Let's Korean

Never heard of this band before, but I really like this song (more than most Korean ballads, anyway), and the guitar player is HOTTTTT.  This song was extremely difficult to translate as it used fairly advanced grammar and was also hella poetic - as in, I discussed it with both ECT and Wizard and neither of them had any clue what it was talking about.  They would go off talking about something that didn’t make any sense in context, but then when I gave my interpretation they were like “Oh yes, yes, that’s right!!!”  Like I was the first one to realize he’s a ghost looking at her, but she can’t see him.  There’s also some kind of relationship with the window, which I will discuss more after the translation.  And based on the music video, I also adjusted my interpretation to be that she loves and misses him.  Some of the words (e.g. 원망하다) could be interpreted as so many things, for example, so I took the interpretation that made sense in that narrative.

I’m putting my translation notes after each stanza Grand Narrative-style so you can see my thought process.  Please please feel free to offer any alternatives if you think I’ve mistranslated or misinterpreted something!!

트랙스 - “창문”

나에게 머릴 기대고 물끄러미 바라보아도 모르죠
두 팔을 열어 보이면 시원하다 말하면서도 모르죠
투명한 나이지만 네 앞에 서있잖아
네 눈은 날 너머 쳐다볼 뿐이야

TRAX - “Blind” [actual translation: “Window”]

Even resting your head on me and gazing absent-mindedly, you don’t know, do you?
Even when you can see my open arms and you say the air feels cool, you don’t know, do you?
Though I’m invisible, I’m standing in front of you
But your eyes just look right over me

***

-This stanza particularly caused trouble for both me and the Korean people I asked because the subject isn’t specified anywhere in the first two lines.  Whose head?  Who doesn’t know?  Whose arms?  Who says 시원하다?  Etc.  But if you use the interpretation of him as a ghost, I feel like the subjects I chose make the most sense.

-In the second line, I puzzled and puzzled over the correct way to translate 시원하다.  If I just say “It’s cool” or “I feel cool”, it sounds like 멋있다.  And using words like “refreshing” or “rejuvenating” makes it sound stupid and awkward.  If you have a better alternative please let me know!

-Also, in line four, I think the implication is “You look right through me”, but I didn’t want to stray too far from the original language, so I figured that was a good enough translation.

***

* 단 한 번만 한 번만 날 찾아봐 제발 
흐느끼면 더욱 흐느낄수록 투명해져만 가는데
죽을 만큼 간절한 내 기도의 끝에
내 품에 가질 수 있게 오직 너만이 찾아준다면

But just once, just once, try to find me, please
When you sob, with each sob I fade away a little more,
To the end of my prayers, which are so earnest I could die
To my heart, which you alone could have if you were just to look

***

-Line 2 was just awkward on a pragmatic level.  My dictionary lists options for 흐니끼다 as sob, whimper, whine, etc.  None of those sound appropriate for this situation - more for like if she were a child throwing a tantrum - but I didn’t want to take the easy way out and just write ‘cry’, so I went with the most palatable option, I think.

-I don’t feel secure about my grammar at the end of line 2 or through the whole of line 4.  Even knowing all the words and grammar structures, I don’t have the idiomatic background to tease a meaning out of it that I feel confident in.  Still, I did the best I could, and I think it’s fairly close.  Feel free to offer alternatives.

-**update** - based on help from another translation I saw, I changed it to reflect that I think her sobs are making him disappear.  It makes more sense than what I originally had!

***

희뿌연 겨울 서리에 내 마음을 그려 보여도 모르죠
흩뿌린 빗방울 모아 눈물 대신 흘려 보아도 모르죠
차가운 나이지만 널 향해 흐르잖아
네모난 날 항상 원망할 뿐이야

Even when I draw you a picture of my yearning heart in the blurry winter frost, you don’t know, do you?
Even when I gather scattered raindrops and you see them flowing in place of my tears, you don’t know, do you?
Though I’m cold, they’re flowing toward you
But you just always view me framed from afar

***

-In line 1, I couldn’t find ‘희뿌연’ in any dictionary, so I just went with the Google Translate option of ‘blurry’, which…I don’t feel great about, haha, but I think it might fit here.

 
-Line 2 is a doozy, but I feel like I did a fairly good job, no?

 
-The ‘cold’ in line 3 refers to an object (not the weather or a feeling), so I think it’s referring to his dead body (or his ghostly coldness maybe - for another interpretation, look at the end of my translation), but I’m not sure of any better way to convey that in English without putting words in the singer’s mouth.

 
-Line 4 is one of the ones I had the most trouble with.  네모난, by all accounts, means ‘squared’ or ‘made to be a square/rectangle’.  Unless it has some idiomatic meaning I’m unaware of, I don’t know how the singer could be ‘squared’.  I re-interpreted it as ‘boxed-in’, and then I struggled with what he was referring to - could it be a coffin?  But based on the music video, the rest of the line, and the conclusion of the song, I went ahead and interpreted it as referring to either a picture (he was made into a rectangle in the form of a photograph) or the window (he’s standing on the other side of the window frame).  ’squared’ and ‘boxed in’ in English seem even denser than 네모난, so I went ahead and clarified my interpretation by using ‘framed’, which could account for both of these possibilities.  I hope that’s not taking too many liberties.

-Also in line 4 is the word 원망하다.  Now, every person I’ve talked to said this was equivalent to ‘to be bitter’ or ‘to resent’, but I just can’t see any way that would make sense in this context.  The dictionary lists two other choices as ‘to wish for/desire’ and ‘to view from afar/to see in the distance’.  Either of those two could work, but since she’s looking at a picture or out the window (again, according to my interpretation), I went with the latter.  Not at all confident in this interpretation, I must say!

***

*REPEAT
금이 가 베이고 내 심장이 다 깨지고
거칠게 날이 선 끝에 Oh
조각조각 부서진 그땐 날 보게 될 텐데

Were my heart to be cracked open and wounded
Savagely on the edge of a blade, oh
Broken into pieces, then you might begin to see me

***

-For heaven’s sake, with this song!  Haha.  금이 가다 is to crack/be cracked, and 베이다 to to get cut, so it’s basically to have been cut, creating a crack/crevice.  There’s no way to word that eloquently so I kind of just ignored the 베이다…sorry, 베이다, dear, I still love you.  Although 심장 (heart) is only technically the subject of 다 깨지다, it would be complete speculation on my part to replace it with anything else in the first clause, so I just went with it for both of them (and for the next two lines, too).

-Okay, that last line.  Damn, now.  Let’s break it up. “그땐 날 보게 될 텐데”
그땐 - at that time
날 - me
보다 - to see
~게 되다 - to become…, to come to be…, to come to do…, to be decided
~ㄹ 테 - (notes expectation or anticipation)
~ㄴ 데 - (provides background information for another clause)
 So, ‘At that time, (I anticipate) (you) will come to see me (but…)’.  I don’t know how to convey that 그땐 without using tensed verbs unless I put the rest of the stanza into subjunctive, so that’s what I did.  I used a slightly archaic form, anyway, to avoid inserting ‘if’, and also to retain the poetic nature of the original song.  ’you might come to see’ seems confusing, so I changed it to ‘begin to see’.  I don’t really have any justification for the ‘might’ other than that it seems unlikely the speaker is certain of the fact that breaking his heart would make her see him, so…poetic license on my part, I suppose!

***

** 안보이니 이렇게 널 사랑하잖아 
한구석에 남은 너의 지문도 지독히 아로새긴 채
죽을 만큼 까맣게 멍든 가슴속을
꺼내 다 보여줬는데 그저 창 밖이 칠흑 같단 너

Can’t you see?  I love you this much
That even your fingerprints remain cruelly etched somewhere in the back of my mind
Black as death, the bruise within my chest
I pulled it out and showed you everything, but for you it’s still just pitch-black outside your window

***

-Honestly, I got close to giving up here.  Even though line 2 doesn’t make any mention of 마음, I saw no way to incorporate 한구석에 without it sounding extremely awkward unless I inserted it (I thought about ‘in the background’, but I felt like that was confusing?).  Also, 지독히 and 채 each have about a thousand possible interpretations, so again I looked to my overarching theme of the song for guidance, which is beginning to feel like cheating.

-I’m assuming the 같단 너 as in line 4 is a quotative, as in 같다고 한/하는 너, explaining how the situation seemed to her.  The rest of it…well…I did it as well as I was able, anyway.  If it’s anywhere close to right, it’s exquisite poetry (if not, then maybe it’s just me, lol).

***

안보이니 그저 창 밖이 칠흑 같단 너
하염없이 그저 창 밖만 바라보는 너

Can’t you see?  For you it’s still just pitch-black outside your window
You, just gazing absent-mindedly out of your window

*******

Okay so, TA-DA!  Here is my final interpretation:

Throughout this whole song, the running metaphor is that he is the window!!!  Proof:

• she rests her head on him
• his “two arms” open and she feels 시원하다
• he’s invisible & she looks through him
• he shows his heart through the frost (which fogs up the window)
• his tears are the raindrops running down the window
• she sees him framed/as a box (네모난 날)
• she could only see him if his heart were cracked and cut (like broken glass)
• her fingerprints are etched onto him

Fucking…go on and tell me that isn’t a masterpiece.  Even if I made a lot of mistakes in my translation, which I’m sure I did, the fact that I didn’t figure this out until the very end and yet there’s so much evidence that it’s true makes me feel like I must be onto something.

Honestly my little a-ha moment was like…earth-shattering. :D  This song was probably the hardest one I’ve ever attempted and actually completed, but even with its certain imperfections I am SO proud of myself for having been able to do it!  And Korean people tried to help me a little, but all the heavy lifting was done by moi alone, and I am just…yeah.  :DD

So what do you think?  Do you agree/disagree?  Can you see other possible interpretations?  Any particular lines that you want to question or revise?  Or alternatively, any questions about my analysis re: grammar and vocab that you’d like me to explain to you?  Let me know!