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soryang

(3,299 posts)
Mon Apr 20, 2020, 02:08 AM Apr 2020

Springtime is gone- Lee Jung-pyo



[경성살롱] 봄이 지나가는 4월에 들어요. 이정표의 '봄날은 간다'

This song first came out in 1953, close to the time of the truce in the Korean conflict. It's a popular oldie, and many of South Korea's singers have sung their own versions over the years. There are some songs with the same title in Korean which are not the same song. The imagery of disillusionment that the Korean conflict brought with it is embodied in the song as the promise of a youthful generation after the liberation in 1945 was lost again during the ravages of the Korean war. As the song was written during the dictatorship it takes a personal reflective perspective to avoid overt political content. The meaning of the song is embodied in the national consciousness. I particularly like Lee Jung-pyo's interpretation on the gayageum which just came out on youtube. By way of contrast:

Spring is Coming (Korean: 봄이온다 ) was a concert that occurred in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 1 and 3, 2018. It included numerous South Korean performers, and was described as an important event in the 2018 thaw in the North Korea–South Korea relations.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_is_Coming


I translated the title Springtime is gone. It isn't the literal translation. I've seen title translations such as Springtime goes, One spring day, etc. I tried to catch the meaning in my translation below of the original hangul as I couldn't find one elsewhere:

봄날은 간다 (1953) Springtime is gone

lyrics 손로원 melody 박시춘; 백설회

As my pink skirt fluttered in the spring breeze
Today too, my dress tie snapping away
Mountain sparrows fly across the shrine path
When the flowers bloom, we'd laugh together, if flowers died, together we'd cry,
In that tender promise, the springtime gone.

Deep green leaves of grass, did float by in the flowing water
Today too, flower petals fall away,
Blue throated birds warble on horse cart road
When stars appeared, we'd laugh, when they set we'd cry
Those frivolous memories of spring gone by,

Age of nineteen, by twilight recalled , became sad,
Still, my breast beats strongly
As a drifting cloud over a new road
Birds take flight, I follow smiling,
If the birds cry, I follow wailing
That evocative song, springtime is gone.

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