Love Letters

사무실로 쓰는 위층의 방을 정리하다가 오랜세월 그 존재를  까맣게 잊고 있던 것을 발견했다. 30여년 먼지가 뽀얗게 쌓인 투박한 가죽가방.

열어보니 신혼초 우리내외가 생이별을 하고 주고 받던 편지 수백통이 모두 그안에 들어있었다. 4학년 첫학기를 마친 상태에서 결혼해 혼자 미국으로 유학와 지내던 24살의 나, 그리고 결혼 후 우리 부모님이 계신 집으로 들어와 혼자 시집생활을 하며 학교를 다니던 21살의 아내가 1년여에 걸쳐 서로를 그리워하며 주고 받던 편지들을 각자가 소중히 가지고 있던 것. 

아내가 졸업후 전공을 바꿔 미국유학을 오게 되면서 상봉해 서로의 편지들을 모두 모아 이 가방에 넣어둔 것이었다. 오랜 세월 처박아두고 잊고 있었다는 건 다시 서로를 옆에 두고 볼 수 있게된 지라 그 편지들이 더 이상 소중하게 생각되지 않았던 것이리라. 떨어져 있을 땐 행여 서로를 잊어버리지 않을까 상대가 보낸 편지를 읽고 또 읽으며 애틋한 마음 뿐이었는데.

다음 주 가족들과 떠나게 되는 여행에 가지고 가서 아내와 같이 저녁노을 지는 바닷가에 나가 앉아 하나씩 꺼내 읽어봤으면 싶다. 30년만에 햇빛을 보게되는 그 녀석들이 과연 어떤 이야기들을 들려줄까...

There's been many complaints from my children about my blog postings because my children are able to read Korean letters but still not at the level of understanding what it means. So this translation is for them(as well as nieces and nephews who visit here every once in a while) so they have a chance of getting to know what my wife and I went through while we were young. Though, the following is not exact translation but should be close. Well, it's just not my nature pulling my hair out trying on a word-to-word translation!

Few days ago, while I was cleaning the room upstairs that I use for reading and writing, I found a dusty, old brown leather bag sitting on very top of the bookshelf. What's in there was quite a big surprise for me. They are the love letters my wife and I sent to each other back and forth for a year when we were young and separated.

Spending only 2 short months after we got married at the age of 24 and 21, I had to leave her for my study in the States and my wife moved in to my parent's house by herself and continued her study. We must have written to each other almost every 2-3 days, I believe, all the way through until we met again.

Upon her graduation, she came over to me as a foreign students with a different major. I still vividly remember the moment that we saw each other again. We were in each other's arms so tight for few minutes without saying a word. Oh, we rather did not want to waste even a half second trying to say things!

Then, we gathered all the letters we had kept while we had been separated, put them in this brown leather bag, and shoved it away thinking we didn't need them anymore because we had each other again to ourselves! Before we met in the States, these letters were so precious for both of us and enabled us to connect to each other's heart and kept us alive. I remember reading her letter as soon as it arrived in my mailbox, reading it again after the dinner, before going to the bed, and when I woke up, just over and over again. I even hated the national holidays so much because the postal service stopped running!

I am thinking about taking these letters to our family trip to the Outer Banks next week and reading them one by one with her sitting down on a beach under the sunset. These letters may tell us a lot of stories that we have forgotten as we open them...