Literal translation for this 잠언 would be asking a Cat to take care of Fish(s). This could also be related to proverbs like “asking a Fox to take care of Sheep” or “asking a Fox to take care of hen house”. Either way these have similar meaning and can be used in similar situations.
In other words this proverb has meaning of :
Asking a person to do a thing, while knowing that he/she/they wouldn’t do the thing properly or would intend to do the opposite by nature.
한국말로 we can say it as follows
고양이에게 생선을 맡기다
or
고양이한테 생선을 맡기다
Vocabulary (어휘) + Grammar (문법)
고양이 : Cat
에게 : It’s a preposition that can be used to describe ‘to, for or by’ based on situation. In this proverb, it kind of has the meaning of ‘to’. For detailed info on this preposition usages, click here to check.
생선 : Fish
을 : Object Particle
맡다 : To assign the responsibility for a particular thing (책임 같은 의미 가지고 있는 단어) e.g. like 그 일이 나한테 맡겨.
같은 문법로 만든 다른 문장
호랑이에게 물려가도 정신만 차리면 산다
내가 할게. 그 일이 나한테 맡겨.
제대로 이야기해라. 나에게 그 여자는 천사야.
Management Tip:
If you are having a Team, and want to assign task. One way is to assign tasks according to interests or based on what team member wants to do. E.g. that Cat can help in tasting the end product in case if its packaged fish that you are selling.
Of course, when it comes to Evolving, people would need to be uncomfortable. In those situations, having someone to guide through pointers would be the key. Even cats can be taught to protect the fishes instead of eating those (I guess cats can… )