father, these days the valley waters rise and swell.

In fear I ponder the journey each day.

I drive a few donkeys ahead,

asking your path, following behind,

awakening the voices of ancestors hidden in each gorge.

Beneath the lamp, my black leather shoes tremble.

The breath of my body, leaving home, quivers still.

Father, Mother—

tonight is an unusually long night.

At heaven’s gate, where the sun’s breath touches,

the distant road is hardship, yet also pilgrimage.

To meet the civilization of Chamagodo along the way

fills me with awe and excitement.

And if I return to my homeland,

the salt-laden air of Chamagodo,

the voices of wind I met upon the pilgrim’s path—

I shall offer them all,

as the earthen body of my father,

to everyone who listens.

▲ Munpa Kim Hyung‑chul (1953~, Republic of Korea)

[Author Introduction]

Munpa Kim Hyung-chul (1953~, Republic of Korea) is a poet who has forged an original poetic world through vernacular language and dialectal expression. His works embrace intentional obscurity as part of poetic experimentation, allowing readers to experience his individuality and literary value through unfamiliar resonances.

[Critique]

Kim Hyung‑chul’s poem “Pilgrimage Road of Chamagodo” can be read as a response poem that transforms the civilizational resonance of the six‑part KBS documentary Chamagodo (September–December 2007, KBS 1TV), including its production diary, into a personal narrative and spiritual journey. The poet experiments with vernacular language and dialects to create distinctive poetic diction. “Earth‑colored body” conveys the weight of life inherited from the land and ancestors; “Glacial valley” evokes both the arduous path and inner fear; “Salt road” metaphorically expresses human deprivation and necessity. These condensed and symbolic expressions summon body and soul, hardship and civilization, memory and inheritance simultaneously, forming a multilayered semantic network that offers readers unfamiliar vibrations and new sensations through the poet’s linguistic experiment.

This work reinterprets the historical facts of the documentary through language and symbolism, becoming a deepened response poem on literary and spiritual levels. It exemplifies how the linguistic experiments of modern Korean poetry can expand into the universal resonance of world literature. In particular, the editorial choice to publish the text in both Korean and English reflects an intention to extend the universal resonance of literature beyond time and space. Just as the road of Chamagodo transcends borders to connect civilizations, the poet’s language becomes a pilgrimage road reaching multicultural readers. — Kang Gyeongho (Poet and Conceptual Artist)

뉴스부산은 예술을 담습니다

“NewsBusan is Where Art Lives”

www.newsbusan.com

▶Remembering the Year of Eulsa

newsbusan.com/news/view.php?idx=15867

newsbusan.com/skin/news/basic/view_pop.php?v_idx=16143