A Close Read: Spring Day
November 9, 2019 marked 1000 days since the release of BTS’s “봄날 (Spring Day)” music video from the WINGS Supplementary Story: You Never Walk Alone album. In those 1000 days, “Spring Day” charted consecutively on the MelOn daily chart, becoming the first K-Pop song to do so. The song previously won awards for “Song of the Year” at the 2017 MelOn Music Awards and “Best Music Video” at the 2017 MAMAs. It also won four music show trophies during BTS’s short promotional stint in South Korea.
There’s definitely a reason why this song has seen such longevity on the charts—it’s certainly among BTS’s most beautifully emotional songs. In the post below, I provide an analysis of the song and lyrics, the music video, and the connections to the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”
Song & Lyrics
Lyrically, “Spring Day” is wonderfully poetic, and the tone of its lyrics matches the tone of the song so well. Both are delicately sentimental and melancholy, but at the same time instill in the listener a sense of hope and peace.
For the purposes of this post, I’m using my own translation of the lyrics, which can be read in full here (along with a translation of the Japanese version).
The lyrics tell the story of friends who have grown apart and the narrator’s longing to restore their relationship. The first verse makes it clear that the narrator misses his friend (or friends, as the “you” used in “Even though I’m looking at photos of you” is the plural form of the word) and establishes that they’ve not been able to see each other much. The situation is compared to winter, due to the longing that “falls like snow” as the narrator hopes for a spring day to arrive. The time that “runs through” the narrator’s heart is compared to a lone train going through snow (설국기차 is used in the lyrics, which is the Korean title of the film Snowpiercer).
The winter imagery is employed again in the bridge as the narrator sings how he could reach the person he’s longing for if he were like the snow flying through the air. This carries over into the chorus which reads “The snowflakes fall / and you get a little further away / I miss you.” The cold relationship between these friends continues to be stuck in winter, and the narrator wonders how much longer he must endure, asking the person to stay in place until a spring day comes again. Throughout the entire song, we see the cold relationship contrasted with the impending change of seasons into spring.
The second verse deepens the story as the narrator wonders who changed (the friend or himself), but he concludes they changed because that’s just what people do. Change cannot be avoided; this section reads like acceptance of that fact. The lyrics describe the narrator’s distaste for the friend who grew distant: “You left but / I haven’t forgotten you / even for a day / Truthfully, I miss you but / I’ll erase you now / because that would hurt less / than resenting you.” But at the same time, he acknowledges that he cannot let go, signifying a ray of hope.
The break after the second chorus brings us to the real message of the song: “The morning will come again / no darkness, no season / can last forever.” The lyrics have turned more hopeful, ensuring the listener that good times (the morning/spring) will come again, as nothing lasts forever. It’s interesting to note that there’s no message that happiness or good times last forever either; the point is made that nothing lasts forever, but that things will always change in a cycle.
The final change in the chorus drives the theme of hope home, as cherry blossoms bloom and winter starts to thaw, symbolizing a reconciliation (or a reconciliation that is soon to come) between the friends. It’s refreshing to see a song that focuses on friendship rather than romantic love—while this song could easily apply to a romantic relationship, its focus steers more towards platonic love (and could even be extended to familial love as well). Romantic relationships are, of course, not the only relationships that move through winters and springs, and this song is all the more relatable to so many people because of its focus on something other than romance.
With its beautiful lyrics and multifaceted sound, it’s no wonder “Spring Day” has been so successful.
The Music Video & Ties to “Omelas”
The music video takes a loose interpretation of the lyrics, and there is a very direct reference to a short story titled “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin. Below, I’ll go into both.
An important note here is that the music video for “Spring Day” is not considered canon to the Bangtan Universe (BU), but there are some thematic tie-ins. The BU storyline focuses heavily on seven friends as they go their separate ways yet long to reunite. “Spring Day”’s lyrics can easily be applied to the story of the Bangtan Universe, but the video is not meant to be a portrayal of BTS’s BU characters.
The Story of Omelas
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” tells the story of a beautiful, idyllic, happy city that exists by the sea. In short, Omelas is a stand-in; a fictional utopia. (The name was actually created from the author reading a sign for the city of Salem, Oregon backwards.) Omelas can be anything the reader wants to imagine it to be. Le Guin tells us that its people aren’t simple but have a society that functions without all the downsides of modern society. The narrator of the story assumes we don’t believe this perfect place exists—how can it, when it’s so perfect? The narrator then introduces an idea to make Omelas more believable: one miserable child who constantly suffers. No one is allowed to be kind to the child, and it must suffer for Omelas to remain perfect for everyone else. As children in Omelas come of age, they are taken to see the miserable child. Most want to help, and many get upset over the injustice. Eventually, one of two things happens: the residents of Omelas learn to accept that there is nothing they can do for the child, or they choose to leave.
“Omelas” plays with themes of suffering and happiness, individual and society, justice and freedom of decision, and coming of age/loss of innocence. Thematically, it’s very in line with lots of BTS’s work across the entirety of their conceptual timeline. “Spring Day” appears on WINGS Supplementary Story: You Never Walk Alone. As an extension of the WINGS album, which deals with coming of age and loss of innocence via literary references to Hesse’s Demian, “Omelas” is a logical choice of inspiration. The youth of Omelas choose to either accept injustice for the sake of society’s happiness or to walk away from that injustice in an act of individual resistance. At the end of “Omelas,” the narrator tells us: “Each one goes alone, youth or girl, man or woman.” They are walking away alone, resisting injustice, but BTS’s message found in the album title is fittingly “you never walk alone.” Similarly, this is mirrored in a scene at the end of the “Spring Day” music video as the members of BTS all walk across a thawing field with a lone tree. Rather than walking alone, they’re pictured together.
Music Video Breakdown
The music video for “Spring Day” makes good use of the juxtaposition of individual scenes and group scenes, representing both the loneliness and hope of the song. We can see the theme of loneliness play out right from the start, as Taehyung stands alone at a train station, putting his ear to the tracks to listen for an oncoming train. The wide shots of him in the snow showcase the emptiness of the station, representative of loneliness.
Others are pictured alone as well, with Jungkook alone on the train, Jimin alone by the sea (again with a shot that shows him as only a tiny fraction of his surroundings), and Namjoon also alone on the train. Namjoon’s scene transitions to a hotel with a large Omelas sign, perhaps referencing Omelas as a temporary place that will eventually be left. The scene he steps out into shows snow on the ground, a reference to the winter discussed in the lyrics. He walks right past Yoongi and Hoseok, and later on the train he walks past Jungkook’s car without stopping, as if it were a missed opportunity to reconnect, because winter has yet to thaw.
Scenes of loneliness are cut with scenes of the members together, such as the scenes where they celebrate Namjoon’s birthday. These appear a few times throughout the video, showing the members all together or with at least one other person. More scenes depict the members alone: Seokjin as he watches the others climb the stairs, Jungkook alone in front of a dilapidated ride reading “You Never Walk Alone,” and more wide shots of Taehyung and Jimin.
Jimin picks up some shoes on the beach, which we later also see beside him at the laundromat. These may be symbolic of memories that are left behind, like living with the ghost of someone. Yoongi’s solo shot shows him lying listlessly among a huge mountain of laundry, where he looks as if he were cast aside like the clothes. (Note: This scene may have taken visual inspiration from this art exhibit.) Hoseok’s solo shot has him on top of the train, going wherever it takes him.
Jungkook is shown at the dilapidated ride again, but this time, the others move around him as if he’s stuck in slow motion. But, he ends up moving from his spot and joining the others. Soon after, he’s shown running through the sets of the music video (Omelas, the laundromat), eventually arriving to where all the others are gathered. (Taehyung is missing from this scene, but we learned from the WINGS tour press conference that he just forgot to get in the shot…) Like a cascading effect, the members begin to join others in scenes where they had been depicted alone, such as on the mountain of laundry with Yoongi as well as the scene where Jungkook’s match goes out when he’s alone, but when it reignites, the others are there. This scene appears with the lyrics “no darkness, no season / can last forever.”
The members are then shown reunited together on the train where Jungkook had previously been alone. The moving train, which appears many times throughout the music video, may be understood as symbolic of the flow of time, which is also mentioned in the lyrics. The BTS members are passengers on the train; by not actively participating in moving the train forward, they are simply along for the ride. This meshes well with the idea of moving through time in a passive manner without actively doing anything to fix one’s relationships. I think that’s a universal situation many can relate to. By the end of the music video, they all get off the train, which has carried them through winter to an open field that is beginning to thaw, with a singular tree representative of life and the potential for rebirth in spring.
The inclusion of the train can also be a reference to the use of “snowpiercer” in the lyrics (and it’s interesting to note that the film Snowpiercer also has a dark secret related to the suffering of children, like the story of “Omelas.”)
Walking across the open field appears to be symbolic of walking away from Omelas, though they walk together instead of alone. Jimin places the shoes into the tree, which can be taken as symbolic of moving on from one’s longing and grief. (Note: In some cultures, it has been suggested that shoes tied together over a wire or tree branch can mean many things, such as a death or a mark for gang territory. There is no real definitive consensus as to what this means, and it likely has many meanings to different people.)
At the end, they have found their spring day together.
Live Performances
The live performances for “Spring Day” definitely deserve a quick mention at the end here. Live stages of this song are particularly moving, as the song’s beauty is further enhanced by the graceful choreography. Below is a link to one of my favorite stages of this song for your enjoyment.
(Note: As this has been a close read of the texts, I’ve not made mention of real word events such as the Sewol Ferry disaster. The blog here, translated from Korean, makes a few brief mentions if you’d like to read.)
Additional Sources: Read “Omelas” here. The mention of Le Guin stating the origin of the name “Omelas” comes from An Introduction to Fiction by X.J. Kennedy (2004).