Korean Music Time! 조용필 - 여행을 떠나요

I've been kind of lazy in my attempts to learn Korean lately, since I have so many interests that it's hard to stay focused on it. As much as I always enjoy myself when I study it, baseball research and blogging don't happen by themselves.

As a Korean music fan though, I've found that trying to translate songs can be a lot of fun. When you can see how different words relate to each other and form sort of a "story," it feels like an exciting revelation. It just so happens that one of my favorite artists, 조용필 (Jo Yong Pil), has a really awesome song that contains mostly short phrases and sentences. First of all, take a listen:

Rocking, no? This one's always fun to do in the song booth.

Anyway, I liked it so much that I decided to try to translate it, mostly using dictionaries and other such references, though I had help with a few lines from my old boss, Mrs. Kim. She didn't actually know the song, because she said she only listens to classical music. I figure if I can listen to a song and know what each line means, that can bring me closer to understanding this language. I saw a YouTube video of a Caucasian girl speaking Korean, and in the comments, she told people that one way she learned was from translating songs she liked. Hey, if it worked for her, maybe it'll work for me.

Anyway, here's my best attempt at translating. It'll probably be laughable to any Korean speaker who comes across this blog, but I think I have the basic idea of the song. I'll format it the same way that The Korean of the famous blog Ask a Korean does with his music posts, since it looks nice and neat.

여행을 떠나요

Let's Go on a Trip

(Verse 1)

푸른 언덕에 배낭을 메고

Toward a green hill, carrying a backpack

황금빛 태양 축제를 여는

Bright yellow sun above the festival

광야를 향해서 계곡을 향해서

I face the prairie, I face the valley

(Verse 2)

먼동이 트는 이른 아침에

At the break of dawn, early in the morning

도시의 소음 수많은 사람

The noise of the city, lots of people

빌딩 숲속을 벗어나봐요

Let's escape this forest of buildings

(Chorus)
메아리 소리가 들려오는 계곡속의 흐르는 물찾아
The sound of an echo can now be heard, we search for the valley's flowing water
그 곳으로 여행을 떠나요

Let's go on a trip to that place
메아리 소리가 들려오는 계곡속의 흐르는 물찾아
The sound of an echo can now be heard, we search for the valley's flowing water
그 곳으로 여행을 떠나요
Let's go on a trip to that place

(Verse 3)

굽이 또 굽이 깊은 산중에

Bend after bend toward the deep mountain recess

시원한 바람 나를 반기네

The cool wind welcomes me

하늘을 보며 노래 부르세

As we look at the sky, let's sing together

(Chorus)

(Solo)

(Verse 3)

(Chorus)

(Bridge)

여행을 떠나요

Let's go on a trip

즐거운 마음으로

With pleasing thoughts

모두 함께 떠나요

I leave with everyone

(Chorus)

Like I said above, anyone who's fluent in both English and Korean will probably have a chuckle at my clunky translation. I only know really basic Korean, so don't take this to be perfect. There are more than a few parts I'm not completely confident of.

I attempted to stay true to the literal meaning as best I could, but in a few cases I thought it preferable to fix it up a bit so it'd sound better in English. For instance, the line in the chorus, "그 곳으로 여행을 떠나요" would probably be better translated as "To that place let's go on a trip," but that's kind of awkward.

The parts Mrs. Kim helped me with were "forest of buildings," "welcomes me," and "let's sing together." Honestly, the only reason I used "let's sing together" at that part is because that's what she told me, since it doesn't exactly seem to follow in a word-by-word translation. The "forest of buildings" part was confusing for me, but once Mrs. Kim explained that he was using a metaphor it all made sense. When I attempted it by myself I was under the impression that there was a building in the middle of a forest, which seemed just a tad weird.

So yeah. I really like this song. As I mentioned above, I even sing it in the song booth sometimes. True story: One time I was singing this song in the booth, and after it ended I could hear the people in the booth next to me singing it. Coincidence, or did they hear me and become inspired? I like to think it was the latter, because that'd make me feel a little cooler.