I saw that Dr. Cheon Keun-Ah, the lead author of the manual, posted the preface on her Instagram a little while back. (She's the one who recently posted about attending the concert!) I actually purchased the book when it came out, but have not gotten around to reading it because I've been burned out from work. However, I saw some antis were going wild on the site formerly known as Twitter about Yoongi's contributions to the book, so I finally cracked it open today and ended up translating the preface.

I just wanted to share the parts where Yoongi is mentioned. (If anyone wants to read the entire preface, let me know, and I can post it in the comments.) The translation might sound a bit awkward in places because translation is hard and I'm not a professional, but I did my best. Dr. Cheon wrote a paragraph about Yoongi in the middle, and mentions him again at the very end of the preface. She clearly states that he played a major role in the creation and development of the program.

This program was able to come to fruition because of the participation and dedication of the globally regarded artist, Suga of BTS (real name: Min Yoongi.) Min Yoongi was not just a donor; he proactively shared ideas from the planning stage of the program, joined the actual development process and implementation of the pilot program, and observed changes in the children up close. The participation he showed was based on the sensibility of an artist who understands the power of music more than anyone and the sincerity of someone who empathizes with the socially disadvantaged and wishes to share responsibility. As a result, this manual cannot be discussed without Min Yoongi’s name, and I want to clearly state that his contributions were decisive in making this program a reality.

Above all, I once again offer my sincere gratitude to Min Yoongi, whose heartfelt donations and unchanging company allowed the Min Yoongi Treatment Center and MIND Program to come into existence. The waves created by his artistic talent and his giving will continue to echo as different waves of hope to the children and families at the site of treatment and independence.

I really struggled translating this last paragraph, so I want to explain it a little further. What I translated as "company" is the word "동행," which means going somewhere together. Dr. Cheon implies that this was a journey in which Yoongi walked alongside the staff every step of the way to create, develop, and implement the MIND Program.

The word I translated to "waves" is 울림, which is a word related to sound. It implies a loud sound that spreads widely, and can mean resonance or reverberation. It is related to the verb 울리다, to make a noise (e.g. blowing a horn, ringing a bell, sounding a siren.) 울리다 can also mean to make (someone) cry.

The word used for "site" was 현장, which can mean field (like the physical place where professionals do their jobs,) set (for movies or film,) or scene (e.g. crime scene.)

I don't think I was fully able to translate the poetry of Dr. Cheon's phrasing in the last paragraph, but her mentions of Yoongi in this preface were such a beautiful way to honor him and his contribution to this program. Now I just need to find the time to actually read through the whole book!

edited for clarity

edited again: I added a translation of the entire preface in the comments!