Caveat: 그냥 제 결에서 걸으면서 친구가 되어 주세요

 

제 앞에서 걷지 마세요. 제가 따라가지 않을지도 몰라요.
제 뒤에서 걷지 마세요. 저는 당신을 이끌지 않을지도 몰라요.
그냥 제 결에서 걸으면서 친구가 되어 주세요.

I  thought this was a Korean proverb and I was all set to try to translate it, but then I saw it attributed to Albert Camus, with a longer lead-in to the last sentence that I had first run across. I did some googling.

Camus seems implausible as an author, just on the basis of its philosophical content. I suppose it’s some kind of popular poem or aphorism. It’s widely distributed online and definitely not originally Korean. I saw someone attributing it to George Sand – this seems slightly more plausible. And several online notes confirmed that attributing it to Camus is an error and one spot suggested it was an old Jewish children’s song.

In any event, I don’t need to translate it, as I found numerous versions in French and English online already for the longer quote.

In English:

Don’t walk behind me: I may not lead.
Don’t walk in front of me: I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.

In French:

Ne marche pas devant moi, je ne suivrai peut-être pas.
Ne marche pas derrière moi, je ne te guiderai peut-être pas.
Marche juste à côté de moi et sois mon ami.

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