Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

Can someone help me understand this folk song?

노들 강변 (riverside) 봄 버 들
휘 휘 들어진 (droop) 가 지 에 다 가
무 정 세 월 (March) 한 허 리
칭 칭 동여메여 (bound together) 나불까 (it seems)
에 헤 요 봄 버 들 도
못 (not) 믿 (believe) 으 리 로 다
푸르른 (blue) 지 기 저물 (grow dark) 만
흘러 (flow) 흘러서 가 노 라

It's my solo for the song contest at the Janghoweon Peach Festival.

[ilovebdt]

[noelinkorea]

The twisted and turned drooped branches
Of the spring Willow along the Noryangjin riverbank
In the midst of a time passing by all too soon��
The two seem to me both bound and entwined
Oh! Even the spring willow wouldn��t believe it
Only those blue waters there move on and flow forth��

��� ���� �� ����
�� �� �þ��� �������ٰ�
�������� �� �㸮
ĪĪ ���� �ſ� �� ����
����� �� ���鵵
�� �������δ�
Ǫ���� ���� �� ����
�귯 �귯�� �����


Firstly - I am not a translator nor an expert on poerty and lyrics, but this is my feeling of how to translate it...this has taken me ages, so I'd hate to be a professional doing this! If anyone can improve on this - I would welcome it! I have taken note of the grammar - I left the ���ٰ� and kept the sixth line as 'wouldn't believe it' since the ending on the verb gives me more of that feel than 'couldn't believe it'...either might work though. I have added words to keep the ideas that I got from reading the lyrics - also HEARD the song from one website - you're SINGING that?! Sounds extremely tough to do...

While checking for information about this, I found that ��� was a special name in this song for a place which was actually called �뵹, that is, what is now �뷮�� in Seoul - here, referring to an area by today's National Cemetery. From what I've found, the vowel change was to help make it fit in with the final syllable of 'willow' in Korean - ����. The use of that particular area is tied to its past - it used to be a place where there was a ferry station to cross the Han River, and other writers say that as such, it revealed (like any riverport/seaport) the joys and sorrows of life - appropriate therefore for a song where time goes by so quickly, and while the tree might not know it, the river flows on by like time (and life) itself...

Also from what I've read - the willow tree has obvious 'drifting' connotations, and with that, it enables the listener to picture any (Korean) river easily. It also links well with the 'time flowing by' idea (I fleshed that part out to give it more feel...).

[tomato]