박세당 편지 번역
목차
Letter to his son by Pak Se-dang 朴世堂 (寄子泰輔)
Student 1
To my son Tae-bo[1]
Your last letter was a relief for me, but now I am writing you in hard mood. The food is not enough and I am not sure that I could find something to eat for tomorrow. I plucked some still non-ripe cherries and sent it to the market, but I don’t know how much rice could get for it. Uh! Yesterday it was earthquake I have never seen before. I heard traveler saying that in the city the fortress and many houses are destroyed, indeed. Poor taegan Yun (尹大諫|윤대간)[2]! All his life he suffered hardship and I can’t hold my sigh. Real disaster! Nobody thought that it could happen, so everyone was just greedy for the pleasures in front of their eyes. If this is the will of Heaven, what can we do? We can’t know where will be the end of all this!
1 This letter is from Paek Kwang-hun (白光勳|백광훈) to his son Hyong-nam (亨南|형남): Collected works of Okpong Paek Kwang-hun (白光勳, 玉峯別集).
2 Taegan is probably a title, but it is not clear who is the mentioned person.
Student 2
Your letter calmed me. I'm doing fine. But I have a lack of food, and I'm not sure if I will have some for tomorrow. I picked about a du of half green cherry and send it to the market, but I do n't know how much sung of rice I can get for it. Sigh. There was an earthquake yesterday, I have never seen it before. I heard one traveler said that in the castle-city the fences fell down and the houses were ruined, can it be true? Speaking about the case of taegan Yun, he suffered all his life, so I can’t help sighing. This is real disaster, nobody can predict it, all people want is to see the pleasant things in front of their eyes. This is the [will of] Heaven, what can we do with it? We can't even suppose where the repercussions will show themselves.
