The Grand Narrative

(“Wax Hands” by euii) 

Sometime last week, I noticed that someone had found my post on Wax by typing “Wax Oppa lyrics” or something to that effect. Having gone on so much about how much I liked the song and how important knowing the song was to integrating yourself into Korean society, then I realised that was lax in not at least providing the lyrics and a translation, and he or she was surely disappointed. Sure, I admit that with post titles like “Korean Booty and Democratization: Part 1” (and Part 2) most lots of visitors to my blog are disappointed at what they find, but I can’t please everyone. I’ll try to please the Wax fan(s) though.

So, there were many translations of Oppa on the web when I last looked 3 years ago, but they all sucked for various reasons, mostly because while the song is great for beginners it turns out that it has a lot of quirks, and much of the grammar is harder than it looks. And, as you’ll see, literal translations really don’t work, but if you don’t provide them and give a more natural English one instead then it can be very difficult to understand the Korean from it. But never fear, for I will give quite detailed explanations of everything. As far as I know, I’m the first person ever to do so. So may I present:

The definitive English guide to Oppa, surely to be used as a Korean teaching resource for decades to come!

It took 3 hours, the last of which was admittedly transferring it all from Word to WordPress.com and trying to sort out all the fricking formatting. In the end, I had to include pictures of Wax to try to break it into more digestible chunks. In the process of finding them, I learned that her real name was 조혜리/Cho Hye-ri.

First, the song by itself for you to photocopy and impress Korean commuters with by pretending to study it on the subway:

그냥 편한 느낌이 좋았어

좋은 사람이라고 생각했어

하지만 이게 뭐야

점점 남자로 느껴져

아마 사랑하고 있었나봐

코러스:

오빠 나만 바라봐

봐봐 그렇게 봐봐

아파 마음이 아파

내 맘 왜 몰라쥐

오빠 그녀는 왜 봐

거봐 그녀는 나빠

봐봐 이제 나를 가져봐

(이제 나를 가져봐)

왜 날 여자로 안 보는거니

짜꾸 안된다고하는거니

다른 연인들을 봐봐

처음엔 오빠로 다 시작해

결국 사랑하며 잘 살아가

(코러스)

(너무 이상한 영어랩)

아무것도 아나라 해도

나는 상처 받아 (나는 상처받아)

이런 내가 싫다해도

지쳐버릴 내가 아냐

(코러스)

Now, the song one verse at a time, with my basic translation underneath each, and then notes on the grammar and vocabulary etc. etc. below that. There can be a lot of the latter, so I’ll do them bullet style and mention which line of the verse I’m talking about so you don’t lose track of things.

그냥 편한 느낌이 좋았어

좋은 사람이라고 생각했어

하지만 이게 뭐야

점점 남자로 느껴져

아마 사랑하고 있었나봐

“I just liked the comfortable feeling

I thought you were a good person

But what’s this?

I began to think of you more and more as a man

Maybe I was falling in love with you”

• - L1: Okay, 그냥 just means “no reason” most of the time, but for emphasis it can be added as an adjective to just about everything to mean “nothing special”. In this case it adds to the 편한, or “comfortable, to emphasize she really did just have a normal comfortable feeling from the friendship.
• - L2: The 이라고 is indirect speech for 이다. It would miss out the 이 if the noun before it ended in a vowel. Indirect speech is definitely not for beginners, so you can save that for later.
• - L4: “로” can mean many things, but usually means a direction or a change of state, and in this case she originally thinks of him as a friend but more and more (점점) as a man (남자). It’s put after the final state or destination, so 남자로.
• - L4: 느껴져 comes from 느끼다, meaning to feel, experience or be conscious of. 지다, or its conjugation 져요, can mean many things when attached to the end of a verb or an adjective. In the case of the latter, it means to change to that state (ie 피곤하다, conjugated as 피곤해, +conjugated 지다=져요, altogether = 피곤해져요 “to become tired”. But in this case, the 지다 is a causative, known as a 수동 in Korean. So something, the thing she just talked about in “But what’s this,” caused her to make her thing of the friend as a man.
• - L5: The “~고 있었나봐” in 사랑하고 있었나봐 is used to make guesses. In this case it’s in its’ past continuous form, so obviously a verb must go before the 고. The present continuous form is ~고 있나봐. For 이다, use 인가봐 (ie 모르는 사람 인가봐 “He/She must be a stranger”) For adjectives, use ~은가봐 (ie, Why does he like her? 예쁜가봐 “She must be pretty”). I’ve only just scratched the surface of this way of making a guess (there are others), and there are many more rules and tenses, so better get out the grammar book(s) and bone up on this one yourself. But you definitely should, its used in colloquial speech all the time.

오빠 나만 바라봐

봐봐 그렇게 봐봐

아파 마음이 아파

내 맘 왜 몰라줘

오빠 그녀는 왜 봐

거봐 그녀는 나빠

봐봐 이제 나를 가져봐

(이제 나를 가져봐)

Oppa, only look at me

Please look this way

My heart hurts

Why don’t you know how I feel?

Oppa, why are you interested in her?

I told you, she’s bad

Please let me be yours now

• - L1: 바라보다 really means stare, or gaze, but saying that in English sounds a little stupid so I didn’t literally translate. Same goes for the rest of the verse.
• - L2: Literally “look look, that way look look.” See?
• - L3: 마음 is often translated as heart, and less as mind, but actually in Korean no distinction is made between them and so 마음 means both. Even saying its both doesn’t really give you a proper sense of what the word really means. Anyway, now you will know why Koreans tend to have problems with its English equivalents.
• - L4: 맘 is short for 마음. The 줘 in 몰라 is a bit confusing, because usually adding 주다 (it conjugates to 줘) to a verb means “please (verb) for me.” But in this case it obviously doesn’t mean that. My wife says that it’s just used for emphasis in the case of 왜 몰라, and can only really be used as such with just that.
• - L5: 그녀 is obviously the object here, and so normally it would be 그녀를, but it has been changed to 는 here and in L6 for emphasis. Just annoying for me though.
• - L6: 거봐, or 거봐라, is an informal way of saying “I told you”
• - L7(&8) 가지다 means “have” or “take”. 보다, conjugated as 봐, when added to a verb means try to do that verb. So literally she is saying “Look look, try to have me now” of “Look look, try to take me now”. In this case, I prefer the literal translation, but those phrases don’t have quite the same meanings in Korean, so I had to change the translation really.

왜 날 여자로 안 보는거니

짜꾸 안된다고하는거니

다른 연인들을 봐봐

처음엔 오빠로 다 시작해

결국 사랑하며 잘 살아가

Why do you not look at me as a woman?

Why do you always say no?

Look at other lovers

Originally, they were friends

In the end, they fell in love and lived well

• - L1: This uses 로 again, but personally I think 처럼, which means “as” would have been much better.
• - L1&2: 는거기(or ㄴ거니 if the verb or adjective before it ends in a consonant) is an informal way of asking a question.
• - L3: 안되다 means no, 안된다고 is it in indirect speech (I told you it was tough)
• - L4: 처음엔 is 처음, the beginning or start, plus 에, the time or place marker which usually means “at” or “to”, and then plus 는, the subject marker. And 처음엔 is short for 처음에는. So the subject is “at the start”, or “originally”.
• - L5: After you learn 면, “if”, you will start noticing this며 too. I was confused by it for a long time, but it turns out its just a simple connective of two clauses.

아무것도 아나라 해도

나는 상처 받아 (나는 상처받아)

이런 내가 싫다해도

지쳐버릴 내가 아냐

Even though it’s nothing really

I get hurt

Even though I hate being like this

I won’t give up

• - L1&3: As with almost everything else here, saying 해도 means “even” is a bit simplistic, as what goes before it changes depending on the kind of word (ie L1… 아니라 해도 “even though it isn’t…”, and L3…싫다해도 “even though I hate…”, but just remembering that is a good start.
• - L2: 상처 is literally a wound or injury
• - L3: 이런 means this kind, but 내가 means “I,” so this is all a bit confusing. Either it should be 나를 “me”, and has been changed for emphasis, or bits are missing. I give up. Regardless, the intended meaning is “내가 이런 나를 싫다해도,” which is literally “I this-kind me hate even,” or “even though I hate this kind of me,” or, as I said, “even though I hate being like this.”
• - L4: 지처버리다 means to get exhausted. Literally she’s saying “get exhausted (future) I no,” or “I won’t get exhausted,” or “I won’t give up.”

And that’s it! What y’all think? I welcome comments and attention to any mistakes, as it’s 12.51am here and I’m damn well going to go to put this up after working on it for 3 hours. I’ll check it myself in the morning. Night!

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