추가 적립 안내

The beauty of a proverb rests in its simplicity. Any children can use them as they see fit and refine them as they grow older with newer wisdom.

The beauty of a proverb rests in its simplicity. Any children can use them as they see fit and refine them as they grow older with newly acquired wisdom.
A collection of essays, The Dragon is Easier to Draw Than the Snake (안 본 용은 그려도 본 뱀은 못 그리겠다), introduces 100 Korean proverbs and their meanings, emphasizing how universal these messages are in both Eastern and Western cultures. Though gentle and often humorous, these proverbs, derived from the everyday experience and lives of Korean ancestors, offer the time-tested wisdom that crosses continents as well as generations. This book is a sequel to the first three volumes, The Tongue Can Break Bones (사람의 혀는 뼈가 없어도 사람의 뼈를 부순다), Easier to See Jeong (Love) Leaving than Arriving (드는 정은 몰라도 나는 정은 안다), and A Hole Gets Bigger Whenever You Work on It (구멍은 깎을수록 커진다), each also having introduced 100 proverbs.

Kirkus Review

Acollection offers an interpretation of Korean proverbs that often illustrates their meanings with references to United States culture and history.

In this fourth installment of a series, Moo-Jung translates 100 Korean proverbs into English and furnishes a close reading of them, disentangling their often complex, even obscure meanings. His mission is to capture the “true element of the Korean proverb” and its susceptibility to transformation over time, rendering it open to different interpretations by readers as they mature. As he explains in his own poetic terms, “They are as if the sharp edges have been worn down through continuous use over many years. They are rolling hills under the blue sky peppered with lazy white clouds, never the Alps or the Himalayas under a windy snowstorm. They are small, gentle streams and the peaceful sound of a lullaby, never the deafening thunder of Niagara Falls.” And while the proverbs, which date back 5,000 years, express the “collective consciousness of the Korean people,” the author endeavors to make them comprehensible to a Western audience. To this end, he often draws on American culture to explain them. The book is brimming with references to the likes of Malcolm X, Anna Nicole Smith, and Al Capone as well as the Super Bowl and Covid-19. But while the accounts provided by Moo-Jung are often remarkably sensitive, many readers will tire of the repeated references to the turpitude of Donald Trump and the corruption of the Republican Party. Rather than achieve a modern contextualization of the proverbs, such political partisanship makes them feel historically bound and sacrifices an element of their timelessness. In addition, the author’s prose can be clumsy and sometimes confusing, and the messiness of the manuscript, including abrupt and inexplicable changes in font type and size, doesn’t help. Moo-Jung’s command of the proverbs is inarguably impressive. Nevertheless, this collection may not be the best introduction for U.S. readers in search of a counterweight to the vagaries of politics and culture.

Despite its virtues, this commentary on Korean proverbs becomes too wedded to American party politics.

FOREWARD
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
INTRODUCTION

301. A crying baby gets fed. 우는 아이 젖 준다.
302. Nothing to eat at well-publicized feasts. 소문난 잔치에 먹을 것 없다.
303. A one-year-old teardrop. 작년에 괸 눈물이 금년에 떨어진다.
304. Take a pheasant along with her eggs. 꿩 먹고 알 먹는다.
305. Could a fledgling dove fly over a hill? 햇비둘기 재 넘을까?
306. Every success to my credit, all failures to ancestors. 잘되면 제 탓, 안되면 조상 탓.
307. Wild but pretty apricot. 빛 좋은 개살구.
308. Surviving without teeth but with the gum. 이가 없으면 잇몸으로 산다.
309. No help from too many helpers. 주인 많은 나그네 밥 굶는다.
310. An unlucky hunter catches a bear without the gallbladder. 재수 없는 포수는 곰을 잡아도 웅담이 없다.
311. Lose a pheasant while chasing a sparrow. 참새 잡으려다 꿩 놓친다.
312. Wind for the flour vendor, rain for the salt salesman. 밀가루 장사하면 바람이 불고, 소금 장사하면 비가 온다.
313. A fan in the fall. 추풍선 같다.
314. Eating cooled porridge. 식은 죽 먹기.
315. An arrow in the air, water on the ground. 쏘아 놓은 살이요, 엎지른 물이라.
316. Shallow water shows the pebbles underneath. 물이 얕으면 돌이 보인다.
317. Beating the boulder with an egg. 달걀로 바위 치기다.
318. A tiger out of woods, fish out of water. 산 밖에 난 범이요, 물 밖에 난 고기라.
319. Knowing one thing only. 하나만 알고 둘은 모른다.
320. Receiving a forced salute. 억지로 절 받기다.
321. Count chickens in the fall that hatched in the spring. 봄에 깐 병아리 가을에 와서 세어 본다.
322. When ready for shopping, the market is closed. 망건 쓰자 파장난다.
323. The catacomb is just outside the front gate. 대문 밖이 저승이라.
324. Even water, once frozen, can be broken into pieces. 물도 얼음이 되면 부러진다.
325. My blood boils. 오장이 뒤집힌다.
326. An immature moo-dang kills a person. 선무당이 사람 잡는다.
327. Don’t bother to look at trees you can’t climb up. 오르지 못할 나무는 쳐다보지도 말라.
328. Small streams produce dragons. 개천에서 용 난다.
329. Slippery cobbles after pebbles. 조약돌을 피하니까 수마석을 만난다.
330. Fallen leaves asking pine needles to be quiet. 가랑잎이 솔잎더러 바스락거린다고 한다.
331. A cow’s walk to a slaughterhouse. 푸줏간으로 들어가는 소걸음.
332. Must face the sky to pick a star. 하늘을 봐야 별을 따지.
333. Jeong lost over distance. 멀리 있으면 정도 멀어진다.
334. Even a ghost won’t understand you if you are quiet. 말 안 하면 귀신도 모른다.
335. A man with a sword is felled with a sword. 칼 든 놈은 칼로 망한다.
336. Temptation to have red-bean gruel. 팥죽 단지에 생쥐 들랑거리듯 한다.
337. Mud of clay holds water. 굳은 땅에 물 고인다.
338. Tadpoles in a well. 우물 안 개구리.
339. A rabbit startled from his own flatus. 토끼가 제 방귀에 놀란다.
340. Nonsense from a well-fed man. 익은 밥 먹고 선소리한다.
341. Denuded pheasant. 털 뜯은 꿩 모양이다.
342. Your eyes are your glasses. 자기 눈이 안경이다.
343. The full moon also wanes. 달도 차면 기운다.
344. A village calf remains a calf, never a bull. 동네 송아지는 커도 송아지다.
345. A drum in the neighborhood. 동네북이다.
346. Raising the floor lowers the ceiling. 마루가 높으면 천장이 낮다.
347. A flaw in a gem. 옥에 티가 있다.
348. The more you bang the drum, the more noise you create. 북은 칠수록 소리가 난다.
349. Even a river dries up if used. 강물도 쓰면 줄어든다.
350. Prairie after mountains. 태산을 넘으면 평지를 본다.
351. Flowers from a dead tree. 죽은 나무에 꽃이 핀다.
352. Slapping face follows enticing. 어르고 뺨친다.
353. A big snake climbing over a wall. 구렁이 담 넘어 가듯 한다.
354. A wealthy family at the expense of three villages. 부자 하나면 세 동네가 망한다.
355. Placing persimmons and pears at a jesa. 남의 집 제사에 감 놓아라 배 놓아라 한다.
356. Licking a watermelon. 수박 겉핥기.
357. Three-inch togue ruins five-foot body. 세 치 혀가 다섯 자 몸 망친다.
358. Time is the medicine. 세월이 약이다.
359. Wearing a silk dress in the dark night. 비단옷 입고 밤길 간다.
360. Sky seen through the eye of a needle. 바늘 구멍으로 하늘 보기.
361. A ship with multiple captains climbs up a mountain. 사공이 많으면 배가 산으로 올라간다.
362. Eat the liver of a flea. 벼룩의 간을 내어 먹는다.
363. A sheet of paper is lighter when lifted together. 백지장도 맞들면 낫다.
364. Cats cleansing their faces. 고양이 세수하듯 한다.
365. Bad news travels faster. 나쁜 소문은 빨리 퍼진다.
366. Chicken and cow glancing each other. 닭 소 보듯, 소 닭 보듯 한다.
367. Even a flea has a face to carry around. 벼룩도 낯짝이 있다.
368. Licorice to a medicine man. 약방에 감초.
369. Jumping with a dagger between teeth. 칼 물고 뜀뛰기한다.
370. Meet the lover, pick the mulberry as well. 임도 보고 뽕도 딴다.
371. A thief finds his legs asleep. 도둑이 제 발 저리다.
372. Old sayings are without flaws. 옛말 그른 데 없다.
373. Fixing the barn after the cow escapes. 소 잃고 외양간 고친다.
374. Deep water attracts fish. 물이 깊어야 고기가 모인다.
375. The dragon is easier to draw than the snake. 안 본 용은 그려도, 본 뱀은 못 그리겠다.
376. Pull a sword out to fight a mosquito. 모기 보고 칼 빼기 한다.
377. Blood on the foot of a bird. 새 발의 피다.
378. Waiting for a morning moon early at dusk. 새벽달 보자고 초저녁부터 기다린다.
379. Catching a mouse without breaking a jar. 독 깨질까 쥐를 못 잡는다.
380. Close the eyes, lose the nose. 눈 감으면 코 베어 가는 세상.
381. A toddler playing around an open well. 우물가에 애 보낸 것 같다.
382. Can you spit on a smiling face? 웃는 낯에 침 뱉으랴?
383. Without the tiger, rabbits are the master. 범 없는 골에 토끼가 스승이다.
384. A dull-witted horse pulls ten wagons. 둔한 말이 열 수레를 끈다.
385. Loss is part of business. 한 푼 장사에 두 푼 밑져도 팔아야 장사.
386. A cantankerous bullock with horns on the hip. 못된 송아지 엉덩이에 뿔난다.
387. A sage follows the aged custom. 성인도 시속을 따른다.
388. A bellybutton bigger than the belly. 배보다 배꼽이 더 크다.
389. Ill comes often on the back of worse. 흉년에 윤달 온다.
390. Neither push nor pull is an option. 빼도 박도 못 한다.
391. Fanning a burning house. 불난 집에 부채질한다.
392. See neither a bottom nor an end. 밑도 끝도 없다.
393. Good times pass fast. 신선 놀음에 도낏자루 썩는 줄 모른다.
394. Having wasabi in tears. 울며 겨자 먹기.
395. Scold in private, praise in public. 책망은 몰래 하고 칭찬을 알게 하랬다.
396. Get to blow a trumpet thanks to the boss. 원님 덕에 나팔 분다.
397. A mute with troubled thoughts. 벙어리 냉가슴 앓듯 한다.
398. No news is good news. 무소식이 희소식이다.
399. A mayfly attacking fire. 하루살이 불 보고 덤비듯 한다.
400. Vacillating between the gallbladder and the liver. 간에 붙고 쓸개에 붙는다.

INDEX (in essay number)