Darby’s Castle과 處容의 춤

“…가라리 네히어라”

 

“…two bodies lay entangled”

 

여자 바람 피우는 장면을 묘사한 노래 속의 글이다. 위의 것은 ‘처용가(處容歌)’에 나오는 대목, 즉 ‘두 몸이 얽혀져 (다리)가랭이가 네개더라”이고, 아래 것은 크리스 크리스토프슨(Kris Kristofferson)의 ‘Darby’s Castle’에 나오는 글 그대로 “두 몸이 뒤엉켜있는…”이다.

 

‘처용가’는 물론 여자가 바람나서 그러는 것은 아니지만, 어쨌든 처용의 처가 疫神의 꾀임에 빠진 결과인 만큼 여자의 바람끼가 가미된 것이라고 봐도 무방할 것이다. 이 장면을 목격한 남편의 그 후 행동은 두 노래속에서 사뭇 다르다. 처용은 그 장면을 보고 노래를 부르고 춤을 춘다. 상식적으로 이해가 안 된다. 그래서일까, 후세 사람들은 이를 무속적인 차원에서 해석을 한다. 남자 자체가 역신이니 그를 그런방법으로 쫓기위한 무속행위로 본 것이다. 무속적으로 안 보면, 분명 처용내외 간에 무슨 문제가 있었을 것이다. 아내의 부정 앞에서 노래부르고 춤 추는 처용의 행위는 아무리 관용심으로 보더라도 정신나간 짓이 아닌가. 무슨 문제가 있었을까.

 

Darby는 그 장면을 보고 집에 불을 지른다. 집이라 했지만, 글에 나오듯 집 지을 목재를 세우는 데만 3백일이 걸리는, 거의 성(castle)에가까운 규모의 집이다. 그래서 제목이 ‘Darby’s Castle’인 것이다. Darby내외 간에는 무슨 문제가 있었을까. 남편인 Cecil Darby는 아내Ellen을 무지 사랑한다. 그 사랑의 표현으로 세실은 물질적인 풍족함을 엘렌에게 안기려 한다. 그 일환으로 세실은 큰집을 짓는다. 세실의꿈은 오로지 큰집을 지어 엘렌과 함께 사는 것이다. 그래서 너무 그 꿈의 실현에 집착한다. 집 짓는데 대한 집착이 너무 강한 나머지 아내엘렌을 도외시한다. 대화도 없다.  같이 있을 시간도 없다.  엘렌은 고독감에 서서히 무너진다.  그래서 딴 남자를 불러들이고.  세실 다비가 불 지른 그 큰집은 하룻밤새 잿더미가 된다.

 

처용, 그리고 세실 다비, 마누라 바람 피웠다는 점에서 처지가 같다.  고약한 동병상련이다. 마누라의 바람을 본 이 두 남자의 행위 중 어떤 게 좋고 나쁜가는 사람마다 다를 것이다. 이 둘이 동서양을 대표하고는 있지 않지만, 동서양의 문화적 관습차원에서 보자면 둘의 행위들이 서로 뭔가 좀 바뀌어져있는 것 같은 부자연스러움 같은 것을 느낀다. 노래속 처한 입장들이야 서로 다르겠지만,  화끈하게 집에 불을지른 세실 다비가 노래와 춤으로 관용을 베풀고 처용이 전통적인 유교사상에 입각해 추상같은 단죄를 했으면 어떻겠는가 하는…

 

세익스피어는 여자의 욕망은 ‘타오르는 불길(impetuous fire)’이라고 했던가. 양의 동서를 막론하고 이 말은 맞는 것 같다.

Darby’s Castle

 

(Written and music by Kris Kristofferson)

 

 

See the ruin on the hill, where the smoke is hanging still,

Like an echo of an age long forgotten.

There’s a story of a home crushed beneath those blackened stones,

And the roof that fell before the beams were rotten.

 

Cecil Darby loved his wife, and he laboured all his life,

To provide her with material possessions.

And he built for her a home of the finest wood and stone.

And the building soon became his sole obsession.

 

Oh, it took three-hundred days, for the timbers to be raised,

And the silhouette was seen for miles around.

And the gables reached as high as the eagles in the sky,

But it only took one night to bring it down,

When Darby’s castle tumbled to the ground.

 

Though they shared a common bed, there was precious little said,

In the moments that were set aside for sleepin’.

For his busy dreams were filled with the rooms he’d yet to build,

And he never heard young Helen Darby weeping.

 

Then one night he heard a sound, as he laid his pencil down,

And he traced it to her door and turned the handle.

And the pale light of the moon through the window of the room,

Split the shadows where two bodies lay entangled.

 

Oh, it took three-hundred days, for the timbers to be raised,

And the silhouette was seen for miles around.

And the gables reached as high as the eagles in the sky,

But it only took one night to bring it down,

When Darby’s castle tumbled to the ground.