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Click to view previous issues: Issue 01: 시작(The Beginning)

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Hello, 안녕하세요, I’m back with issue 02 of ‘The Attic Playlist’! My name is Jiwon, and ‘The Attic Playlist’ is a series I have designed to introduce songs by musicians who are less popular to foreign listeners yet definitely worthy of recognition. In each issue, I will introduce five songs by different musicians. For every song, I will provide the full lyrics in Korean. Then, I will pick out a few lines from the lyrics that capture the mood of the song and provide a translation of them, so non-Korean speakers can also enjoy the meaning of them.

‘The Attic Playlist’ will be published once every two weeks.

This week’s theme

Recently I went to a charity ball at my college, and the theme was Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting called ‘The Starry Night’. It was a magical evening, but the magic continued until after the event. On our way home, my friends and I marvelled at the night sky. It was indeed a cold night, but the stars were shining brightly and warming our hearts. The stars I saw that night were impressive, so I decided to share the sentiment by sharing songs about starry night.

This week’s playlist

1. 버스커 버스커(Busker Busker) - 밤(Night)

2. 악동뮤지션(Akdong Musician) - 작은별(Little Star)

[Side note: I didn’t translate 악동 because how the word is usually used is not the intended meaning for the group name. 악동(惡童) usually means mischievous kid, but they used 樂 for 악, which means music, so 악동 for the group means musical kid.]

3. 토이(Toy) - 나는 달(I’m the Moon) (Vocal 이규호(Lee Gyu-Ho))

4. 성시경(Sung Si-Kyung) - 태양계(The Solar System)

5. 9와 숫자들(9 and numbers) - 북극성(Polaris)

I hope you have enjoyed the playlist, and feel free to comment below if you have any questions or concerns about my translation. I would also appreciate words of encouragement! All the Korean lyrics are from Naver Music, and all the videos are from Youtube.