A Song for Lost Youth

“Ah,my youth has passed away and I can’t get it back,my youth is like a flower carried away by blue clothes.”

these are the lyrics to Kim Min-ki’s “Song of an old Soldier.” he wrote the song after hearing a retiring sergeant complain while drinking during his own military service. He gave it to the sergeant as a gift. The song appeared on the album , but was quickly banned from being played on the radio.

After 1980, singers changed the word “soldier” to “fighter,” “teacher,” “farmer,” or “worker” depending on who was performing it.

I first heard this song during my freshman year of high school, around the time of Park Chung-hee’s death and the events in Gwangju. I experienced the May 18 incident on Geumnam-ro during my sophomore year. I began to sing along with the song around then. I wasn’t an “old soldier” yet; it was a song about a “fighter.”

It’s been almost two months now. I’ve been deeply immersed in Kim Min-ki’s life, almost like a patient.It’s just sad to think about him. And then, I feel grateful.Truly grateful.

Without his music, how would I have expressed the sadness, pain, pursuit of justice, and desire for democracy of that time? Without him, how could I have made it through the 70s?