Caveat: 찰 거머리 정

I found this aphorism in my book of Korean aphorisms.

찰 거머리 정

chal geo.meo.ri jeong

sticky leech passion

A sticky leech’s passion

There’s not much grammar going on here. It’s just a noun phrase. It refers to the excessively clingy lover – I suppose that’s what the parallel usage is in English: clingy. The word 정 [jeong] is complex and even problematic, but here I think passion is acceptable translation. I blogged about 정 here, many years ago.

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