The Judges' Report (2013)
By Brother Anthony, Jung Ha-yun, Min Eun-kyung
In recent years, many people across the world have shown an increasing interest in Korean culture, literature included; more translations are being published and read as a result.
We know that many more people are learning Korean and many now study translation/interpretation at advanced levels. It was therefore something of a disappointment to find that only 23 entries had been received for the 2013 Korea Times Translation Awards competition, which has traditionally been one of the main ways by which individuals have been recognized as accomplished translators of Korean literature.
Of those entries, surprisingly, ten were in the poetry category, although it is generally agreed that it is far more difficult to translate a few lines of poetry adequately than the many pages of a work of fiction.
In judging this kind of translation competition, where entries can be freely chosen so long as the work is not too out-dated and has not been previously translated, the criteria are familiar ones: in order to deserve an award, a translation must provide a full and accurate representation of the Korean original in convincing, fluent English.
Faithfulness and readability are of equal importance. We are also influenced by the quality of the work chosen; there are quite a number of poems and stories that lack universal appeal for an international readership and prove highly recalcitrant to translation.
The judges always hope to find translations that they really enjoy reading. For this to happen, it is not enough to select a work that has had some recognition among Korean readers. The translator should try to choose poems or stories that will resonate even among readers who know little or nothing about Korea, for whom the name of the poet or author may mean nothing.
Although we received many poetry translations this year, almost without exception they had clearly been submitted by Korean translators whose knowledge of English was too limited; in many cases the English grammar was poor.
As in many recent years, we soon decided that no poetry award could be given. The only exception was a set of poems written by a famous novelist and published after her death. These were on the whole very competently done, although marred by errors of spelling and grammar. We hesitated, and turned to the works of fiction that had been submitted.
In general, the fiction translations were competent but there were not many we read with real pleasure. This was in part the fault of the translator who had failed to create a convincing English style and in part the fault of the author whose work did not lend itself to translation. Where the translation itself was reasonably accurate, often the English text failed to find a compelling rhythm and flow.
That being said, we felt that the great majority of the fiction submissions showed a considerably higher level of skill than the poetry submissions. We want to encourage translators who were disappointed this year to consider continuing to work on their texts, if possible with a native speaker who has a literary sensibility, since in several cases it was only the final, detailed editing that was lacking.
We very rarely receive translations of complete plays and very much wanted to select this year's entry for an award. The dialogue was handled with skill and a clear awareness of the stage, but in the end we felt that it needed more work. In this particular case, part of the problem was the occasional incomplete grasp of the Korean original, which could be taken care of with collaborative effort.
At the end of the screening we found ourselves with three works of fiction which we felt deserved a prize. One stood out above the others by its control of English style, having found exactly the right voice for Jeong Chan's Kafkaesque story, "A Report to an Academy." We should note that this story is not identifiably ‘Korean' at all―told, in fact, in the first-person voice of a chimpanzee who has been raised by Englishmen and taught to speak refined English - and also quite short; these factors probably made it easier to translate. That said, the translation reads so well that one can easily forget that it is a translation.
For this superior quality, we felt that the translation deserved the grand prize. That left us with the other two works of fiction and the one poetry entry. We found that there was no basis for giving a prize to one fiction entry at the expense of the other, that they were of equal merit, while the poetry translation did not quite measure up to the fiction finalists. In the end, therefore, we decided that since the prize-money available was limited, the priority should go to fiction, at the expense of poetry.
The commendation awards go to the translator of Park Seong-won's "By Motor-Home to Ulan Bator" and the translator of Son Bo-mi's "Downpour." They both produced highly competent translations but we felt the narrative voice was not fully convincing in these stories. "By Motor-Home to Ulan Bator" is a highly accurate translation, but the voice feels slightly "off" and stilted.
This is because the Korean narrative voice is very difficult to render convincingly in English. The narrative voice in "Downpour" also feels unnatural and terribly dry. The reader gradually realizes that this is a calculated effect on the part of the author, but the prose still feels awkward at times. These translations show great promise and we look forward to reading more from our new translators.
We would like to end with a reminder to next year's would-be winners. Please read carefully the regulations printed in the Korea Times and abide by them. One important regulation requires entrants to submit a file of the Korean original to accompany the translation. The judges will not consider works for which they do not have the original, for obvious reasons, and we hate to see the efforts of our entrants go to waste. We look forward to reading more work next year that meet our expectations, and the contest requirements as well.
By Brother Anthony, Jung Ha-yun, Min Eun-kyung
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| Brother Anthony |
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| Jung Ha-yun |
.jpg) |
| Min Eun-kyung |
We know that many more people are learning Korean and many now study translation/interpretation at advanced levels. It was therefore something of a disappointment to find that only 23 entries had been received for the 2013 Korea Times Translation Awards competition, which has traditionally been one of the main ways by which individuals have been recognized as accomplished translators of Korean literature.
Of those entries, surprisingly, ten were in the poetry category, although it is generally agreed that it is far more difficult to translate a few lines of poetry adequately than the many pages of a work of fiction.
In judging this kind of translation competition, where entries can be freely chosen so long as the work is not too out-dated and has not been previously translated, the criteria are familiar ones: in order to deserve an award, a translation must provide a full and accurate representation of the Korean original in convincing, fluent English.
Faithfulness and readability are of equal importance. We are also influenced by the quality of the work chosen; there are quite a number of poems and stories that lack universal appeal for an international readership and prove highly recalcitrant to translation.
The judges always hope to find translations that they really enjoy reading. For this to happen, it is not enough to select a work that has had some recognition among Korean readers. The translator should try to choose poems or stories that will resonate even among readers who know little or nothing about Korea, for whom the name of the poet or author may mean nothing.
Although we received many poetry translations this year, almost without exception they had clearly been submitted by Korean translators whose knowledge of English was too limited; in many cases the English grammar was poor.
As in many recent years, we soon decided that no poetry award could be given. The only exception was a set of poems written by a famous novelist and published after her death. These were on the whole very competently done, although marred by errors of spelling and grammar. We hesitated, and turned to the works of fiction that had been submitted.
In general, the fiction translations were competent but there were not many we read with real pleasure. This was in part the fault of the translator who had failed to create a convincing English style and in part the fault of the author whose work did not lend itself to translation. Where the translation itself was reasonably accurate, often the English text failed to find a compelling rhythm and flow.
That being said, we felt that the great majority of the fiction submissions showed a considerably higher level of skill than the poetry submissions. We want to encourage translators who were disappointed this year to consider continuing to work on their texts, if possible with a native speaker who has a literary sensibility, since in several cases it was only the final, detailed editing that was lacking.
We very rarely receive translations of complete plays and very much wanted to select this year's entry for an award. The dialogue was handled with skill and a clear awareness of the stage, but in the end we felt that it needed more work. In this particular case, part of the problem was the occasional incomplete grasp of the Korean original, which could be taken care of with collaborative effort.
At the end of the screening we found ourselves with three works of fiction which we felt deserved a prize. One stood out above the others by its control of English style, having found exactly the right voice for Jeong Chan's Kafkaesque story, "A Report to an Academy." We should note that this story is not identifiably ‘Korean' at all―told, in fact, in the first-person voice of a chimpanzee who has been raised by Englishmen and taught to speak refined English - and also quite short; these factors probably made it easier to translate. That said, the translation reads so well that one can easily forget that it is a translation.
For this superior quality, we felt that the translation deserved the grand prize. That left us with the other two works of fiction and the one poetry entry. We found that there was no basis for giving a prize to one fiction entry at the expense of the other, that they were of equal merit, while the poetry translation did not quite measure up to the fiction finalists. In the end, therefore, we decided that since the prize-money available was limited, the priority should go to fiction, at the expense of poetry.
The commendation awards go to the translator of Park Seong-won's "By Motor-Home to Ulan Bator" and the translator of Son Bo-mi's "Downpour." They both produced highly competent translations but we felt the narrative voice was not fully convincing in these stories. "By Motor-Home to Ulan Bator" is a highly accurate translation, but the voice feels slightly "off" and stilted.
This is because the Korean narrative voice is very difficult to render convincingly in English. The narrative voice in "Downpour" also feels unnatural and terribly dry. The reader gradually realizes that this is a calculated effect on the part of the author, but the prose still feels awkward at times. These translations show great promise and we look forward to reading more from our new translators.
We would like to end with a reminder to next year's would-be winners. Please read carefully the regulations printed in the Korea Times and abide by them. One important regulation requires entrants to submit a file of the Korean original to accompany the translation. The judges will not consider works for which they do not have the original, for obvious reasons, and we hate to see the efforts of our entrants go to waste. We look forward to reading more work next year that meet our expectations, and the contest requirements as well.
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