Intro : Persona

나는 누구인가 평생 물어온 질문
Who am I, the question I’ve asked all my life

아마 평생 정답은 찾지 못할 그 질문
The question that I probably won’t find the answer to for the rest of my life

나란 놈을 고작 말 몇 개로
If I could explain a guy like me

답할 수 있었다면
with just a few words

신께서 그 수많은 아름다움을
Then God wouldn’t have bothered

다 만드시진 않았겠지
to create all that beauty

How you feel? 지금 기분이 어때?
How you feel? How do you feel right now?

사실 난 너무 좋아 근데 조금 불편해
Honestly, I feel so good, but I’m a little uncomfortable

나는 내가 개인지 돼진지
I still don’t know whether I’m

뭔지도 아직 잘 모르겠는데
a dog or a pig, or whatever I am

남들이 와서 진주목걸일 거네
But other people come and hang a pearl necklace* around my neck

칵 퉤
Ach-Ptui*²

예전보단 자주 웃어
I smile more often than before

소원했던 Superhero
The superhero that I wished to be

이젠 진짜 된 것 같어
Now I feel like I’ve really become one

근데 갈수록 뭔 말들이 많어
But the further I go, the more they have to say

누군 달리라고 누군 멈춰서라 해
Some say run, some say stop

얘는 숲을 보라고
This one says to look at the forest

걔는 들꽃을 보라 해
That one to look at the wildflowers

내 그림자
My shadow

나는 망설임이라 쓰고 불렀네
I wrote and called him ‘Hesitation’

걘 그게 되고 나서
After he became that

망설인 적이 없었네
He never hesitated again

무대 아래든 아님 조명 아래든
Whether it’s off the stage or under the spotlight

자꾸 나타나
He keeps appearing

아지랑이처럼 뜨겁게
As heatedly as the waves of heat above the road

자꾸 날 노려보네 Oh shit
He keeps glaring at me Oh shit

야 이 짓을 왜 시작한 건지
Hey man, why did you even start all this?

벌써 잊었냐
Have you already forgotten?

넌 그냥 들어주는 누가 있단 게
You just loved the fact

막 좋았던 거야
that there was someone who listened to you

가끔은 그냥 싹 다 헛소리 같아
Sometimes it all just seems like gibberish

취하면 나오는 거 알지 치기 같아
You know that stuff that you say when you’re drunk, it all seems childish

나 따위가 무슨 music
Who am I to make music?

나 따위가 무슨 truth
Who am I to be truth?

나 따위가 무슨 소명
Who am I to have a calling?

나 따위가 무슨 muse
Who am I to be a muse?

내가 아는 나의 흠
The flaws that I know I have

어쩜 그게 사실 내 전부
Perhaps they are all that there is to me

세상은 사실 아무 관심 없어
The world doesn’t care at all

나의 서툼
about my inexperience

이제 질리지도 않는 후회들과
I don’t even get sick of these regrets anymore

매일 밤 징그럽게 뒹굴고
I wallow in them disgustingly every night

돌릴 길 없는 시간들을
I can’t turn back these times

습관처럼 비틀어도
even though I keep twisting them like a habit

그때마다 날 또 일으켜 세운 것
The thing that raised me back up again and again

최초의 질문
That first question

내 이름 석 자
The three letters of my name

그 가장 앞에 와야 할 But
The word that should come in front of them, But

So I’m askin’ once again yeah

Who the hell am I?

Tell me all your names baby

Do you wanna die?

Oh do you wanna go?

Do you wanna fly?

Where’s your soul?

where’s your dream?

Do you think you’re alive?

My name is “R”

내가 기억하고 사람들이 아는 나
The me that I remember and that the people know

날 토로하기 위해
The me that I created myself

내가 스스로 만들어낸 나
in order to spill out what was inside of me

Yeah 난 날 속여왔을지도
Yeah, maybe I’ve been deceiving myself

뻥쳐왔을지도
Maybe I’ve been lying this whole time

But 부끄럽지 않아
But I’m not ashamed of it

이게 내 영혼의 지도
This is the map of my soul

Dear myself

넌 절대로 너의 온도를 잃지 마
Don’t ever lose your own temperature

따뜻히도 차갑게도 될 필요 없으니까
There’s no need to become hotter or colder

가끔은 위선적이어도 위악적이어도
Sometimes I might pretend to be good, sometimes to be bad*³

이게 내가 걸어두고 싶은
But this is what I want to hang up on display

내 방향의 척도
The scale*³ of my direction

내가 되고 싶은 나 사람들이 원하는 나
The me I want to become, the me that people want

니가 사랑하는 나 또 내가 빚어내는 나
The me you love, the me that I create

웃고 있는 나 가끔은 울고 있는 나
The me who is laughing, the me who is sometimes crying

지금도 매분 매순간 살아 숨쉬는
Who, even now, is living and breathing every minute, every second, this

Persona*⁴

Who the hell am I?

I just wanna go I just wanna fly

I just wanna give you

all the voices till I die

I just wanna give you

all the shoulders when you cry

Persona

Who the hell am I?

I just wanna go I just wanna fly

I just wanna give you

all the voices till I die

I just wanna give you

all the shoulders when you cry

Translators’ Notes:

* A reference to the phrase ‘casting pearls before swine’.
2. Sound effects of gathering spit, then spitting.
3. A play on words. ‘위선’ means ‘hypocrisy’ or ‘pretending to be good’, while ‘위악’ is its opposite, meaning ‘pretending to be evil’.
A few lines below that, ‘척도’ is a ‘scale’ or means of measuring something, but it can also be separated into ‘척’ and ‘도’ which would turn it into ‘the amount of pretense’.
4. The informal word for ‘I’ in Korean is pronounced ‘na’, which is also the final syllable of the word ‘persona’.