사시나무 is the pure Korean word for "aspen tree," 떨다 means "tremble," "quiver," "quake," "shiver," or "shake," and 듯 can translate as "like," so 사시나무 떨 듯 literally translates as "like a trembling aspen tree."
One characteristic of the aspen tree is that its leaves shake easily in the wind, partly because the leaves are light and thin and partly because the stems of the leaves are flat and are relatively long compared to the leaf itself. Another reason that the leaves shake easily in the wind is that they do not like to get too much sun, which can actually hurt the process of photosynthesis.
There are a lot of aspens in Korea, and Koreans have noticed how their leaves seem to shake or tremble in the wind more easily than those of other trees, so Koreans have come to use the expression 사시나무 떨 듯하다 (Tremble like an aspen tree) to compare the trembling of people and things to the trembling leaves of an aspen tree.
One characteristic of the aspen tree is that its leaves shake easily in the wind, partly because the leaves are light and thin and partly because the stems of the leaves are flat and are relatively long compared to the leaf itself. Another reason that the leaves shake easily in the wind is that they do not like to get too much sun, which can actually hurt the process of photosynthesis.
There are a lot of aspens in Korea, and Koreans have noticed how their leaves seem to shake or tremble in the wind more easily than those of other trees, so Koreans have come to use the expression 사시나무 떨 듯하다 (Tremble like an aspen tree) to compare the trembling of people and things to the trembling leaves of an aspen tree.
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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