A Chinese proverb

[profiterole_reads]

I encountered the Korean expression 새옹지마 (Sae Ong Ji Ma / The irony of fate, A blessing in disguise).

It baffled me, so I looked up its etymology and discovered that it was a Chinese proverb, that had not been translated, but simply transcribed into hangul: 塞翁失馬 (Sài Wēng Shī Mǎ / The old man on the frontier lost his horse). You can read the whole parable on Wikipedia to understand why it means "A silver lining".

Comments

[profiterole_reads]

Well, afaik, kanji have a Japanese reading (that would fit the "translated" category) and a Chinese reading (that would fit the "transcribed" category, with possible additional evolutions along the centuries).

Korean is the language I know the most, but I haven't reached the level where hanja are taught, so all I can say is that it probably depends if the words have Sino-Korean origins or Native Korean origins.