Hello everyone,
Ok, here we go. The Truth Untold.
This was actually going to be the second song I write about when I first started my blog. On hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t because as it turns out… The Truth Untold is so much richer (and sadder) than I could have ever imagined.
As always, for the purpose of my analysis I will be referring to Namjoon’s lover as “Namjoon’s lover” because I find it helps remove our unconscious bias, allowing us to truly appreciate the lyrics and the story for what it is.
To skip to my final interpretation of the song, please click here.
Be still my beating heart. Let’s go.
Assumed Knowledge
I have written this post assuming you know:
- my theory , that all of the songs in LY albums are connected and reveal a story line when read in a specific order;
- the significance of the antithesis relationship between certain songs;
- Joon’s story told so far through Serendipity, DNA, 보조개 (Dimple), Trivia 承: Love (P1, P2 and the Rose), (Outro) Her: By Namjoon, Singularity and Fake Love;
- The Motif of the Lonely Monster; and
- The Point of the Smeraldo Flower.
New Readers:
Hello there and welcome to my blog! I’m sorry to say that if you haven’t read any of the above posts… I may lose you in the detail as my lyrical analyses are built on existing knowledge!
This is simply because all of the songs are interconnected and need to be read in a specific order for it to make sense, just like a book.
You can absolutely still continue to read and follow how I draw meaning from the lyrics, but you may not, for example, understand the significance of the antithesis relationship or be able to truly appreciate what is happening with Namjoon.
If you’re wondering where to start, please start here!
Please also note the assumptions I apply when I analyse songs, and most importantly why I have analysed this song from Namjoon’s perspective.
Alright, let’s get it!
1. 전하지 못한 진심 (The Truth Untold) – The antithesis of 보조개 (Dimple)
Based on my observations of the antithesis structure in the Love Yourself albums, I believe that the concept of 전하지 못한 진심 (The Truth Untold) will be the exact opposite of 보조개 (Dimple).
Dimples are often associated with youth and beauty, and are seen to be an attractive quality in a person’s face, accentuating their smiles and making them look more cheerful and memorable.
As we saw, 보조개 (Dimple) was all about the beauty of Namjoon’s lover, who only has one dimple.
Conversely, as per my post The Point of the Smeraldo Flower, the Smeraldo story directly references 전하지 못한 진심 (The Truth Untold); and in the centre of the Smeraldo legend, there is a grotesque man who lives in a castle.
As we will see, the story line in 전하지 못한 진심 (The Truth Untold) mirrors that of the Smeraldo Flower legend.
Further, as discussed in The Motif of the Lonely Monster, any references to monsters (e.g. ugliness), or phantoms (e.g. masks) are part of Namjoon’s recurring motif as the “Lonely Monster.”
So, if 보조개 (Dimple) is all about a person’s beauty, then in theory 전하지 못한 진심 (The Truth Untold) should be about a person’s ugliness.
As we will see… 전하지 못한 진심 (The Truth Untold) is all about Namjoon’s “ugliness”.
This is consistent with my antithesis theory.
In addition, there are many discussions out there about how the Smeraldo Flower legend seems to have been inspired by “Beauty and the Beast.”
Well, I must say… I agree with it. From the beast of a man that lives in a castle, to the rose references, and of course, the love story.
Poetically, another way of looking at it is:
보조개 (Dimple) & 전하지 못한 진심 (The Truth Untold)
Beauty & Ugliness
or
Beauty & The Beast
2. The Bilingual Title
As discussed in 보조개 (Dimple), I believe that certain BTS songs have a Korean and English title because it serves a purpose.
In 보조개 (Dimple), the English title gave a us a hint about Namjoon’s lover: That Namjoon’s lover only has one dimple.
In 전하지 못한 진심 (The Truth Untold), true to its antithesis relationship, it is the Korean title that gives us the clue about Namjoon’s lover.
To summarise this wonderful video by Namjin Home, Namjoon in his Vlive specifically draws our attention to the fact that Jin’s (진) name is in the title of the song.
진 (Jin) means ‘Truth’ in English.
Poetically, Jin is the ‘Truth’ that Namjoon has not told the world about (i.e. The Truth Untold).
3. The Lonely Monster
Full of loneliness
This garden bloomed
Full of thorns
I bind myself in this sand castle
What is your name
Do you have a place to go
Oh could you tell me?
I saw you hiding in this garden
And I know
All of your warmth is real
The blue flowers your hand was picking
I want to hold it but…
The first three verses of the song set the scene to mirror the Smeraldo Flower legend:
In the Smeraldo Flower Legend, there was a man who hid in solitude in an old castle in “La Citta di smeraldo”, and wore a mask because he was very “ugly” . It is speculated that as a child born out of wedlock, he received a lot of hatred and jealousy, and thus didn’t open his heart to anyone.
Hence, he shut himself from the world, both in body and his heart.
His only joy was to grow flowers in his garden.
One day, a girl appeared and stole his flowers, and for a while, came back every night to steal them.
The grotesque man slowly fell in love with the girl, but as he did not have the courage to show his real “ugly” self to her, he grew the blue Smeraldo flowers to express his true feelings for her.
As per The Motif of the Lonely Monster, Namjoon is associated with loneliness and employs motifs of the Monsters and Phantoms to characterise himself because he believes they reflect his true image, nature and identity (i.e. that he is ugly).
Connecting the dots, Namjoon is the grotesque man in the legend and is the person who has (metaphorically) exiled himself to the castle in The Truth Untold because he believes he is so monstrously ugly.
A Garden Full of (Rose) Thorns
Though ‘Rose’ is not explicitly mentioned in the lyrics, thorns are generally instinctively associated with roses. In addition, given the recurring imagery of the Rose in the Love Yourself albums, I feel that it is safe to assume that when Namjoon wrote “This garden bloomed full of thorns” , he is referring to roses.
In my post Trivia 承: Love & The Rose, I discussed the significance of the Rose in Namjoon’s story, and its connection to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess.
We discussed how both the Rose and Aphrodite symbolically represent Namjoon’s lover: “Aphrodite was so beautiful, like red roses, strong and alive, and it’s said that each one of the thorns on a rose bush represents the pain that the Greek god felt for each one of her loves“
Thus, when Namjoon says that his garden is full of thorns, symbolically Namjoon is expressing the amount of pain that he feels and suffers from loving his lover.
The Sand Castle
Namjoon loves to use the motif of deserts in his lyrics, (e.g. 바다 (Sea)). The desert, being a vast barren wasteland is used to symbolise trials, despair, and philosophically… hope. This is because, (and I quote from The Little Prince which we will hopefully (pun not intended) get to explore how it fits in the the albums one day):
“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well…”
The Little Prince
In addition, Namjoon uses the imagery of a castle to create the spatial perception of a large elaborate building being occupied by a lone “ugly” man. This imagery, paired with elements of a desert, emphasise the “ugly” man’s loneliness, lack of company, and warmth due to the coldness one must feel from living alone in a large castle.
To keep in mind for future analysis, the desert (and associated imagery) are recurring motifs in the Love Yourself albums and are used to symbolise isolation, loneliness, trials, despair and hope.
4. “Her”
[Verse 2]
What is your name
Do you have a place to go
Oh could you tell me?
I saw you hiding in this garden
[Verse 3 / Pre-Chorus]
And I know
All of your warmth is real
The blue flowers your hand was picking
I want to hold it but
As per my assumptions, order matters in the world of BTS. The significance of this is that it means we can construct a time line based on the lyrics.
If we draw parallels between the above verses to the Smeraldo legend, we can infer that the grotesque man from the legend falls in love with the girl and starts growing the Smeraldo Flowers for her between the second and third verse.
Hence, in the third verse, there are now “blue flowers” (i.e. the Smeraldo) for the girl to pick.
Interestingly, this is the point where the story in The Truth Untold deviates from the legend. In the legend, the girl never got to picked the Smearldos because she died, but in The Truth Untold, the girl does.
The point I’m trying to get to is that the person Namjoon notices “hiding in this garden“ is a girl, and that the “girl” Namjoon is singing about in The Truth Untold is alive.
As explained in many of my previous posts, when a “girl” appears in Namjoon’s lyrics, this “girl” is Namjoon’s lover.
In other words, the lyrics literally tell us that the “girl” Namjoon loves is alive and has picked and held Smeraldo Flowers.
Only one person in the BTS Universe has held Smeraldos Flowers.
Jin.
A flower that resembles you
I refer to the following lyrics:
Bloomed in a garden of loneliness
A flower that resembles you
The only thing I can do
In the garden
In this world
Is to bloom a pretty flower that resembles you
The “flower” that resembles the girl, is the Smeraldo flower. As per my Smeraldo page, the Smeraldo Flowers represent sincerity and true (i.e. honest) feelings.
Thus, as this “girl” is the one that picks, holds and resembles the Smeraldo Flower, symbolically this means that this “girl” is the embodiment of sincerity and honesty.
This is consistent with what we learnt in Serendipity about Namjoon’s lover, who is described to be true, sincere and angel-like.
In addition:
All of your warmth is real
너의 온긴 모두 다 진짜란 걸
Poetically, this can be read as: All of your warmth is real (Jin).
“Her” and “Him”
As above, Jin’s character is the “girl” who picks and resembles the Smeraldo flowers. For completeness, let’s tie in the three characters whom you can get/pick up Smeraldos from:
- The grotesque man: As discussed above, this is Namjoon.
- The person in The Truth Untold: As discussed above, this is Namjoon.
- Testesso: Though Testesso’s identity is technically unknown, I think it is safe to assume at this point that it is also Namjoon considering all of the story parallels we just discussed. However, if you want more support:
- Testesso went to the US and attended the playing card event. We can infer from this that Testesso is comfortable with English. Namjoon is the one most fluent and comfortable with English.
- Testesso went to Italy. If my ARMY sources are correct, Namjoon seems to love Italy and has been to Italy three times for a holiday.
- Testesso believes in fate and destiny. I quote: “He believes there is fate tying him to the smeraldos.” As you would have read in Serendipity, DNA, 보조개 (Dimple), Trivia 承: Love (P1, P2 and the Rose), (Outro) Her: By Namjoon, Namjoon is a big believer in fate and destiny.
In other words, The story of The Truth Untold is about Jin and Namjoon.
Poetically, if we want to use the Beauty and the Beast analogy…
The story of The Truth Untold is literally about Beauty (aka Worldwide handsome) and the “Beast” (aka Rap Monster).
Further, we also know that the Smeraldo Flowers were “discovered” on 13 June 2013 (or 12 June in some countries), the day BTS debuted.
Given that the Smeraldo Flowers are connected to Jin and Namjoon, and that 진 means “Truth”:
Symbolically, Namjoon’s relationship with Jin is the ‘Truth’ that Namjoon has not told the world… and this untold ‘Truth’ (i.e. secret) started the day they debuted.
In other words, on the day BTS debuted, Namjoon was in a relationship with Jin; and from that day on it became a secret they (and BTS) could tell no one.
This is because their relationship is forbidden as per Serendipity and 보조개 (Dimple).
This time line is also consistent with what we observed in DNA Part 2.
5. Pushing “Her” away
…I want to hold it but…
It’s my fate
Don’t smile on me
Light on me
Because I can’t get closer to you
There’s no name you can call me
You know that I can’t
Show you me
Give you me
I can’t show you a ruined part of myself
Once again I put a mask on and go to see you
But I still want you
Namjoon tells his lover “don’t smile on me, light on me…” This imagery is extremely poetic as Namjoon’s lover (as per previous posts) is described to be pure and angel-like. Hence, the image of his lover smiling and shining down like a sun on Namjoon further emphasises how his lover is like an Angel, one that radiates light rays like the sun.
We can also see for the first time in this Love Yourself songs that Namjoon is rejecting his lover’s love and pushing “Her” away: Don’t smile on me, light on me… I can’t get closer to you… I can’t show you ME …give you Me…”
Namjoon pushes his lover away because he is ashamed of a ruined part of himself, “there’s no name you can call me… I can’t show you a ruined part of myself” , and lacks the courage to reveal his “ugly” side to his lover.
As per my earlier posts and explained here, having a ‘Name’ is significant in Namjoon’s work as a ‘Name’ represents your identity. If someone “speaks” your real name, it symbolically means that that person loves you for who you truly are.
Thus, when Namjoon tells his lover “there’s no name you can call me” , Namjoon is telling his lover that his real self is so “ugly” , it is something his lover cannot possibly love.
Namjoon ends the chorus with “but I still want you…”
From this, we can see that though Namjoon has rejected his lover’s love and pushed “Her” away, Namjoon still continues to love and yearn for “Her”.
6. The Break Up
Bloomed in a garden of loneliness
A flower that resembles you
I wanted to give it to you
After I take off this foolish mask
In the above verse, Namjoon expresses how he wished he could give the Smeraldo Flowers to his lover.
Symbolically, Namjoon is expressing his desire to be able to share his true feelings of pain and sadness* with his lover; and just like the grotesque man in the legend, reveal the “ugliness” behind the mask.
*As discussed in Fake Love and The SEAcret “Whole New” side of Namjoon and Tonight (이 밤)
Namjoon’s Lack of Courage
But I know
I can’t do that forever
I have to hide
Because I’m ugly*
(*Alternative translation: Because I’m a Monster)
I am afraid
I am shattered
I’m so afraid
That you will leave me again in the end
Once again I put on a mask and go to see you
In the above verses, Namjoon shares again why he couldn’t reveal his true feelings to his lover: Because of his belief that he is so ugly he needs to hide, and that his lover would leave him if his lover ever saw his “ugly” side.
Interestingly, Namjoon says that he is “so afraid that you will leave me again in the end.”
We can infer from this that at this part of the story, Namjoon and his lover have broken up, and he is thus afraid that if he tried to get back together by revealing his “ugly” side, his lover will reject him again.
We can also infer from:
- the pent up frustration we saw in Fake Love; and
- Namjoon’s adamant decision that he can’t show his “ruined” side to his lover, “you know that I can’t show you me, give you me…”
…that Namjoon and his lover broke up because his lover was unable to accept “Fake” Namjoon.
Working with Smeraldos
Even after the break up, Namjoon continues to hide behind his mask, “once again I put on a mask and go to see you.”
Resigned to being alone, Namjoon decides that:
The only thing I can do
In the garden
In this world
Is to bloom a pretty flower that resembles you
And to breathe as the me that you know
But I still want you
I still want you
“Bloom a pretty flower that resembles you” = Grow Smeraldo Flowers
Linking this back to the Smeraldo story, Testesso says that the reason why he works with Smeraldos is so that he can help others deliver their true feelings.
Since Testesso is Namjoon, Namjoon is expressing his decision that though he himself may not have been able to express his true feelings, he hopes he can help others (i.e. ARMY, the whole world, etc) express theirs.
And in the meantime… he will continue to try and “breathe as the me that you know” , and pretend to be his happy normal “original” self.
7. Regret
Maybe back then
Just a little
Just this much
If I had the courage to stand before you
Would everything be different now
The above verse mirrors Testesso’s and the grotesque man’s feelings in the Smearldo story. Similarly to them, Namjoon is left wondering filled with regret what would have happened if he had simply had the courage to reveal his true feelings and “ugly” side to his lover.
Namjoon cries in grief in the following verse:
I’m crying
Disappeared
Collapsed
At this sandcastle, left alone
Looking at this broken mask
(난 울고 있어
사라진
무너진
홀로 남겨진 이 모래성에서
부서진 가면을 바라보면서)
As above, Jin’s name appears in the lyrics.
Poetically (and heartbreakingly), this can be read as:
I’m crying
(Jin) disappeared
(Jin) collapsed*
At this sandcastle, (Jin) left (leaving me) alone
Looking at this broken mask (broken because of Jin)
*To be read with the meaning that Namjoon’s relationship with Jin has collapsed, or Jin caused Namjoon to collapse.
The words “disappeared… collapsed… broken mask” , conjure a pitiful and heartbreaking image of a damaged inconsolable ugly phantom, all alone in a large barren castle, in pain and anguish from a broken heart.
Namjoon ends the song:
And I still want you
But I still want you
But I still want you
And I still want you
The above lyrics are repeated in the two Post-Chorus and in the final outro section of the song. This has the mournful effect of echoing Namjoon’s cries and wails through the empty halls of his broken castle, and emphasising his persistent, endless, and enduring desire and love for Jin.
Though Namjoon and Jin have officially broken up, Namjoon undying love for Jin persists and continues…
Author’s Summary
The Truth Untold is about:
1: Namjoon’s relationship with Jin (i.e. The Truth Namjoon has not been able to tell the world since they debuted); and
2: The reason why Jin and him broke up (i.e. because he could not share his true feelings of pain and sadness* and reveal his true self to Jin).
*As what we have previously discussed in The SEAcret “Whole New” side of Namjoon and Tonight (이 밤)
Gosh, I’m breathless and my heart feels like it is about to explode! The Truth Untold is just utterly heartbreaking… you can literally feel Namjoon’s painful cries coming from the deepest part of his soul through the lyrics and melody.
I would like to remind everyone though that this song was written at a point in time, and thus may not reflect what Namjoon is feeling right now. And from the bottom of my heart after “reading ahead” on songs, I truly believe he is in a much better place 🙂
If you still have the energy to read on (bless you’re amazing and a trooper!), I have provided below further supporting ties to 1Q84 just for extra reading material and completeness.
Otherwise, thank you for reading my post! If you like my work, please subscribe to my blog below, share this with your friends, and/or connect with me on Twitter! Your support is much appreciated!
x G
Addendum: The parallels with 1Q84
I have provided further material below to illustrate and support my reasoning why I believe BTS were particularly inspired by 1Q84 when they were developing the blueprints of the Love Yourself series.
At the center of 1Q84 is a love story, where the two protagonist, due to the lack of courage, never admitted their feelings for one another. Luckily for them though, as they were destined to be together, destiny brought them together after 20 odd years of not seeing each other.
I refer to two passages from 1Q84 which I believe we will be able to easily draw parallels to the story told in The Truth Untold.
For a very long time after that, Tengo continued to regret his actions – or more precisely, his lack of action. Now, finally, he could think of the words that he could have spoken to her. Inside him at last were the things that he wanted to tell her, the things he should have told her. It would not have been so hard. He should have stopped her on the street and said something. If only he had found a good opportunity and whipped up a tiny bit of courage! But that had been impossible for Tengo. And now the chance was lost forever.
1Q84
At such times, Tengo would think, I guess I’ll never be able to detach myself from her. And he would kick himself again, now that it was too late, for never having spoken to her in the hall-way. If only I had made myself do it! If only I had said something to her, my life might be very different.
1Q84
I hope you enjoyed that! 🙂
Lyric sources: Genius lyrics, and Doolset lyrics
Please note that I did change some of the lyrics. Changes were made where I either noticed an error, or when I thought it could be expressed better. I did not make any major changes that would materially impact the meaning of the lyrics.
Disclaimer:
As per my first author’s note, please, no hate!
I do not have a shipping or individual bias, I love all seven members equally and I do not write my blogs because of a particular personal desire for one of them.
I analyse songs with consideration to the author’s perspective (and Namjoon just happens to be the main author of most songs).
It does not matter one bit to me if they are straight, gay, intersex, a skrull, a mutant or if they could lay eggs. I love them wholeheartedly (as a sister who would love her younger brothers) for their individual selves.
This theory of The Truth Untold is based on my interpretations of its lyrics. Please enjoy.