Catullus 85 — I hate and I love. Why do I do this, you might ask? I don’t know, but I feel it happening, and am tormented.
ft RM - Seoul — if love and hate are the same words, I love you Seoul // if love and hate are the same words, I hate you Seoul //// why would it be that your pronunciation is close to soul // I’m now so sick of you.
It is a very comforting (and exciting) thing to find your favourite artist in 2000 year old Latin poetry. To think that this guy in ancient Rome felt the same thing as a guy in South Korea, ages and ages later, is so cool to me.
Aside from the meaning of the poem and the song lyrics sharing similarities in subject, there are three direct verbal/narratological smilarities, too.
Both Catullus and Namjoon express that they feel hate and love simultaneously (be that for a person or a city — cf. odi et amo and 사랑과 미움 같은 마리면 I love/hate you Seoul). To them, love and hate are two sides of the same coin. One doesn’t exist without the other.
And then secondly, they admit to feeling confused about that (nescio versus wanting to know why that soul has him in such a chokehold). Why does loving something or someone come with the automatic addition of suffering, too? Neither of them know why they’re doing it, even!
Finally they both express what effect the love/hate conundrum has on them: excrucior versus 난 이제 네가 너무 지겨워. They know love equals hate, and don’t know why they even keep going at it, because they’re both suffering because of it.
There are so many clear notable similarities that I wonder if Namjoon has ever come across Catullus. Or maybe no single human being has ever had a single original thought, and we’re all just in a giant loop feeling the same thing? That’s a comforting thought, I think. And I guess that whether or not Namjoon knows Catullus’ poetry, the connection is there because my silly little brain made it. Anyway, I thought it was wildly cool to find this little bit of kpop in latin/latin in kpop. If anyone wants to chat, I’m more than down 🥰
cr. Seoul translation by doolset; Catullus 85 translation by me.
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