Can verb endings be omitted in some circumstances ?
Hello everyone,
I have read several texts in Korean where a verb seems to be in the present tense and independent (it has the 어/아 form), but is translated as a dependent verb or as a past verb. So I am wondering if in some circumstances, the ending of a verb may be omitted and just implied by the context.
I will give some examples to make the question clear. (Yes, I know, they may not be from masterpieces of Korean literature, but unfortunately I'm not there yet...)
Here is a verse of 에이핑크's song "꿈결처럼".
꿈결처럼 내게 나타나 꿈결처럼 날 떠나갔어
Here, if I take "나타나", no past tense appears : it is the verb 나타나다, "to appear", with the "~아" intimate present ending.
But if I translate according to this, the sentence sounds weird : "Like in a dream you appear to me, like in a dream you left me." One would expect "appear" to be in the past tense instead of the present tense. And in all the translations of this line I could find, indeed, the translation is "Like in a dream you appeared to me, like in a dream you left me", with "appeared" in the past tense.
So, in the Korean sentence itself, is the past tense implied although the past tense ending is not written, or is the verb at the present tense ?
Here is a second example, from 백지영's song "보통".
보통 남자를 만나 보통 사랑을 하고 보통 같은 집에서
보통 같은 아이와
보통만큼만 아프고
보통만큼만 기쁘고
행복할 때도 불행할 때도
보통처럼만 나 살고 싶었는데
The text is a list of wishes, using the form ~고 싶다, but in the first line, the verb "만나" does not have the ~고 ending that would indicate it is a part of the list of wishes.
However, it seems to be part of the list as well. If I translate the first words like this : "I meet a common man, [I wanted (= 싶었는데 from the last line)] to have a common love", it seems to create a contradiction with the rest of the song, which tells that precisely it is a bad man (나쁜 남자) that the woman encountered. She would start the song saying she meets a "common" man, and then state that she is disappointed because he is not normal but "bad".
So the correct translation might be : "I wanted to meet a common guy, to have a common love..." If this is right, once again a verb ending is not present but implied (~고, from the construction ~고 싶다).
So, after these examples, my question is : are the verbs that I quoted simply in the present tense and independent, or are some endings implied although not written ? And if it is possible to omit endings in Korean, can you explain in which circumstances it can occur ? For example, is it reserved to poems and texts with verses, or can you omit an ending in casual speech as well ?
Thank you for reaching the end of the question if you do, and thank you for your answers !