Odd one out in literary circle

Poet Kim Yi-deum / Courtesy of Kim Yi-deum

'NTA win tells me it's okay to be different,' says poet

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Kim Yi-deum, whose translated poetry won the 2020 National Translation Award (NTA) of the American Literary Translators' Association (ALTA), considers herself the odd one out in Korean literary circles.

Unlike other Korean poets, she said her poetic style is free, crude and decadent.

In a society where being different is deemed as something akin to a problem or a flaw, Kim has been compared with other poets who write "decent, ethical" works. Some conservative critics harshly criticize her for her unique writing style.

Being undervalued among local critics and domestic readers was one reason why she was so surprised when her poem "Hysteria" was honored by the NTA last Friday.

"It was a nice surprise. I was in disbelief," she told The Korea Times over the phone Friday after winning the award. Her voice and tone still portrayed excitement, although hours had passed since the victorious moment.

"I felt like a little girl born out of wedlock who had received the cold shoulder from her father for many years since her birth but all of a sudden he recognized her as his daughter," she said. "Like that girl, I had been grappling with sadness because my works were not recognized by people …"

Kim, 51, said the NTA win gave her confidence that it's okay to be different, and it also gave her the green light to continue with her own style.

In addition to the NTA, Kim's "Hysteria" also won the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize hosted by ALTA, a prize to commemorate the importance of Asian translation for international literature. Kim's "Hysteria" is the first work to win both ALTA prizes simultaneously. She is the first Korean to win an NTA Award.

Translated by Jake Levine, Seo So-eun and Choi Hedgie, "Hysteria" was shortlisted for the U.S. translation award in late September, weeks after it made the longlist of the prestigious award, along with Hwang Sok-young's "At Dusk" translated by Sora Kim-Russell.

Kim said she held her breath while watching the ALTA's virtual conference nervously last Friday to announce the 2020 NTA winner.

Waiting for the results was nail-biting, she said.

When "Hysteria" was finally named as the winner, Kim said she was gripped by an outpouring of emotions ― both joy and sadness.

Debuting as a poet in 2001 through Poesie magazine published by Nanam Publishing House, she has written poems for nearly two decades.
Her poems are about unwed mothers, disabled people, homosexuals and prostitutes. Her free-styled writings about socially disadvantaged people and criticism about oppressive social systems made conservative critics and readers uncomfortable with her work.

"I was depressed because I knew my poetic style was so different from that of others and my works were brushed away by critics," Kim said.

Some were harsh on her.

She was humiliated at an international conference held in the early 2010s when she read her poem "A Country Prostitute."

"A middle-aged male poet who was in the audience suddenly stood up and yelled at me, saying my work wasn't a poem. He humiliated me in front of national and international audiences," she said.

According to her, she had gone through several other "traumatic" experiences because of her "decadent poems," which taken together caused her to lose confidence in her work.

But there were a few critics who recognized her as a talented poet. The late Hwang Hyun-san was one of them. He served as a judge at Poesie and picked Kim's debut poem, "Passing Bathtub A from Bathtub a," to be published in the magazine.

"When my name was called as the winner of the NTA, several people popped up in my mind. Mr. Hwang was one of them. I thought he would have been glad at seeing me recognized internationally with the award. How nice it would have been if he were still alive and knew my work was chosen for the award," Kim said.

Born in 1969 in the southeastern city of Jinju, Kim graduated from Pusan National University Department of German Language and Literature.

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