Cowl of Hyun Ki-young’s quick story assortment, which incorporates “Iron and Flesh”/ Courtesy of Changbi Publishers
Born to Christian missionary mother and father and raised throughout a number of nations, Peace Lee, winner of this 12 months’s Kevin O’Rourke Prize, grew up with a eager sense of language and translation.
“By the point I entered faculty, I’d already moved greater than 20 instances. My mother and father have been missionaries, so we left Korea after I was 5 and settled within the Philippines, the place I first grew to become conscious of the multiplicity of languages. English, Tagalog, regional dialects and even traces of Spanish coexisted in the identical air,” the Korean American stated.
“I keep in mind being 7, fascinated that there have been so some ways to say one thing so simple as ‘eight.’ That early surprise formed how I got here to see the world.”
At present residing within the U.S., Lee found the fantastic thing about translation whereas learning at a theological seminary, the place she was coaching to turn into a preacher and instructor of homiletics.
“I nonetheless keep in mind translating a homiletics article from Korean to English throughout graduate faculty. Inside it was a single literary citation — and the enjoyment of translating that one passage lit one thing in me. I believed, ‘that is what I need to do,’” the winner recalled.
Ultimately, Lee left her theological profession to pursue literary translation full time. She is now engaged on an English translation of Hyun Ki-young’s three-volume epic “O Jejudo,” in addition to a number of of his quick tales.
She encountered Hyun’s writing throughout a pivotal second in her life.
“I found his work in 2017, after I returned to Korea for the primary time in practically 20 years. That journey was deeply private — a homecoming to bless my beginnings, honor my ancestors and perceive the place I got here from,” she stated.
In the course of the journey, Lee traveled to Jeju Island for a peace discussion board and joined a “darkish pilgrimage,” strolling by means of Jeju April 3 Bloodbath websites, visiting the 4.3 Peace Museum and listening to survivors’ testimonies.
“That have modified me. It was there I first heard Hyun’s title, a author who had been imprisoned and tortured for daring to write down in regards to the genocide on his island,” she stated. “I used to be so moved by his braveness that I carried house a replica of ‘Aunt Suni,’ his landmark novella.”
After that journey, Lee left the church and her educating place.
“[The trip] dismantled the ethical world I’d inherited and compelled me to confront how religion, when unexamined, can turn into an instrument of violence. From that second, I started to dream of turning away from institutional ministry towards the quieter, riskier work of witness — by means of literature and translation,” she recalled.
Engaged on “Iron and Flesh” was significantly difficult, due to the abundance of sajaseongeo, four-character expressions derived from Chinese language characters, and the usage of Jeju dialect.
“However emotionally, the toughest half was the fabric itself. Every anecdote in ‘Iron and Flesh’ is marked as ‘based mostly on a real story.’ To take a seat with that — to translate traces born of actual violence and actual loss — was usually overwhelming,” she stated.
Successful the interpretation award honoring Kevin O’Rourke is greater than an expert recognition for Lee — it’s a validation of her determination to comply with her true calling.
“After leaving the church and ministry, I started really listening to my very own calling — and it led me right here. Despite the fact that translation isn’t essentially the most ‘safe’ discipline, particularly with AI on the rise and publishing beneath stress, it’s the work of my goals. I can’t think about doing anything,” she stated.
“My translation apply has turn into greater than a career: it’s a method of being on the earth — a method of listening, bridging and honoring voices which may in any other case stay unheard.”
Lee has an extended checklist of Korean writers she needs to translate into English.
“Not only for myself, however for the Korean diaspora and for the youthful model of me who searched library cabinets for Asian and Asian American books and located so few. Now that there’s a rising abundance, I need to assist widen that circle.”
