돌다리도 두들겨 보고 건너라
stone-bridge-TOO knock try-AND cross-IMP
Try knocking on a stone bridge, too, [before you] cross.
The googletranslate has this as “Look before you leap.” But my list-o-proverbs has this as “Being a scaredy-cat.” I’m not sure these are the same at all, but I incline to the latter.
This was hard to figure out, I had to cheat and look stuff up. There’s an old tradition that you knock (or kick, or stamp on) a wooden bridge before walking across it – presumably, to make sure it’s sturdy. So some people, to be extra careful, might knock on even a stone bridge before crossing, even though it’s probably more sturdy. So that’s either “looking before leaping” or being overly cautious, i.e. a scaredy-cat.
Who’s leaping? Here’s a picture of a stone bridge at 금산사 [geumsansa = geumsan temple] that I took in 2010. I didn’t knock on it.
