아름다운 강산 This Beautiful Land

 

Shin Jung-hyeon is often said the greatest musician in the modern Korean pop music. He was born in 1938 in Seoul. His biological  mother was Japanese but she died when he was very small and he grew up with siblings born under his Korean step-mother. When he was a small kid, his family was relatively affluent and there was a  big LP player in the house, exposing him to the world of music. But he lost his parents during the war period in Korea and he couldn't even finish the high school. He started working in an US Army base in 1955 as a hand for the music stage, in his high school uniform because he didn't have any outwears presentable. He had played the guitar since his middle school years and he was allowed to play guitar on the stage two years later. He left the US Army base stage in 1964 and launched the rock group named ADD4 in the same year and began to emerge as the leader of the Korean modern music as song-writer, guitarist and band leader, incorporating the wide spectrum of pop music genres from rock, soul, ballad to psychedelic and even Korean traditional folk music elements. In the course he contributed to the trend of the world music silently.

This song 아름다운 강산, This Beautiful Land, was released in 1972. Longer than eight minutes of play time, this song shows the mixture of the elements from the western music and Korean traditional. Ths song is often regarded as unofficial national anthem of Korea. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------lyrics

하늘은 파랗게 구름은 하얗게  실바람도 불어와 부풀은 내 마음   

 Sky so blue,   Cloud so white,  A thread of breeze blowing up my heart

나뭇잎 푸르게 강물도 푸르게     아름다운 이곳에 내가 있고 네가 있네                                               leaves so green,  River so blue,  in this beautiful place I am and you are                                                                                            

손잡고 가보자 달려보자 저 광야를    우리들 모여서 말해보자 새희망을.   

let’s go out  run to the open wilds hand in hand, Let’s get together and talk about the new hope

하늘은 파랗게 구름은 하얗게   실바람도 불어와 부풀은 내 마음    

Sky so blue  Cloud  so white  a thread of breeze blowing up my heart

우리는 이땅위에 우리는 태어나고   아름다운 이곳에 자랑스런 이곳에 살리라.                                  We are here born in this land   We’ll stay to live this land, so beautiful, so proud

찬란하게 빛나는 붉은 태양이 비추고  하얀 물결 넘치는 저 바다와 함께있네  

Where the glorious red sun shines down    Where the ocean overspills with white waves

그얼마나 좋은가 우리사는 이곳에  사랑하는 그대와 노래 하리.

How wonderful it is    Right where we are living I would sing with you my dear love

오늘도 너를 만나러 가야지 말해야지   먼훗날에 너와 나 살고지고       

Today I would go see you and say     In the far future you and I would get along and by

영원한 이곳에 우리의 새꿈을  만들어 보고파.

wish to make our new dream in this eternal land of ours

봄여름이 지나면 가을 겨울이 온다네    아름다운 강산.

Spring and Summer pass by    Autumn and Winter come     This beautiful rivers and mountains

너의 마음은 나의 마음 나의 마음은 너의 마음    너와 나는 한마음 너와 나 

Your heart is my heart  My heart is your heart     You and I are of one heart    You and I

우리 영원히 영원히. 사랑 영원히 영원히    우리 모두 다 모두.. 다 끝없이 다정해 

We forever Love forever     All of us all together    Loving each other endlessly

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This song is one of the most covered by the other singers. Here is the one by Jeon In-gwon and Park Ki-young performed in the TV Show named 'Immortal Songs:Singing the Legend'- 불후의 명곡-in April 2017.  Observe how the Korean audience responds to this song.

Shin himself took this song of his making special. He had many singers sing this song and he liked to produce new versions of the song. Here you have the psychidelic version of the song.

end.