By Sa Eun-young
Staff Reporter
Being a good translator and a talented writer seem to go hand in hand, and it proves true with the winner of the commendation prize in fiction at this year's Translation Awards. Jae-won Edward Chung, 27, who is finishing up his masters degree in creative writing at Columbia University in New York, decided to use this talent to translate Korean literature.
His background provided a firm foundation for his translation work. Born in Seoul, he immigrated to the United States when he was 10-years-old and continued to speak Korean at home with his parents, which explains his fluency in both languages. He returned to Korea four months ago to participate in a fellowship program on Korean literature translations hosted by the International Communication Foundation, Korea. Chung also translates for the Korean Literature Translation Institute.
Chung came across ``The Door" by Hwang Jung-eun while reading a collection of short fiction and was attracted to the manner in which it seemed to depart from realism and communicate something deeper, which is something that interests him as a writer.
``It raises new questions throughout the story. You never become quite comfortable about where this story is going and I think that challenges the reader and that's what I liked about the piece,'' he said.
He communicated with Hwang by email as he tried to keep with the author's initial intentions when translating the story. For example, the author conveyed that the gender of the main character was made ambiguous intentionally, allowing the reader the chance to decide for themselves ― a tricky matter for the translator.
`` This is more natural to do in Korean than in English. Even in describing simple actions like a character going to sleep, you can't write 'm closed his or her eyes'; you have to get around it, so there were some difficult points, but I think it was worth keeping the author's original intention alive." he said.
Being a writer himself, he has genuine interest in Korean works, especially contemporary writing by authors like Kim Yeon-soo, Jang Jung-il and Kim Young-ha. Other than triggering more interest in Korean literature, working on translations has also influenced his short stories.
``It's rewarding for me because I'm finding that my activities in translating are enriching my creative writing, and vice versa.''
Chung can be contacted at