With apologies for not writing about the positives of Korean popular culture more often, let me present Because of You (너 때문에) by After School (애프터스쿨). It’s one of my 10 favorite Korean songs, và easily their best.
Bạn đang xem: After school
Or at least, DJ Areia’s version of it above is, but I include the original below if you prefer.
The music clip however, is a little confusing. Not because it depicts a relationship between 2 women though: admittedly that was a surprise, but in hindsight the lyrics are completely gender neutral. Rather, it’s because there is a man – mã sản phẩm Song Jae-lim (송재림) – featured prominently throughout, & it’s not entirely clear who or what he’s supposed khổng lồ represent exactly. Indeed, with his collage of photos of different members of the group, closed-circuit TV monitoring of them, & finally holes in walls through which to lớn directly spy on them, then “voyeur” or “stalker” is what comes lớn mind personally, but I’d be surprised if that’s what the creative director intended.
If anyone can explain what he’s doing there then, then please let me know! In the meantime, I hope the translation adds lớn your enjoyment of the song, và for Korean learners I’ve included detailed explanations in those cases where I came across words or grammar that were new lớn me personally, or where my (Korean) wife và I had some difficulties. But I’m still quite happy lớn explain anything else though, & of course may have made some mistakes, so please give me a buzz in either case.
Here goes:
아직도 나 그대를 잊지못해
I never forget boy
I never forget boy
헤어진지 벌써 몇년이 지났는지 몰라
그대 생각만 하면 자꾸 눈물만 흘러
오늘따라 왜 그렇게 네가 보고플까
창밖의 빗소리가 내 맘을 흔들어놔
I still can’t forget you
I never forget boy
I never forget boy
Since we split up, already so many years have passed I’ve lost track
I only have lớn think of you, và I frequently
Why especially today vày I want to see you so much?
The sounds of the rain outside the window pane has gotten my heart beating
Line 5 was the first problem, which my wife và I actually argued about a little (albeit when we were both very tired), because although “만” usually means “only”, according to lớn her it can also mean “whenever” too. Và however annoying it is for learners like myself, I do concede that even the simplest of Korean words can have multiple meanings sometime, so although I haven’t encountered that use of the term myself yet, for a while I wisely deferred lớn her translation of it as “Whenever I think about you”.
But still, it bugged me, as surely “그대 (애대해서) 생각할때 마다”, say, would be a much less ambiguous way of saying that? Hence the result you see above, after resolving which we wisely decided to lớn start translating the next verse in the morning. Unfortunately however, that still left Line 7, which uses the construction of
I wasn’t familiar with that, but I did know
사랑하지 말걸 그랬어 정 주지 말걸 그랬어
붙잡지 말걸 그랬어 왜 이렇게 나 혼자 아파
사랑하지 말걸 그랬어 정주지 말걸 그랬어
붙잡지 말걸 그랬어 왜 이렇게 나 혼자 아파
난 항상 너만의 장미가 되려던 내 맘을 아니
이제 조각난 사랑의 마침표가 됐다는걸
눈물이 밀려와 메마른 입술이 젖어
이제 어떡해 그댈 잊을 수 없어
I shouldn’t have loved you, I shouldn’t have given you affection
I shouldn’t have asked you to stay, why am only I hurt so much?
I shouldn’t have loved you, I shouldn’t have given you affection
I shouldn’t have asked you lớn stay, why am only I hurt so much?
I was always going khổng lồ be your rose, vày you know my heart?
I know our shattered love’s final kết thúc has come
My gushing tears wet my dry lips
Why can’t I forget you now?
In lines 1-3, the construction Xem thêm: Top 10 Game Dành Cho Các Trò Chơi 2 Người Chơi, Game 2 Người Chơi
Line 6 though – 이제 조각난 사랑의 마침표가 됐다는걸 – was probably the hardest of the entire tuy vậy to translate. My xúc tích và ngắn gọn with “I know our shattered love’s final kết thúc has come” was, first, that the sentence is quite literally “Now-shattered-love’s-full stop/period-has come/formed/arrived I know”, with me writing “full stop/period” to lớn avoid anyone confusing “period” with a period of time, when actually “마침표” just means the punctuation at the kết thúc of a sentence. But then I decided that “final end” is what it is meant by that surely, và changed it accordingly.
Still, I admit that the sentence as a whole remains pretty strange, as in my experience “shattered love” has already has had “a final end” by virtue of shattering in the first place. Perhaps not so in Korean though?
Next, the chorus:
너 때문에 많이도 울었어 (매일밤 난)
너 때문에 많이도 웃었어 (그대 때문에)
너 때문에 사랑을 믿었어 (woo boy)
너 때문에 너 때문에 모두 다 잃었어
정말 답답답해 갑갑갑해 막막막해 너없는 세상이
내 말을 씹어놓고 자존심 짖밟아놓고
내 맘을 찢어놓고 왜 나를 떠나가
Because of you I cried a lot (every night I)
Because of you I laughed a lot (because of you)
Because of you I believed in love (woo boy)
Because of you, because of you, I lost everything
I am so frustrated, stifled, & lost in a world without you
You ignored what I said and walked all over me
You tore my heart khổng lồ shreds, why did you leave me?
Most of that was quite simple in contrast. Of course there are many alternatives in English for “닫답하다”, “갑갑하다”, & “막막하다” in Line 5, & the difference between the first 2 in particular is quite subtle. Indeed, although this was the first time I’d ever heard “갑갑하다” myself, my wife tells me that it is so similar khổng lồ “닫답하다” that it is often used in conjunction with it for emphasis.
Also, in line 6 & 7 there is the
Note though, that the last line should really have a “you” or “당신이” inserted, making it “내 맘을 찢어놓고 왜 당신이 나를 떠나가” or “You tore my heart khổng lồ shreds, why did you leave me?”. Và as I’ll explain, the question of who left whom exactly becomes important a little later.
그날도 비가 왔었지
한참을 그댄 말없이 나를 바라보기만 했어 어어어
흔들리는 눈빛과
애써 짓는 어색한 미소가 이별을 얘기해줘 줘줘줘
It rained that day too
For a long time, you just stared at me wordlessly
Through the light of your eyes & your labored, awkward smile, I realized you were going lớn split up with me
That’s quite straightforward, so I’ll just continue:
사랑하지 말걸 그랬어 정주지 말걸 그랬어
붙잡지 말걸 그랬어 왜 이렇게 나 혼자 아파
사랑하지 말걸 그랬어 정주지 말걸 그랬어
붙잡지 말걸 그랬어 왜 이렇게 나 혼자 아파
나보고 떠나가라고 할땐 언제고
떠난다니까 어쩌고 미친사람 취급만 해 정말 힘들어 (Boy slooow down)
아무런 말도 못한 채 울어
Cause I want lớn stay next to you
My love is true Wanna go back to lớn when I was with you
I shouldn’t have loved you, I shouldn’t have given you affection
I shouldn’t have asked you lớn stay, why am only I hurt so much?
I shouldn’t have loved you, I shouldn’t have given you affection
I shouldn’t have asked you khổng lồ stay, why am only I hurt so much?
You are the one who told me khổng lồ leave
After saying that, why did you only treat me lượt thích I was crazy? It was so painful and difficult for me
I cried so hard I couldn’t speak
Cause I want lớn stay next khổng lồ you
My love is true Wanna go back lớn when I was with you
The question of who left whom is important because of Line 5, “나보고 떠나가라고 할땐 언제고”. The “보고” in that is just another way of saying “한테”, leaving us with literally “To me-ordered
I despaired then, & it didn’t help that I thought it was the other person that left the singer(s) either. My wife came lớn the rescue though, by saying that although the dictionary says “”언제고” is “someday”, it’s also used for emphasizing that someone said something to you, và not the other way round. She also told me that that meant I could omit the “when” too, và hence you the final result “You are the one who told me to lớn leave”.
That still leaves the question of who left whom though, especially as the next line was “After saying that, why did you only treat me lượt thích I was crazy?”. My best guess then, is that the ex-girlfriend told the singer(s) to lớn leave, and when she didn’t, the ex-girlfriend left instead, especially given the last line of the tuy vậy which you’ll see in a moment.
Next is the chorus again though, so I’ll skip ahead to the next verse. Và if you haven’t been listening to lớn the remix version, then I highly recommend you at least listen khổng lồ this section from 2:42 (3:03 in the original), as it’s not for nothing that I said back in May that “the background melodies at that point raise my spirits from virtually any depths, and make me feel like I can conquer the world, even after probably 200+ times of listening to lớn the song”!
I miss you I need you 꿈 속에선 아직도 I’m with you
I miss you (miss you) I need you (need you)
시간을 되돌려 Wanna kiss you again ma boy
맘이 너무 아픈데 견디기 괴로운데
너는 어디서 뭘하니 (나 울었어 참 많이)
너 없인 난 못살아 내게로 돌아와줘 날 떠나가지마
I miss you, I need you, You’re still in my dreams, I’m with you
I miss you (miss you) I need you (need you)
I wish I could go back khổng lồ then, Wanna kiss you again ma boy
My heart aches, enduring it is so painful
What are you doing now, where are you (I cried so much)
I can’t live without you, Please come back to me, Please don’t leave me
And finally there is the chorus again. Again then, I hope you can all enjoy the song much better now, & if you’re a tín đồ of After School then you may also lượt thích to kiểm tra out my translations of the lyrics lớn Ah! (아!) và Bang! (뱅!) too. & the tuy vậy Lyrics và Translations category in general of course; alas, there’s only 1 tuy nhiên by another artist in there as I type this, but I promise to add many more soon!
