Kim Kwang Seok (김광석) - The Private's Letter (이등병의 편지) [English]

The Private’s letter (이등병의 편지) is a South Korean folk song written and composed by Kim Hyun Sung, who was the first to sing the song. Later the song became well-known because Kim Kwang Seok’s remake. He performed the song while playing an acoustic guitar and harmonica.

The lyrics of the song are in the form of a monologue or of a letter from an enlisted soldier written to friends. Since the Korean War, military service is mandatory to all males in South Korea. South Korean men are conscripted at the age of twenty. The song shows the sadness draftees endured during separation from parents, loved ones, close friends, and their homes. However, the song ends with a promise from the narrator to himself that the military service year is not the end of his youth but the start of another stage.

I have translated the Korean lyrics into English myself. As I am not a professional translator, please pardon me for any mistake or error.