I have a huge advantage compared to most international army: I speak, read and understand Korean, and it's a huge part of why I love BTS so much, because their lyrics are Dope!
Sometimes (actually most of the time) translations of their songs lack context and some lines aren't fully explained.
Using my Korean knowledge, I'm going to explain an important term that BTS often use and refer to in their lyrics.
I've never seen this line translated in detail, and it carries a lot of cultural meaning so it can be a little difficult to understand. But I'll try to lay it out clearly so you can see the true genius of their lyrics.
(X-po-sae-de)
The term appears in both '쩔어 (Dope)' and in '뱁새 (Baepsae)' and it's a Korean term that you'll often find in the media.
Let's have a look at the specific lyrics to explain, and find out what it has to do with Hope.
"언론에선 만날 몇포세대"
- J-Hope in '뱁새 (Baepsae)' -
The line directly translates like this:
언론에선 : In the media
만날 : meet
몇 : amount of
포 : give up
세대 : generation
Put it all together and we get:
In the media we meet the term "a generation that has given up on so-and-so many things".
But what does that mean?
Rap Monster's lyrics in Dope make it easier to explain, so let's take a look at those.
"삼포세대? 오포세대?
그럼 난 육포가 좋으니까 육포세대."
- Rap Monster in '쩔어 (Dope)' -
I'm not going to give you a (excuse my British) crappy translation. Instead let's break it down one word at a time and translate it properly.
삼포세대?
삼 : three
포 : give up
세대 : generation
The proper translation of that word would be: a generation that gave up three things.
A few years back, the Korean media started labelling the younger generation as a generation who abandoned essential parts of life.
What did they give up?
According to the media young people were giving up three essential parts of life:
1. Dating
2. Marriage
3. Childbirth
Why are they giving it up?
Because of the tough economic state of the country and a lack of opportunity, the young generation has to work so much harder to get a job and survive.
The only way for them to survive is to forgo dating, due to lack of time, and to forgo marriage and childbirth due to a lack of money.
They are, and were, condemned by circumstance. But - there is also a more positive approach to the issue.
One might say that the newer generations hold different values from the older generation. The young generations seek personal fulfilment above all else.
They seek a life in which they are enriched by their work and their actions, but the media condemns them for this because they don't understand why someone would favour that over traditional values.
Les carry on.
오포세대?
오 : five
포 : give up
세대 : generation
A generation that gave up five essentials.
According to the media, after giving up on dating, marriage and childbirth, the young people began to give up on more things.
4. Human relationships
5. Housing/work
There simply is not time to keep up with even the most basic human relations because working to survive is so hard in the current economic state. Housing prices are too high too and paying jobs difficult to get.
