Elizabeth Bishop, One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

-Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.



-

The art of losing isn't hard to master.
is that?

여전히 상실은 재앙일 뿐이다. 결국 쓰려던 말은 그렇다.
내게 두 도시와 같은 것들, 두 강이나 하나의 대륙만큼 소중한 것들, 사랑하는 사람들.
잃는 다는 데 기술이나 기교랄 게 있을 수 있을까. 언제라도 결코 쉽지만은 않을 것이다.

불안하고, 날선 가운데 칠월의 첫날이 왔다. 왔다고 하기에도 무색할만큼 반이나 지나간 지금, 7월 1일의 정오다.