Thank you very much, Professor Seung Taeg Oh! (The jewel makes our life to be strong and to be firm, and the jewel gives us the beauty of our lives!) (Tcheonzamun 033rd-048th)
Authors: Kim Sangdeog Augustin 
Published: October 2023

French missionary Dallet (1874) wrote in his book that Korean people does not have same culture with Chinese people, for example the language, the history, the race etc. And Dallet (1874) also wrote that both old Chinese people and old Korean people used ‘The thousand character essay’ as the textbook for teaching their children for Chinese character. The thousand character essay is called as Tcheonzamun in Korea. The word of Tcheonzamun means ‘The thousand character essay’. Park et al., (2021a, 2021b) studied the translation of Tcheonzamun. And the present researcher will try to translate this ‘The thousand character essay’ poem (Tcheonzamun 033rd-048th). The present researcher tried to translate the poem from ‘The thousand character essay’, in other word, from ‘Tcheonzamun’. A Tcheonzamun poem has 16 Chinese letters. There are two methods for this translation of Tcheonzamun. The first method is through the meaning of Chinese character, and the second one is through Korean pronunciation of Chinese character. On the present study, the Tcheonzamun poem (Tcheonzamun 033rd-048th) was translated through the meaning of Chinese character. The title of this work is ‘Thank you very much, Professor Seung Taeg Oh! (The jewel makes our life to be strong and to be firm, and the jewel gives us the beauty of our lives!)’. This is the translation of the poem from ‘the thousand character essay’ (Tcheonzamun 033rd-048th). <Number in Tcheonzamun Chinese characters (the pronunciation on Korean language and written in English alphabet)> 033-036 雲(Un) 騰(Deung) 致(Tchi) 雨(U). “I hope that this thing will be done in a short time (致). And I hope that several other things also will be done completely at the same time!” For example, I wish that the cloud (雲) come to the high heaven (騰) directly. And then, I hope that the rain (雨) might fall. It is a great thing. 037-040 露(No) 結(Gyeol) 爲(Wi) 霜(Sang). To do great thing? But in the real sense, to do great thing is possible? To do great thing is not easy. It is difficult. In order for ‘a great work’ to become realized, what is necessary? The great effort is not always necessary. For example, do you want to obtain (爲) some of frost (霜)? In this case, only the dew (露) is necessary in order to make (結) the frost. What does it mean? If you prepare the small thing, here the dew. And then, the great thing, here the frost, will be obtained. 041-044 金(Geum) 生(Saeng) 麗(Ryeo) 水(Su). Do you want that the beauty on the calm and simple condition (麗) comes out (水) from the person or from the thing? In order for such a thing to be done for the person or for the thing, at first, the strong property (金) must exist (生) in the human-being or in the material. For example, the beautiful frost can be obtained only when the dew itself becomes firm. 045-048 玉(Ok) 出(Tchul) 崑(Gon) 岡(Gang). And how does such a firmness result in? In order for these small parts of the frost to stand greatly (岡) like the high mountain (崑), the small parts of the frost must give the bright or the luminous light (出) like the jewel (玉). In order for the small parts of the dew to become the frost, the property of the firm and of the strong is necessary. And then, where does it come the strong property of the frost? The luminous light is necessary. The jewel shaped of round bead or marble is necessary. This Tcheonzamun poem tells us next thing. The appearance is not important, but the mind inside is important. The master who has created the Tcheonzamun poem says to us as follow. “The jewel makes our life to be strong and to be firm, and the jewel gives us the beauty of our lives!”