Caveat: 솔 심어 정자라

This is an aphorism from my book of aphorisms.
솔 심어 정자라
sol sim·eo jeong·ja·ra
pinetree plant-PRES pavilion-QUOT
Plant pinetrees [and then] there’s a pavilion.
This is compared in one source to the aphorism “count one’s chickens before they’re hatched” but it also seems to be more positive, i.e. it takes a long time for something to happen.
The ending -라 gave me a lot of difficulty. I don’t really have a definitive answer – I just decided to assume it was one of those “quotative” copular forms (e.g. -라고, etc.) attached because it’s an aphorism. But that leaves the sentence without a main verb, maybe. Assume a copula – that’s what I did, in my translation as “there’s.”
[daily log: walking, 5 km]

Back to Top