섬집 아기 Island Baby

 

 

This song was released in April 1950, just two months before the breakout of Korea War by the prolific composer Lee Heung-yeol 이흥렬 over a poem released back in 1946. This song became a must in elementary-schools music class by early 1960s and is now one of the national hymns of Korean people. The simple lyrics describing a baby and mother in a poor seaside village seems to epitomize the state the country was in right after the Liberation. Notable should be the undaunted musical productivity of the Korean people as it went through the series of national tribulations.

When Park In-Hee released this song in one of her albums in 1970s, all young people had known this song from their elementary-school years, but this song in Park's pure voice struck the chord with the Korean mind, young and old, regardless.

 Island Baby by Park In-hee released 1974

          

엄마가 섬그늘에 굴 따러 가면   When Mother goes out to shades to pick oysters

아기가 혼자 남아 집을 보다가   Baby watches home alone

바다가 불러주는 자장 노래에     He falls asleep on his own arm

스르르르 팔을 베고  잠이 듭니다     to the lullaby the sea sings for him

아기는 잠을 곤히 자고 있지만   He’s sleeping deep like a baby,

갈매기 울음소리 맘이 설레여    but Mother, unsettled at the cry of seagulls,

다 못찬 굴바구니 머리에 이고   runs across the sand

엄마는 모랫길을 달려옵니다     with the unfilled basket on her head

 

 Park In-hee singing the "Island Baby" in September 2024 

50 years after the release of the song by her voice in 1974 

in the concert held for the audience of her generation

Japanese singer Azma Aki singing "Island Baby" in a Korean TV show in March 2025 

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Sy Jo, Author of this article, was born in Busan, and majored in Business Administration at Yonsei University. He worked in  the telecommunication industry, specializing in telecommunications policy and international relations.