Get On The Bus

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

May our rivers and mountains turn green

May your garden turn yellow

That no one may ever tread there again

That it may not even serve as cattle feed.

Born into this flashy chaotic age

with not even a sword hilt to grasp

we drink water with our three-inch tongues

wipe our mouths, and turn away

We planted a guitar in the ancestral mountain,

and swore with tears in our eyes

we will return alive

and we will not return empty-handed

We gather young men from all eight provinces

and stage a byeolsingut festival

if you get hungry, come

if your mouth waters, come

We go on till daybreak

you street rabble

Get on the bus

There's no much time

That's what I say

We have a view

Get on

You miserable lot

lift up your faces and look

only when you come for our necks

do we hold our heads high

How could the world’s blunt blades

ever do us any harm?

Come to our house with both hands raised

and at least get yourself some meat to eat

We will speak of love

we will speak of youth

though we have not learned a single thing

we are friends who still know what matters

When our faces are reflected in the stream

we always dip both hands in

we go wherever we are called

you travelling troupe

Get on the bus

There's no much time

That's what I say

We have a view

• 세치 혀 — literally “three-inch tongue”; an old expression about the power of speech

• 별신굿 — a traditional Korean shamanic ritual 

• 선산 — ancestral hill/mountain; often family burial ground

• 시정잡배야 — an insulting way of calling people with vulgar behaviour that move in groups

• 유랑극단 — a wandering theatre troupe