Korean

Korean proverbs, at a glance

• At the end of hardship, ease comes

  고생 끝에 낙이 온다

  Gosaeng kkeut-e nag-i onda

  Literally: Hardship's end-at, pleasure comes

  Korean · Korea

  Set beside

  • Hausa — the same sequence guaranteed by the sky rather than earned; dawn arrives for the deserving and undeserving alike
  • Hebrew (Psalm 126:5) — the suffering reclassified as agricultural labor: tears are the seed, not the weather
  • Mandarin (苦盡甘來) — not an independent cousin but the Korean proverb's own literary twin, imported whole from Yuan drama and still current in Korean as 고진감래

• The empty cart rattles loudest.

  빈 수레가 요란하다

  bin sure-ga yoranhada

  Literally: An empty cart is noisy

  Korean · South Korea

  Set beside

  • English — the hollow that rings when struck, where the cart clatters when it rolls
  • Hindi — not empty but half-full, the slosh of a partial load carried on the body
  • Mandarin — the half-expert sloshing his small knowledge through the marketplace

• Even monkeys fall from trees

  원숭이도 나무에서 떨어진다

  Wonsung-ido namu-eseo tteoreojinda

  Literally: Monkey-even tree-from falls

  Korean · South Korea

  Set beside

  • Japanese — the same animal, the same tree, the same fall: a twin proverb whose travel across the East China Sea is itself the texture
  • Latin (Horace) — replaces the natural climber with the master poet; the expertise that fails is acquired, not bodily
  • Russian — the wise elder, not the agile primate; experience as the kind of mastery that still trips

• Even the slightest task is lighter when two carry it.

  백지장도 맞들면 낫다

  Baekjijang-do matdeulmyeon natda

  Literally: Even a sheet of white paper, if lifted together, is better.

  Korean · Korea

  Set beside

  • English — same claim in the register of labor and load
  • Swahili — unity as political and economic strength
  • Mandarin — the flame rises with the gathering
  • Russian — the inverse: solitude as weakness

• A habit formed at three lasts until eighty.

  세 살 버릇 여든까지 간다

  Se sal beoreut yeodeun-kkaji ganda

  Literally: Three-year-old habit goes until eighty

  Korean · Korea

  Set beside

  • Mongolian — the same early fixing located in the body and the lineage, character soaking into bone rather than manners learned at a parent's knee
  • Russian — the claim pronounced over a finished adult, with no one left to instruct and only death left to correct
  • Spanish — temperament and bearing owned with pride to the grave, where the Korean habit is something owed to others and taught

• Life at the in-laws' is a dog's life.

  시집살이 개집살이

  Sijipsali gaejipsali

  Literally: In-law's-house life, dog's-house life

  Korean · Korea

  Set beside

  • Mandarin — the same institution, framed as a cycle the bride will outgrow
  • Italian — the same household tension, framed as weather between two women
  • Russian — the same regime, reported from inside the verdict

• Whatever you say, something is listening — and what listens depends on when you speak.

  낮말은 새가 듣고 밤말은 쥐가 듣는다.

  Nat-mareun saega deutgo bam-mareun jwiga deutneunda

  Literally: Daytime words are heard by birds; nighttime words are heard by mice.

  Korean · South Korea

  Set beside

  • Japanese — walls have ears, paper screens have eyes; the same two-category structure as the Korean
  • English (and French) — the same warning, ambient and architectural rather than zoological
  • Mandarin — the wall as a boundary that fails to contain speech