Arirang

Arirang (아리랑) is arguably the most popular Korean folk song among both North and South Koreans, and the most well known Korean folk song outside of Korea.

Versions

Literally hundreds of versions of the song exist, and they can be grouped into classes based on the lyrics, when the refrain is sung, the nature of the refrain, the overall melody, and so on. Different versions of the song are usually prefixed by their place of origin, except for the canonical version, which may have a prefix, but it is unknown to the author. Other famous versions include Jindo Arirang (진도 아리랑) from Jindo in South Jeolla Province, and Miryang Arirang (밀양 아리랑) from Miryang in South Gyeongsang Province.

Origin of the title

Fundamentally, all versions of the song are ostensibly a story about the travails of the song's subject's crossing a mountain pass. "Arirang" is one name for the pass (아리랑 고개; Arirang Gogae), and hence the title of the song; but some variants sing about Mungyeong Pass (문경 새재 (Mungyeong Saejae--gogae and saejae both mean "pass")), which was the main mountain pass on one of the old Joseon Dynasty roads between Seoul and southeastern Gyeongsang Province.

The refrain

In all versions of the song, the refrain and each verse are of equal length. In some versions--such as the canonical version and Jindo Arirang--the first refrain precedes the first verse, while in other versions--including Miryang Arirang--the first refrain follows the first verse. Perhaps the easiest way to classify versions--apart from melody, which can vary widely between different versions--is the lyrics of the refrain. In the canonical and some other versions, the first line of the refrain is "Arirang, Arirang, arariyo" (아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요...) while in both Jindo Arirang and Miryang Arirang (which are otherwise quite different from each other), the first line of the refrain begins with "Ari arirang, seuri seurirang..." (아리 아리랑, 스리 스리랑...). ("Arariyo" and "seurirang" are both meaningless words which are simply plays on "Arirang.")

The lyrics

The table below gives the refrain (first two lines; the refrain precedes the first verse) and first verse (third and fourth lines) of the canonical version of the song in romanized Korean, Hangeul, and a rough translation into English:

Korean

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo... Arirang gogaero neomeoganda. Nareul beorigo gashineun nimeun Shimnido mot gaseo balbyeong nanda.

Hangeul

아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요... 아리랑 고개로 넘어간다. 나를 버리고 가시는 님은 십리도 못 가서 발병 난다.

'''English

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo... I am crossing over Arirang Pass. The man/woman who abandoned me [here] Will not walk even ten miles before his/her feet hurt. See note 1 below See note 2 below See notes 3 & 4 below

Notes

"Arariyo" ("아라리요") has no meaning and simply helps the flow of the song. Gender is often not conveyed in Korean sentences, so either person in the song could be either male or female; similarly, pronouns are usually omitted when the subject is clear from the context. Thus, I have added an "I" to the English translation of line 2, and I get the sense that the subject of this line is a woman, while the person in lines 3 and 4 is a man. "mile" is a translation of "ri" (리 (里)), a traditional unit of measure on the same order of magnitude as a kilometre or mile. "his/her feet hurt" ("balbyeong nanda"; "발병 난다") could be translated literally as "he/she develops a foot disease," but the sense being conveyed is that of having hurt feet after trudging over a mountain pass.