@horologically reblogged your post and added: “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Part 1: Korean translation notes...”
...I’m intrigued why certain scenes between characters (Harry and Draco at King’s cross, Rose on the train) come across as friendlier, less uptight than the English translation. Is it the use of a certain case? I suppose I’m thinking of Spanish, which uses a formal usted, or Russian, which has a case for both informal (ты) and formal (вы) you. When you have the time, would you mind translating the weaponized bookcase’s riddles and Delphi’s prophesy? I’m fascinated by translation of rhyme and meter.
I think it’s because Korean has two distinctive sets of expressions of speech, non-formal and honorific(polite), which have differing suffixes for the last word in a sentence. It’s difficult to explain, but basically non-formal is what you use for people you are friends with or are younger than you, while honorific is for people who are older than you, are of authority, or are simply not very close to yet. (There’s also a specific way of talking to younger people as a parent/guardian/grandparent, which is the speech Harry uses in his conversations with Albus.) In both Harry/Draco and Albus/Rose interactions, they use the non-formal type of speech in a friends sort of way (since in both cases, the characters are the same age) and I think that contributes to the friendly feel? It’s weird I know haha!
Also I think you saw the post regarding the riddles! The riddles were translated quite literally so unfortunately the original rhyme/rhythm was lost, but then Korean style riddles don’t have rhythm to them to begin with so I don’t think anyone would find that part odd unless they read the original script first. :D
As for the prophecy, that’s in Part 2 but the book is due to be released on the 24th so we’ll have to wait for that!
