(translated in 2020)

Among all the songs on SUGA’s sublime “Agust D D-2” album, this piece contains the most topical verses. He ruminates on the meaning of life and interrogates the contradictions in our society, such as income inequality and the systematized world that shackles us to the prison of money, with RM stepping in to provide vital reinforcement for some of SUGA’s inquiries.

Some K-ARMYs view the lyrics as pessimistic or melodramatic, but I disagree. SUGA, whose exterior exudes insouciance while his interior burns with a furnace, uses this song to lay bare, with raw honesty, the need to constantly question the irrationalities, injustices, and hypocrisies of the world, even inviting you to examine your own actions. In a society governed by money and greed, which can shape your behavior in unseen ways, he warns you to remain vigilant against such insidiousness.

Every verse from SUGA and RM is so dense with meaning, symbolism, and layered ideas that I nearly filled a page analyzing just the intro. Realizing I’d spend the entire night if I continued, I chose to stop there. However, I devoted great care to translating the lyrics, striving to interpret their philosophies as accurately as possible. I believe you’ll grasp what these two profound thinkers—cue, Rodin—are expressing when you read my translation.

This is also one of those songs where a literal, word-for-word translation simply would not work. The original meaning would be lost, so I took considerable liberties: adding, omitting, and rearranging words or lines as needed for clarity and context.

Finally, in examining the rhyming structures of SUGA’s verses, it’s clear he must have agonized for days, perhaps months, to craft them. Unfortunately, I could preserve only a few of his clever wordplays. For example, he turns ‘양극화 (yahng-geuk-hwa) (income inequality)’ into “the worst flower in the world (세상에서 가장 추한 꽃 (seh-sahng-eh-suh gah-jahng chu-hahn kkot)),” playing on the shared syllable ‘화(hwa),’ meaning both the end of ‘income inequality’ and ‘flower.’ I rendered this line as “Income inequality, the single greatest disgrace of humanity.”

The Korean title of the song is

이상하지 않은가 (Yi-sahng-hah-jih ahn-eun-gah) (Isn’t It Odd)?

I have also interpreted their English lines in purple parentheses. (when making individual mixtapes, SUGA and RM write them without consulting a native speaker, no matter how awkward they may sound; they want their mixtapes to remain fully authentic, with only their original words, even the English lyrics, and no outside influence.)

Lyrics (English lyrics in blue and my interpretation of the English lyrics in purple):

Intro:

Everything in dust

(You reside in a world full of immorality) 

Do you see? 

Well, well, well 

Everything in lust

(You reside in a world full of greed) 

Oh, what do you see? 

Well, well, well

Someone enlighten me:

Are we born to suffer in life?

Well, well

God, if you exist, enlighten me:

Are we afforded happiness in life?

Verse 1:

Our lives are trapped in a systematized world

That is teeming with conflicts, wars,

And individual struggles for survival

Money brainwashes us,

Selling the drug of hope and

Taking advantage of our dreams

The rich get richer,

Tempting them to become rapacious

To such an extent that

They would even rob the poor

In this place, you either have it, or you don’t,

all of us participants in a perpetual zero-sum game

The result is obvious: Income inequality,

The single greatest disgrace of humanity

Lies eroded the truth a long time ago

We know who are considered the winners

And who are actual losers in this climate

Pre-Chorus:

Isn’t it odd, that a person of morality

In this world of immorality

Is actually regarded as a freak?

Isn’t it odd that a person of open-mindedness

In this world of close-mindedness

Is forced to close her mind?

Isn’t it odd that a person of peace

And a person of hostility are considered equal

In this world governed by extreme ideologies?

Isn’t it odd that we are coerced to dream,

Though we don’t dare to dream

In this world that we don’t understand?

Chorus:

Everything in dust

(You reside in a world full of immorality)

Do you see?

Well, well, well

Everything in lust

(You reside in a world full of greed)

Oh, what do you see?

Well, well, well

Someone enlighten me:

Are we born to suffer in life?

Well, well

God, if you exist, enlighten me:

Are we afforded happiness in life?

Verse 2 (RM):

You think you got taste?

(You think you have free will?)

Oh, babe, how do you know?

(How can you be sure?)

I mean for God’s sake

(Let me emphasize it to you)

Everything’s under control

(You are shackled to a systematized world)

You think we are self-determined,

But our behaviors are dictated by 

The trend that’s guided by money

Look at my Instagram feed:

I’m in total control of my life,

People talk

(They claim)

Nope; you can show off your wealth,

but you are still a slave to this systematized world

Some are so caught up in their consumption of luxuries,

To brag amongst each other 

About whose dog necklace and kennel is shinier,

They no longer know who they really are

Oh, baby, what’s your name?

(Do you know your identity?)

Income inequality and its ugliness is conspicuous,

Like a round nail stuck in a square hole,

But this systematized world will continue to roll

Yet, we’ll think we control our lives,

Oblivious that each of us is prisoned in its system

Pre-Chorus (RM):

I no longer think it’s odd that a person of morality

In this world of immorality

Is actually regarded as a freak

I think it’s odder that a person of open-mindedness

In this world of close-mindedness

has an open mind

A person of peace and a person of hostility,

They could be the same person,

Blowing hot and cold

A dream is just an option in this world,

So don’t try to understand,

For there is no answer

Chorus:

Everything in dust

(You reside in a world full of immorality)

Do you see?

Well, well, well

Everything in lust

(You reside in a world full of greed)

Oh, what do you see?

Well, well, well

Someone enlighten me:

Are we born to suffer in life?

Well, well

God, if you exist, enlighten me:

Are we afforded happiness in life?