Serendipity – Track 01 on Love Yourself: Her album.

Korean lyrics referenced from Naver Music.

Written by: Slow Rabbit, Ray Michael Djan Jr, Ashton Foster, RM, Bang PD

I can’t believe this is the 6th song I’m translating from this album.

I feel like BTS writing style has changed a little bit. In their earlier works, they would use a lot of references but while they’re more numerous, it felt like the songs just quickly linked to these references.

The songs on the Love Yourself album don’t seem to use as many references, but the ideas in those references seem infused more subtly and deeper into the songs. So on first glance, the songs seemed simple enough without too many references… but the more you listen to it, the more you realize you might have missed stuff.

And then you start to think, “Am I over-thinking this?” Knowing Big Hit, probably not.

The two obvious references in Serendipity are the poem “Flower” by Kim Chunsu and “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Of note, the poem that J-Hope was reading on their Run BTS! Ep 11 is also by Kim Chunsu.

-FLOWER-

by Kim Chunsu

Before I called his name

this line gives feeling of more like, “Before I gave voice to his name”

He was merely

But a gesture.

The time I called his name

He came to me

And became a flower

Just like I’ve given voice to his name

As fitting of my hue and fragrance

Someone please say my name.

Here, it is not specific whether the hue and fragrance is supposed to fit the “someone” or “my name.”

ie.

Someone who is fitting to me, please say my name (eg. feeling of destiny)

or:

Someone call me a name that is fitting to my hue and fragrance (eg. give me a fitting name so that I can exist/become meaningful)

I want to go to him as well

And become his flower.

We all

Want to become something

Me to you, you to me

Want to become a meaning that will not be forgotten

The he/his here is both male/gender neutral pronoun. It is the default pronoun so sometimes not gender specific.

-THE LITTLE PRINCE-

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This book is very popular in Korea. I’ve yet to meet a Korean who has not read this book as a kid. I’m sure every Korean would watch the MV and immediately go “The Little Prince!” Especially, Jimin’s fuzzy blond hair, the yellow blanket (or the yellow scarf in the book), and the starry blue sky are pretty iconic.

I re-read this book for this post but lost the paper where I wrote down my notes. Very sad…

The book is about alien Little Prince, who loves his beautiful flower with thorns, but doesn’t know how to deal with her when she is at times difficult.

He comes to Earth, only to find out there are thousands of roses in the world and maybe his flower is not special after all. But then he meets a very wise fox that teaches him that it is not the beauty that makes his rose special, it is the time the Little Prince spent with her that makes her special.

“People have forgotten this truth,” the fox said. “But you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose.”

“If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers…”

The protagonist of this book is not the prince, but a pilot who crashes in the middle of a desert. He serendipitously meets the Little Prince. And he too, learns how love gives meaning to little things.

“You – you alone will have the stars as no one else has them…In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night…You – only you – will have stars that can laugh.”

On initial glance the song’s lyrics sounds like typical love song. Oh, we’re destined to be together, etc. etc. Sounds like love at first sight.

But because the song references works of literature that emphasizes that it is the interaction between the two people that gives meaning to the love… this gives the song a very different meaning.

Is it really the destiny of meeting the right person that is important? Or is it the act of fostering a relationship that gives meaning between two people? Do you have to be special from the beginning? Or can you be just one out of five thousand roses and still be made special by the time you spent together?

The other contrasting idea of love I found is the idea of what makes you meaningful as a person. Both the “Flower” and “The Little Prince” suggest that you’re made more meaningful by your relationship and love with other people. Your existence is made more meaningful by something external to yourself.

Obviously, this is very contrasting with even the album title, “Love Yourself,” which generally assumes that you have to love yourself first and find meaning in yourself first before you can love others.

Having all these contrasting ideas in a song is fine, of course. Everyone can interpret it the way they like and love is such a multi-dimensional thing anyway where one idea is not mutually exclusive of another.

All this is not a coincidence

Just..just..with how I feel

The whole world is different from yesterday

Just..Just.. with your happiness.

When you called my name

reply to “Before I called his name” from “Flower”?

I became your flower

As if waiting for it

We achingly blossomed

can be both “I became your flower as if I was waiting for it” or “As if we were waiting for it, we blossomed”

Perhaps it’s the providence of the Universe

It was just like that

U know I know

You’re me, I’m you

As much as it’s exciting, I’m scared

Because destiny keeps being jealous of us

As much as you, I’m scared too

When you see me

When you touch me

The world has moved for us

There was not even the slightest error

Our happiness was destined

Cuz you love me

And I love you

You’re my penicillium (blue mold)

That saved me

Penicillin was discovered from blue mold by serendipity.

My angel my world

I’m your calico cat

That came to meet you

Love me now touch me now

The calico cats are very very rare, so I guess this reinforces the idea of destiny.

The lyrics are cute because in Korean, penicillium is literally “blue mold”, and a calico cat is a “three colored cat.” The wording sounds like a kids song about colored objects. In addition to that, “mold” and “cat” almost rhymes.

Just let me love you

Just let me love you

From the time that the Universe was created

Everything was destined

Just let me love you

Let me love

Let me love you

Let me love

Let me love you