I have a book entitled Myeangsim Bogam, which is an annoying romanization of 명심보감. The “proper” romanization (meaning following the official “Revised Romanization”) would be Myeongsim Bogam. I guess it’s only the first syllable that’s off.
Anyway, it’s a parallel translation of a Confucian “reader” of sorts that was widely printed in circulated in pre-Modern Korea (meaning during the Joseon dynasty). The reader, of course, originally circulated in Chinese – which is what educated people were expected to read in the Joseon time. So this translation I have is three-way: it has Chinese, Korean, and English.
It’s a kind of book of aphorisms and proverbs along with some parables, I guess. It was intended and read as an instruction book of virtue for Joseon’s Confucian society – it was often the first book students read after mastering the basic “1000 characters” of Chinese.
So here is an aphorism from that book that intrigued me a little bit – maybe because it was one I thought I could translate from Korean more easily – in fact, I felt as if I could maybe do a little bit better job than what the book offers, which is: “Bear and bear again, care and care again. I you do not bear and care, then trivial things become important cases.” That translation is not really inaccurate, as far as I can judge, but I think a close translation would better serve the intended meaning.
참고 또 참으며 경계하고 또 경계하라.
be-patient-CONJ too be-patient-WHILE be-vigilant-CONJ too be-vigilant-IMPER.
참지 못하고 경걔하지 않으면 작은 일이 크게 된다.
be-patient-PRENEG cannot-CONJ be-vigilant-PRENEG be-not-IF be-small-PPART thing-SUBJ big-ADV become-PRES.
Be patient, be patient and meanwhile be vigilant, be vigilant. If one cannot be patient and one is not vigilant, small things become big.
This is perhaps true. I’ve been troubled by my lack of patience, recently. I will work harder.
Here is the original Chinese, for reference (note that I am merely copying this – I am not able to read it) – with the syllables rendered in hangul to aid in reading or looking them up:
得忍且忍 得戒且戒 不忍不戒 小事成大
득인차인 득계차계 불인불계 소사성대
[daily log: walking, 5.5 km]
