💾 Archived View for 7irb.tk › dongyo › 210617-byeolttongbyeol.gmi captured on 2021-12-17 at 13:26:06. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

～ 칠 색 밭 ～

별똥별 (Shooting Star) (1995)

1. 여름 밤 동해바다 달빛 고운 백사장에

모닥불 피워놓고 옛이야기 듣고 있을 때

수많은 별들 중에 별 하나가 떨어지네

아쉬움만 남겨놓고 별똥별은 사라졌네

별아 별아 내 소원 좀 들어주렴

내 소원은 내 소원은

파란 하늘을 훨훨 날으는 새가 되고 싶다

2. I remember a fantastic beach with moon of summer night

When a fairy tale comes to me and campfire glows up to the sky

One little star falls down saying goodbye to her friends

I want to keep a shooting star but it goes out to farther land

My star lucky star I want to tell my hope to you

I want to be I want to be

A free bird flying the sky to meet all my friends

Composer & Lyricist 김봉학

Video (Singer 송다원)

Pointless comments

This song debuted in 1995. To be honest the lyrics feel kinda hollow to me. The scenery depicted is undoubtedly beautiful and romantic, but wishing to be a bird sounds very cliché. That being said, sometimes I do want to be a bird, so that I can freely fly to other countries without a passport.

Kim Bong-Hak is a very famous composer in the children's song world. His most well-known work is <종이접기> or "paperfolding" which won the grand prize of the 4th MBC creative children's song festival. "Shooting star" is also very popular and it has made its way into music textbooks (e.g., 5th grade, MiraeN edition).

Page from textbook with the score of this song

To view the entire textbook

The highlight of this song is its starting rhythm. "Yeo . . leum . ba-m Donghae bada--", very memorable indeed. I think this part should be sang softly to create a tranquil mood, as the girl in the linked video wonderfully did. Her name is Song Da-Won, 6th grader at 탄천초 (炭川初, name of primary school). Tons of recordings exist of this song but this live version is my favourite. It is recorded at the 6th "firefly children's song festival" in June 2007. This festival is held annually as part of the "firefly festival" in an area called Muju (무주) known for its... you guessed it, fireflies.

The English lyrics were part of the original composition but they are rarely sang these days. The textbook does not include them either. Albeit being a pretty close translation of the Korean lyrics, there seem to be several minor grammatical issues and a certain degree of difficulty in fitting to the song's rhythm. But I cannot blame, as it must have been quite a courageous endeavor on the part of the composer. There are two recordings that contain the English lyrics. The first one is the original recording in <파랑새 창작동요 5집> by 담경선. The second one is in <콩나무 빈트리 1집> (released 2008) by 이태한. Here's the latter for ya.

2008 recording with English lyrics (beware loud intro)

In Korean, 별 means "star", and 똥 means "shit". So 별똥별 literally means a star-shit star. Very funny. A more "academic" way of saying this would be 유성 (流星), a Chinese-originated word. Similarly, 별똥돌, "star-shit stone", or "meteorite", would be 운석 (隕石) in a more formal setting.

동해 or Donghae is the Korean way of refering to the Sea of Japan. It literally means "East Sea". In fact 해 (海) already means sea so it is pointless to put 바다, the native Korean word for "sea" after 동해. But this kind of repetition in meaning is surprisingly common in everyday language. Along the coast of 동해, there are many 백사장 (白沙場), or white sandy beaches.

The word 날으는 in the last line of the Korean lyrics is a non-standard form of the verb 날다, "to fly". The corresponding standard form is 나는. The -는 ending is used because the verb "fly" functions here as a modifier of the noun "bird". In some circumstances 날으는 is deliberately used in order to avoid being interpreted as "I am", which is also written as 나는. However here the word choice seems to arise from a rhythmic requirement.