Bombs and A Bridge Too Near

지난 주 이라크 티그리스강 위에 있는 교량 하나가 테러로 파괴되었다. 교량명은 Sarrafiya Bridge로 현지에선 Jisr al-Hadeed, the iron bridge라는 의미이며 1940년대 영국이 건설한 교량이다.

Sarrafiya Bridge

교량이 파괴되는 그 날 이라크 의회도 폭탄 테러를 당해 사망자가 발생했는데 이 슬픈 두 소식을 전하는 바그다드의 한 현지 언론인은 기사에서 파괴된 교량에 담긴 그의 오랜 추억을 이렇게 전했다.

I have many beautiful memories of Jisr al-Hadeed; memories of how many times I sat in that coffee shop and stared at the glittering reflections of its lights on the water, of how many evenings I sat under it with friends. When we were young and couldn’t drink at home, the Nazla (the river bank immediately under the bridge) was one of our favorite spots. Once there we’d drink cold beers in hot summer nights, with the sound of the slow and small waves of the Tigris as our music….

(중략)

Everyone I talked to today was more saddened by the bridge attack than the explosion at the parliament building that killed two of its members. [Jisr al-Hadeed]

한편, 뉴욕타임즈지에도 같은 사건을 다룬 기사가 실렸는데 인터뷰를 한 어느 이라크인은 자식중에 하나가 죽는 것보다 교량이 폭파된 것을 더욱더 가슴 아파해 독자로 하여금 더 애절하게 만든다.

When the bridge was destroyed early Thursday morning by a truck bomb that collapsed a large section into the river, Baghdad mourned. People who had crossed the bridge every day to go to their jobs on the opposite side gathered on the riverbanks and stood weeping as if they had lost someone they loved.

More people have died in many other bombings, but the destruction of the bridge struck at the city’s soul, at its lingering romance with an all but vanished image of Baghdad as a Paris of the Middle East. [Latest Casualty Is Symbol of City’s Heyday and Unity]

교량은… 우리 삶의 한 부분이다.

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