 Czech Ambassador to Korea Jaroslav Olsa, jr., right, poet Ko Un, left, and Prof. Ivana Bozdechova hold up copies of a Czech-Korean bilingual edition of a book of Ko Un’s poetry. Bozdechova was instrumental in its publication. / Courtesy of the Czech Embassy |
By Philip Iglauer
Czech Ambassador to Korea Jaroslav Olsa, jr., said the Czech Republic has a love for Korea and the Korean literature in a uniquely measureable way at the “Czech-Korean Poetry Evening,”on Nov. 8.
Olsa said the high er of number of Czech translations of Korean poetry shows the close affinity Czechs feel toward Korea.
This deep affinity is in part explained by what olsa described as an abiding tradition of translating Korean literature directly into Czech.
The deep affinity for Korea and Korean poetry is in part explained by what Olsa described as an abiding tradition of translating Korean literature into Czech.
The event attracted Korean and Czech language professors and students, including perennial “likely winner”of the Nobel Prize for Literature Korean poet Ko Un, who was a special guest of honor at the intimate gathering of about 50 people.
They gathered with one thing in common-- a love for poetry and language, and to hear recitations of Czech and Korean poems by old and new writers at times by Czechs reciting in Korean and Koreans in Czech.
Olsa also launched a brand new bilingual edition of Ko Un´s poetry, a joint Czech-Korean project as it was initiated by Ivana Bozdechova, a professor of Czech at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. It was sponsored by Czech and Korean embassies in both capitals, Hyundai Merchant Marine’s Prague office, and the book’s cover was prepared by Prague-based Korean designer Shin Ji-won and translated into Czech by Korea scholar Miriam Lowensteinova.
The former Czechoslovakia was the first country in Europe, after Russia, to establish a Master´s degree in Korean studies,”Olsa said before the reading at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center.
Translations usually occur from a major language, like English or Spanish, into languages spoken in smaller countries, lacking the global reach of those languages.
“In my country, Korean literature has been translated directly from the Korean originals since the 1940s when, during World War II, a group of Orientalists learned Korean, a language no Czech had mastered before,” Olsa said. He added,“We have thus an almost 70-year tradition of translating from Korean, which explains why we have so many great translations of literature, novels and poetry, for a country our size.”
That rich tradition commenced when two Korean exiles settled in Prague in 1943, and taught their mother tongue.
Books and poems were soon translated, and a devoted Korean poetry and language sprouted in what is today the Czech Republic.
Alois Pultr, known as the “father of Korean Studies,” was taught by one of those Koreans. He made a master’s degree possible in Prague at Charles University in September 1950, which paved the way for the following three generations of Czech Korea scholars.
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