[The Glory] Homelessness in Fairy Tale?

In a scene where Sa-ra bullies Dong-eun in a gym, she said

I thought that you never really had a home, no?
It’s like something out of a fairy tale.
Guess you’re living in a fairy-tale, Dong-eun

Well… don’t you think it sounds a bit strange? Of course, we can understand her intention to mock Dong-eun. But when thinking about the words, it’s quite awkward to describe a person without their own house as one living in a fairy tale.

However, in Korean, Sa-ra’s saying becomes much natural.

나 너땜에 ‘달방’이라는 말 처음 알았잖아
달방은 달이 뜨는 방인가?
동화 속에 사네, 문동은?

I’m not trying to say the translation is wrong here. In fact, I can feel how enthusiastic the translator was to deliver both the attitude of Sa-ra, mocking Dong-eun and the word, fairy tale itself. But, still, there’s something more in Korean, which is hard to be crammed in subtitles, and I would like to dig in more line by line.


나 너땜에 ‘달방’이라는 말 처음 알았잖아

[Subtitle] I thought that you never really had a home, no?

[Direct translation] I haven’t heard the word, “Dal-bang,” but I learn it from you.

The point here is the world, “Dal-bang,” which I just write as it sounds. In Korean, it means a kind of motel room provided to a guest who makes a lump sum payment for a long-term stay. So, Dal-bang suggests Dong-eun’s difficult background and how different they are: Dong-eun and Sa-ra.

Moreover, the world is a kind of compound word; Dal (meaning moon in Korean) + Bang (meaning room in Korean). That’s why Sa-ra says the following.


달방은 달이 뜨는 방인가?

[Subtitle] It’s like something out of a fairy tale.

[Direct translation] Maybe, Dal-bang has a moon.

Clearly, Sa-ra just ridicules her without any empathy for Dong-eun’s situation. I think her next line makes Dont-eun much insulted.


동화 속에 사네, 문동은?

[Subtitle] Guess you’re living in a fairy-tale, Dong-eun

[Direct translation] Oh, you’re living in a fairy-tale, Dong-eun

I guess this scene would be one of the difficult parts to translate in this episode. But the translation is great I think. Anyway, the mood and their bitchness are well presented. In addition, the word ‘fairy-tale’ appears first in this scene, which appears again in the conversation between Dong-eun and Ye-sol at the end of this episode. (if you want to see the conversation between Dong-eun and Ye-sol, click here.)

To sum up, the fairy tale, arbitrarily defined by Yeon-jin’s fam, ends up as a fable, showing the punishment to the offenders.

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