THOMAS MORE(1477~1535), UTOPIA(1516)
translated by David Wootton

“But I do not think that this necessity of stealing arises only from hence; there is another cause of it more peculiar to England.”

“그렇지만 나는 도둑질을 해야만 하는 까닭이 그런 것에서만 비롯된다고 여기지 않습니다. 잉글랜드에 조금 더 두드러지는 다른 원인이 있습니다.”

“‘What is that?” said the cardinal.

“그게 무엇입니까?” 추기경이 물었다.

“The increase of pasture,” said I, “by which your sheep, which are naturally mild, and easily kept in order, may be said now to devour men, and unpeople, not only villages, but towns; for wherever it is found that the sheep of any soil yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and gentry, and even those holy men the abbots, not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, living at their ease, do no good to the public, resolve to do it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture, destroying houses and towns, reserving only the churches, and enclose grounds that they may lodge their sheep in them.”

“목초지가 늘어나는 겁니다.” 나는 말했다. “천성이 온순하여 기르기 쉬웠던 양들이 이제는 사람들을 게걸스럽게 먹어치워서 사람들을 없애버리는 것 같습니다. 작은 마을뿐 아니라 큰 마을에서도 말이죠. 보통보다 더 부드럽고 더 질 좋은 양모를 생산하는 곳이라면 어디든 그와 같은 일이 일어나므로, 거기서는 귀족과 중간계급이, 심지어 성직자인 수도원장들까지도 농장이 예부터 가져다주던 지대에 만족하지 못하여, 안이하게 사는 그런 식으로는 충분치 못하다고 여겨서, 공공에 유익하지 않은 일을 하며, 좋은 건 고사하고 서슴지 않고 공공에 해를 끼치려 합니다. 그들은 농경을 멈추고, 집과 마을을 파괴하는데, 교회만은 내버려두며 그 안에 양울타리를 칩니다.”

“As if forests and parks had swallowed up too little of the land, those worthy countrymen turn the best inhabited places in solitudes, for when an insatiable wretch, who is a plague to his country, resolves to enclose many thousand acres of ground, the owners as well as tenants are turned out of their possessions, by tricks, or by main force, or being wearied out with ill-usage, they are forced to sell them. By which means those miserable people, both men and women, married and unmarried, old and young, with their poor but numerous families (since country business requires many hands), are all forced to change their seats, not knowing whither to go; and they must sell almost for nothing their household stuff, which could not bring them much money, even though they might stay for a buyer.”

“다함께 쓰는 숲과 녹지가 그 땅에 미미하게 박혀있듯, 이 고상한 시골 양반들은 살기 좋은 터를 외따로 떨어진 곳으로 만드는데, 나라의 암적인 존재인, 만족이라고는 모르는 어떤 놈이 수천 에이커나 되는 땅에 울타리를 치기로 작정하면, 소작농뿐 아니라 자영농까지도 꼬임에 속아넘어가거나 강제로, 또는 끈질긴 회유에 재산을 내놓게 되고 결국 팔아치울 수밖에 없습니다. 그 방법은 다를지 몰라도 남자든 여자든, 결혼을 했든 안 했든, 나이가 들었든 젊든 가릴 것 없이 식솔이 많이 딸린(농사일엔 일손이 많이 필요하므로) 이 불쌍한 이들은 하나같이 어디로 갈지도 모른 채 자신들에게 익숙했던 자리를 뜨게 될 수밖에 없습니다. 그러면 그들은 가재도구를 헐값에라도 내다팔아야 하는데 설령 살 사람이 나타난다 해도 결국 푼돈만 쥐게 됩니다.”

“When that little money is at an end, for it will be soon spent, what is left for them to do, but either to steal and so to be hanged (God knows how justly), or to go about and beg? And if they do this, they are put in prison as idle vagabonds; while they would willingly work, but can find none that will hire them; for there is no more occasion for country labor, to which they have been bred, when there is no arable ground left. One shepherd can look after a flock which will stock an extent of ground that would require many hands if it were to be ploughed and reaped. This likewise in many places raises the price of corn.”

“그 적은 돈마저도 금세 써버려 동나면, 그들에게 주어지는 선택이라곤 도둑질을 해서 교수형을 당하거나(과연 공정한지 하느님은 아시겠지요) 거리로 나가 구걸하는 것밖에 더 있겠습니까? 그들이 거리에서 구걸을 하면 게을러빠진 부랑자로 취급돼 수용소로 갑니다. 기꺼이 일하고자 하는데도 그들을 고용할 만한 곳은 없습니다. 자식을 낳아 키우게 해주었던 농사일 같은 일자리도 없으며, 농사 지을 땅도 더는 없습니다. 쟁기질을 하고 수확을 하려면 많은 일손이 필요했을 그 넓은 땅에 양을 먹이면, 양치기 한 명으로도 양떼를 다 돌볼 수 있습니다. 다른 여러 곳과 마찬가지로 이곳도 곡물값이 오릅니다.”

“The price of wool is also so risen that the poor people who were wont to make cloth are no more able to buy it; and this likewise makes many of them idle. For since the increase of pasture, God has punished the avarice of the owners by a rot among the sheep, which has destroyed vast numbers of them; to us it might have seemed more just had it fell on the owners themselves ···”

“양모 단가 역시 올라서 옷감을 만들어 팔던 가난한 사람들은 양모를 사기가 어려워집니다. 그러면 그들 중 많은 이들은 일을 못하고 놀게 됩니다. 목초지의 증가에 대해 하느님은 양들 사이에 역병이 퍼지게 하시어 소유주들의 탐욕을 징벌하며, 양들 중 상당수가 죽어나갑니다. 그것은 그 소유주들에게 내려진 합당한 처벌인 듯합니다…”

참조: Paul Turner 영역본

“But that’s not the only thing that compels people to steal. There are other factors at work which must, I think, be peculiar to your country.”

“And what are they?” asked the Cardinal.

“Sheep,” I told him.

“These placid creatures, which used to require so little food, have now apparently developed a raging appetite, and turned into man-eaters. Fields, houses, towns, everything goes down their throats. To put it more plainly, in those parts of the kingdom where the finest, and so the most expensive wool is produced, the nobles and gentlemen, not to mention several saintly abbots, have grown dissatisfied with the income that their predecessors got out of their estates. They’re no longer content to lead lazy, comfortable lives, which do no good to society — they must actively do it harm, by enclosing all the land they can for pasture, and leaving none for cultivation. They’re even tearing down houses and demolishing whole towns — except, of course, for the churches, which they preserve for use as sheepfolds. As though they didn’t waste enough of your soil already on their coverts and game-preserves, these kind souls have started destroying all traces of human habitation, and turning every scrap of farmland into a wilderness.”

“So what happens? Each greedy individual preys on his native land like a malignant growth, absorbing field after field, and enclosing thousands of acres with a single fence. Result — undreds of farmers are evicted. They’re either cheated or bullied into giving up their property, or systematically ill-treated until they’re finally forced to sell. Whichever way it’s done, out the poor creatures have to go, men and women, husbands and wives, widows and orphans, mothers and tiny children, together with all their employees — whose great numbers are not a sign of wealth, but simply of the fact that you can’t run a farm without plenty of manpower. Out they have to go from their homes that they know so well, and they can’t find anywhere else to live. Their whole stock of furniture wouldn’t fetch much of a price, even if they could afford to wait for a suitable offer. But they can’t, so they get very little indeed for it. By the time they’ve been wandering around for a bit, this little is all used up, and then what can they do but steal — and be very properly hanged?”

“Of course, they can always become tramps and beggars, but even then they’re liable to be arrested as vagrants, and put in prison for being idle — when nobody will give them a job, however much they want one. For farm-work is what they’re used to, and where there’s no arable land, there’s no farm-work to be done. After all, it only takes one shepherd or cowherd to graze animals over an area that would need any amount of labour to make it fit for corn production. For the same reason, corn is much dearer in many districts.”

“The price of wool has also risen so steeply that your poorer weavers simply can’t afford to buy it, which means a lot more people thrown out of work. This is partly due to an epidemic of the rot, which destroyed vast numbers of sheep just after the conversion of arable to pasture land began. It almost looked like a judgement on the landowners for their greed — except that they ought to have caught it instead of the sheep.”