Learning Korean through music: 꿈의 택배편 by 자우림

A post from another site of mine that I originally wrote on 2004.01.07. No YouTube video seems to be available for this. Remember, the translation is done as literally as possible, in order to help the student.

Original post from 2004:

This song is called 꿈의 택배편. 꿈 means dream and 택배편 is a courier service. It's quite a nice song; easy to hear and the expressions used in it are ones that one would hear a lot in a normal conversation, quite colloquial.
This is the first song I've uploaded from their third CD. Musically it's probably their best but a lot of the songs in it are hard to hear / have really difficult or metaphorical content. I still like these songs so and will be uploading the more difficult ones near the end.



Song lyrics

9)하나 둘 쌓이는 마음의 오해 속에, 우리는 하나도 서로를 이해하려고 하지 않은거야, 하나도
꿈에서, 꿈으로 마음이 전해지면 좋을 텐데,
미안해, 몰랐어, 나를 향했던 뜨거웠던 마음 따윈 하나도
비 오던 날 밤에 날 보던 눈빛에도 비추지 않았었잖아. 내게도 조금은, 보여주면 좋았을 텐데.
그런 맘 나도 알았었다면, 그런 맘 내게 열었었다면..
하나 둘 어긋난 단어의 선택속에 우리는 하나도 서로를 이해할 수가 없던거야, 그랬던거야,
그래서, 몰랐어, 나를 향했던 안타까운 마음따윈 하나도
말해도 웃어도, 어쩔 수 없던 거잖아. 아무리 생각해 봐도, 상처는 싫었어, 어쩔 수 없는 거잖아.
그렇게 아무것도 모르니? 그렇게 아무것도 몰랐니?
몰랐어, 하나도.

From a few compounded misunderstandings, we never once tried to understand each other, not even once
If only my feelings could be carried from one dream to another,
I'm sorry, I didn't know, I didn't know about the warm feelings you had for me
Those eyes that looked at me the night the rain fell didn't shine at all...if you had only shown something to me...
If I had known about those feelings, if you had opened those feelings up to me...
Because of a few badly chosen words we never understood each other, did we?
And so, I didn't know, I didn't know anything about the painful feelings you felt for me
Whether I talk or smile, there's nothing I can do...no matter how much I think about it I hated getting hurt so there's nothing I can do
Do you really not know anything? Did you really not know anything?
I didn't know anything...

쌓이다-To build up, pile.
오해-Misunderstanding. Opposite of 이해, understanding.
전하다-To send, transfer.
향하다-To head towards, face.
따위는(따윈)-And so on, or something. Used after a noun. E.g. 고양이 따위는 무섭지 않다-I'm not scared of such things as cats.
비추다-To shine.
조금-A little.
열다-To open. To be open is 열리다.
어긋나다-To be mistaken, e.g. 어긋난 의견 - A mistaken opinion.
단어-Individual word, vocabulary.
선택하다-To choose.
안타깝다-Poor, pitiful, irritating.
어쩔 수 없다-Nothing one can do. This is used a lot in conversation, like in the phrase 'Yeah but well, whaddaya gonna do?'
아무리..(verb)..해도-No matter how much you... 아무리 열심히 공부해도 한국어를 못 해요. No matter how hard I study I just cant speak Korean.
상처-Wound.
맘 - heart. Abbreviated form of 마음.

잖아-Don't you think, right? This is an abbreviated form of 지 않아? For example -
너는 거짓말을 했다 - You lied.
너는 거짓말을 했잖아! - You lied, didn't you?
넌 야체 먹기 좋아 - You like eating vegetables.
넌 야체 먹지 좋잖아? You like eating vegetables, don't you? This can be made polite as always with the addition of 요 at the end.
근데 많이 연습했잖아요, 왜 낙제했어요? - But you studied hard though, didn't you? How did you fail?
좋을 텐데-It would be good (but)...This expression is used to express regret. 만약에 더 열심히 공부했더면 벌써 정치가가 되었을텐데...Had I studied harder I would already be a politician by now... Also note 테니까, which has the meaning of because. 좋을 테니까 - because it's good.

어쩔 수 없는 거잖아 - 어쩔 수 없다 by itself means means 'there's nothing you can do', but there is a 거 + 잖아 afterwards which may look confusing. 거 is short for 것, which is a thing, an abstract thing. An awkward but helpful translation of this sentence would be "That's a thing I can't do anything about, hey?" A nicer translation might be "You see, there's nothing I can do about that".