A Bird, came down the Walk, Emily Dickinson, 새 한 마리 날아와서, 에밀리 디킨슨

 

 

A Bird, came down the Walk

Emily Dickinson

A Bird, came down the Walk - 
He did not know I saw -
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw, 
 
And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass -
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass -
 
He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad -
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head. - 
 
Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers, 
And rowed him softer Home -
 
Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim. 



In "A Bird, came down the Walk," a speaker's seemingly everyday encounter with a bird leads to thoughts about the frightening side of nature—as well as nature's beauty. Under this speaker's watchful eye, the bird is at once a merciless predator, an anxious and vulnerable animal, and a lovely spark of life. Like many of Emily Dickinson's poems, this one uses unique and unconventional syntax (a.k.a. the order of words in a sentence). It was published only after Dickinson's death, when her younger sister discovered a treasure trove of poetry hidden in her bedroom, and first appeared in a posthumous collection, Poems, in 1891. 



Summary
A bird came down my front walkway. He didn't know that I could see him. He bit an earthworm in half and ate the little guy raw. 

Then he drank a dewdrop from a handy blade of grass and hopped towards the wall to get out of a beetle's way. 

His eyes nervously darted all around him. I thought they looked like scared beads. He moved his soft, velvety head. 

Carefully, like someone in danger, I offered the bird a crumb. But the bird spread his wings and flew away. His wings moved more softly through the air than oars that dip into the ocean without making a ripple, or than butterflies that leap into the air at midday and swim through the sky without making a splash. 

 

Themes

The Beauty and Brutality of Nature
The speaker of “A bird, came down the walk” watches a bird with fascination—only to scare it off by offering it a crumb. The speaker’s imaginative meeting with the bird inspires wonder, but also seems to make both the speaker and the bird a little nervous. Nature, in this speaker’s view, seems to be a place of both beauty and peril—and the poem implies that human beings are as much a part of that beauty and peril as animals are. 

The speaker’s everyday encounter with a bird hopping down the front walk is marked by a curious sense of danger. The first thing the speaker sees the bird doing is biting a worm in half and eating “the fellow, raw.” The personification of both the bird and the worm suggests the unease the speaker feels at this sight: if these creatures are at all human-like, they can also feel human-like fear and suffering. At first, then, the speaker seems to feel some pity for the poor little worm, who gets gobbled up so nonchalantly by the bird. Nature seems to be a rather a brutal place. 

To that end, the bird is not just a predator, but also prey! The bird itself has eyes like “frightened Beads,” suggesting its own anxiety about its place in this bird-eat-worm, cat-eat-bird world. And when the speaker moves to offer the creature a crumb “Like one in danger, Cautious,” this line suggests that the speaker, too, feels suddenly vulnerable to or aware of natural dangers. (The speaker is also afraid of scaring off the little animal of course!) 

In spite of this sense of unease, the speaker is clearly fascinated and charmed by the bird’s beauty. The speaker carefully observes the bird’s “Velvet Head” and its little motions as it goes about its business, and takes pleasure in the courteous way it hops aside, like a gentleman, “To let a Beetle pass.” When the bird flies away, the speaker imagines its flight through metaphors of boats and butterflies moving “plashless” through their elements. Here, far from being in danger, the bird seems to be a seamless, beautiful part of the natural world, at one with the air. 

The speaker’s enjoyment of the bird’s elegance sits right next to the speaker's alarm at its predatory mercilessness, suggesting that nature maintains a delicate balance between the beautiful and the brutal. Enthralled by the bird’s beauty, the speaker is also a little unnerved by its alien way of life, so different from a human being’s. This curious balance of fear and wonder unites the speaker and the bird in spite of (and through!) their wariness of each other: merely being alive means being a part of a lovely but fearful natural world. 

새 한 마리가, 날아와서  

새 한 마리가, 날아와서
내가 본다는 것도 모르고
지렁이를 쪼아 대더니
그 녀석을 먹었지, 그대로,   

그리고 이슬을 마셨지
근처 풀숲에서
그리고 담 옆으로 껑충 뛰었어
딱정벌레를 피하려고     

새는 눈을 굴려 살폈지
두리번두리번
겁먹은 구슬 같은 눈으로,
벨벳 같은 머리를 흔들며.     

다치지 않게, 조심조심,
과자 조각을 던져주자,
새가 날개를 펼치더니,
아늑한 집을 향해 날개를 저었지     

바다를 가르는 노 보다,
더 은빛으로 반짝이며,
한낮 뚝방 위, 나비처럼,
날아올랐지, 헤엄치듯 조용히.



Emily Dickinson은 자연현상이나 인간사에 대해 섬세한 관찰을 시로서 많이 남겼는데 그 중 이 시는 새를 관찰한 것이다.
이 시에서 한 마리의 새가 지렁이를 날 것으로 두 동강내어 삼키는 장면은 자연의 잔인하고 파괴적인 양상을 나타낸다. 그러나 딱정벌레에게 길을 비켜주는 새의 모습은 자연의 온화한 면을 보여준다. 한 새의 이 같은 상반되는 행동은 자연의 두 가지 특성을 대변한다. 그러나 이를 숨어서 보던 ‘I’가 조심스럽게 내민 손을 무시하고 하늘로 날아가 버리는 새의 모습은 자연이 인간의 접근을 허락하지 않음을 보여준다. 
한편 마지막 연에서 새의 비상이 보여주는 아름다운 모습은 자연의 또 다른 한 양상이라 할 수 있다. Dickinson은 그녀의 시적 기교를 사용하여 첫째 연과 마지막 연에서 자연의 두 가지 상반된 측면을 잘 대조하고 있다. 지렁이를 토막 내어 먹는 새의 모습을 그리고 있는 1연에서는 단음절로 된 단어를 주로 사용하여 딱딱한 느낌을 주며, 이는 자연의 냉혹한 면을 사실적으로 그리고 있는 시의 내용과 잘 부합되어 시의 효과를 높이고 있다.