So, I was reading a random blog, and ran across this little meme, which is not that new:
“Pick up the nearest book to you, turn to page 45. The first sentence explains your love life.”
Curious to have my love life explained, I immediately did this.
The book nearest to me was TOPIK in 30 days – this is a book for self study of Korean vocabulary, intended for preparation for the TOPIK test (Test Of Proficiency In Korean – and as a side note, ¿why in the world does the main Korean language proficiency test have an English acronym?). Not that I’m preparing for the test, but I do try to compel myself to study Korean vocabulary sometimes.
On page 45, the sentence was an example of usage of the verb 구하다 [gu.ha.da = “get”]. The sentence read,
오후 내내 방을 구하러 다녔지만 마음에 드는 방이 없었다.
I’ve been looking all afternoon to get a new room, but there’s none that are appealing.
In fact, this is quite plausible, as a kind of metaphorical explanation of my love life.
A thought for the day, if that’s what it is:
“What if we’re not conscious, we just think we are?”
[daily log: walking, 7km]
What a potentially fun exercise — attempting to find meaning of a statement made in one context in an utterly different context. Here’s the challenge I found …
The closest book was Canada by Richard Ford, albeit in German translation (not a book I would recommend, by the way. I found it quite longwinded and rambling). The first sentence on page 45 read: “Also mußte arrangiert werden, daß mein Vater zum Depot kam und das Geld von Digby entgegennahm, doch erst einen Tag später, wenn DIgby das zu zahlende Geld besorgte und die «Speisewagen-Qualität» des Fleisches geprüft hat.”
I would translate that sentence into English as “[They] thus had to arrange that my father would come to the depot and take the money from Digby, albeit not until a day later when Digby had procured the money to be paid and had tested the ‘dining car quality’ of the meat.” The passage relates to the protagonist’s father acting as an intermediary between cattle thieves and a porter on a cross-country train.
I’m at a bit of a loss how to interpret that sentence in the context of my love life. I think I’ll stick with a broad interpretation, namely that I am hesitant to enter into a “deal,” let alone commit, without a feel that things are going to work out.