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"쥐구멍 볕들때까지" Can someone please explain me this phrase? I know 쥐구멍 means mouse hole and 볕 is sun burn but what's the meaning of the hole sentence?

Corrections · 6

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Mouse hole regarded as always dark and hopeless place so the "쥐구멍에 볕 들다” means, the days when a bright and happy day comes.

And "-때까지" means "until - happens"

Hope you find this helpful

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The most widely known proverb featuring 쥐구멍 would be  "쥐구명에도 볕 들 날 있다".

The Naver dictionary has this about it.

"[속담 (proverb)] 쥐구멍에도 볕 들 날 있다.

몹시 고생을 하는 삶도 좋은 운수가 터질 날이 있다는 말 (Even in a life of severe hardship, there will come a day of good fortune)."

It also has an entry on "쥐구멍을 찾다", which means to look for a rat hole (to hide away from an embarrassing situation).

[관용구(idiomatic expression)] 쥐구멍(을) 찾다.

부끄럽거나 난처하여 어디에라도 숨고 싶어 하다. (Wanting to hide somewhere because of a shame or an awkward situation)


"쥐구멍 볕들때까지" is a variation on the above proverb, like "until we have a good luck (like a rat hole getting the sun)".

볕 is short for 햇볕, or sunshine.  해 means the sun, and 볕 its rays. A similar word 빛 means "light", so both 햇빛 and 햇볕 mean roughly the same thing.

This proverb about changing fortunes seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people in the 1950s and 60s after the Korean War when life was harsh and political turmoil was a constant feature.   So they even made a song out of it, titling it exactly like that, "쥐구멍에도 볕 들 날 있다" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEHYrBiJnkA).  When your Korean gets good, you can check its wacky old style lyrics for fun :-)

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It is popular saying. 쥐구멍에라도 들어가고 싶다 is one of the popular saying too. In here the meaning of 쥐구멍 is not that much nagative. It is used when you are ashamed and want to hide somewhere. 볕 is not that much popular but used older age.

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