피봤어
[pi-boass-eo]
it sucked; what a bummer
Meaning & context
글자 그대로, 자신의 피를 보다. 이 관용어는 어떠한 좋지 않은 사건, 상황으로부터 손해를 입음을 나타낸다. 느낌상, 이는 나에게 타격을 준 아주 나쁜 것.
Literally “I saw my blood.” This idiom refers to the damage one received from some unpleasant circumstance, in a sense, it sucked so bad that it damaged me. Related to the English expression “bummer man.”
From As Much as a Rat’s Tail · book pages 223–224. Original published text; historical references and usage are retained.
STORY TIME
See it in conversation
Korean
끝내주는 직업정신?
English
A True Professional?
어이, 박통. 연설 어땠어?
Hey, President Park. How was the speech?
오, 피봤어! 피봤어! 내 손에 피...
Oh, piboasseo! Piboasseo! Blood on my hands…
왜, 잘 안됐어? 연설 망쳐버린거야?
What, it was terrible? You messed up the speech?
아니, 누군가 나를 쏘려하다가 실패했고, 걔 잡았어!
No, someone tried to shoot me, but he missed and we caught him!
그래 그럼 괜찮은거네, 근데 연설은 중지됐겠다. 그지?
So you’re OK, but you had to stop the speech, right?
아니, 연설 끝까지 다 했어. 오, 피봤어!
No, I finished the speech. Oh, piboasseo!
그럼 피본건 뭔데?
Then what was piboasseo?
걔들이 내 아내 죽였거든! 피가 사방에 튀고. 피봤어!
They killed my wife! There was blood everywhere. piboasseo!
From the book: notes & culture
An End of Alphabet Comes
Humming happily to a hiut ㅎ breeze,
somewhat soft with a bit of a wheeze.
Devoid of drums, the delicate hum
is aspirated in a breath of cold air ease.
Hiut covers the gamut from hair to fair,
From ha ha 하하 happy to the ㅎㅎ sarcastic glare.
And forget “Fighting,” cause in Korean it’s “Highting!”
There’s no F after all, so “Hip, hip, hiut” for all.
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