The Korea Instances’ 56th Fashionable Korean Literature Translation Awards entries proceed to reflect the booming curiosity in Korean literature and rising neighborhood of passionate, succesful translators.
Some clear traits in fiction included LGBTQ tales, dystopian themes and fiction impressed by Ok-pop. Poetry additionally confirmed a variety, from the quick and aphoristic to longer varieties grounded in up to date on a regular basis life. Translators are discovering writing that’s significant to them and efficiently speaking that to future readers.
Given the rising variety among the many texts chosen for translation, our dialogue turned to the query of what it means to decide on one kind of textual content over one other. Ought to the profitable entries be in some way consultant, and in that case, of what? Ought to they primarily entertain and skim easily in English?
There have been wonderful translations that grabbed our consideration solely to really feel extra superficial or much less difficult than others. Different entries offered steep translation challenges that weren’t totally met in English. For poetry, there have been noticeable variations in issue degree and plenty of entries have been weighed down by a very literal strategy. Particular person poems impressed us deeply, however in the end we needed to weigh every entry as a set.
We got here away from our dialogue with a deepened understanding of textual content choice itself as a important, and probably under-examined, a part of the translator’s job. Weighing which works won’t solely seize readers’ consideration but in addition fulfill the expectations of their literary varieties is a troublesome however crucial job.
Our unanimous alternative for the Grand Prize in fiction was the LGBTQ story, “The Issues that Go By” by Kim Ji-yeon. We have been impressed by the translator’s management of temper and voice. The story felt lifelike, refined and totally realized, and the primary character’s emotional improvement and the emotional throughline of the story have been well-managed. We additionally appreciated the story’s setting in a much less glamorous nook of small-town Korea. The one glitches have been kinship phrases, the interpretation of which might profit from extra nuance. The judges particularly appreciated that the story thematically strikes in direction of connection and optimism, each of which really feel in brief provide as of late. It’s a superbly written and translated love story that resists the pull of straightforward solutions whereas nonetheless urging us towards hope.
For the Commendation Award within the fiction class, we selected “Aeon” by Choi Hee-ra because it stood out not solely as a piece of science fiction, with its imaginative and prescient of the human world, synthetic intelligence and humanoids, however as an completed quick story in English. It weaves ethical complexity and emotional depth right into a story that feels each well timed and unsettlingly potential, whereas elevating severe and interesting questions on love, consciousness and the boundaries between human and machine. Although it wasn’t on the identical degree of lexical complexity because the Grand Prize-winning story, the interpretation exhibited quiet precision in its management of rhythm and consistency and its steadiness between accuracy and lyricism.
Choosing the Grand Prize winner for poetry was harder. After narrowing down the contenders, we selected a set of poems by Pak Website positioning-won together with “Calling 1” because of the greater complexity of the supply textual content and the stronger management of language within the translation. This choice was an bold alternative, given the density of language, the playfulness of the subject material and its place within the map of Korean literature. The judges appreciated the distinctive voice that the translator crafted and their willingness to comply with the supply textual content to its melodramatic heights and cozier intimacies alike.
Our Poetry Commendation Award winner, translation of poems together with “Phrases Near the Coronary heart” by Park So-ran, captured the judges’ hearts with its intimate voice and language grounded in on a regular basis life. The translator did an admirable job of recreating line breaks and phrasings, although there have been some missed alternatives that might have pushed this choice additional. As a result of the language of the supply poems was not as dense, omissions or modifications to imagery and even sentence endings tended to be felt extra keenly within the translation. Nonetheless, this was an completed translation that represents present traits in Korean poetry and deserves consideration.
Lastly, for the winner of the Kevin O’Rourke Prize, we selected “Iron and Flesh” written by Hyun Ki-young. This story boldly upends the expectations of the quick story kind, creating new methods to swimsuit its subject material, the April 3 Jeju Bloodbath. The translator rose to that problem with an brisk, emotion-driven voice that’s carried via from begin to end, although the interpretation would profit from revision of the longer, cumulative-style sentences, which will be notoriously tough to translate. We’re delighted to acknowledge the translator’s ambition and daring alternative of textual content with this specific award. We want, too, for this award to encourage different translators to suppose exterior of conventional literary codecs and to take dangers. This was an unconventional but all-too-timely alternative that reminds readers of the facility of literature to confront erasure and injustice.
