Translation Awards winners honored

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Sophie Bowman from the U.K. started learning Korean eight years ago as a second language because she thought it was exotic. She soon fell in love with Korean literature, and started to translate Korean literature into English. Her translation of Jin Eun-young’s poems, including “When You Were a Boy,” won the Grand Prize in poetry at the 46th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards hosted by The Korea Times at Lotte Hotel Seoul, Monday.

Bowman, 27, is a graduate student in the Department of Korean Literature at Ewha Womans University. Her Korean studies began at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, later moving to Korea so she could study up on the language and literature.

“I was really happy translating Jin’s poems and glad that the translations won the Grand Prize,” Bowman said after accepting the award. “I am a big fan of Jin and hope more people can read and take interest in her poems.”

Organized by The Korea Times and sponsored by Hana Financial Group, the translation awards are one of the oldest of their kind in Korea, established in 1970. The awards have contributed to the expansion of Korean literature, opening a gate for many aspiring translators.

The judges — Sogang University Professor Emeritus Brother Anthony, Ewha Womans University Professor Jung Ha-yun and Seoul National University Professor Min Eun-kyung — said the overall quality of applicants has improved in recent years, making it difficult to determine the winning entries.

“Every year, it is difficult to find qualifying entries in poetry translation, but Bowman’s work stood out this year. She has a good discerning eye picking poet Jin’s works, which are worth a read by a wider audience, and successfully translated those in poetic language,” judge Jung said.

This year, there was no Grand Prize winner in the fiction category, but three Commendation Award winners — Jung Slin for her translation of Lee Jang-wook’s “More Than Half of Haruo,” Helen Cho for her translation of Lee Seung-u’s “The Old Diary” and the team of Christine Kwon and Park Chul-hwan for their translation of Kim Soom’s “Left-Handed Woman.”

The judges underlined that the decision was made “not because none were good enough, but because all were good enough” to win the award.

Jung Sl-in, currently attending the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said, “I will concentrate on literary translation so more Korean works can be introduced to the world.”

Cho is a freelance translator/interpreter majoring in English literature. “I have always been curious about the differences between Korean literature and English literature and the unbridgeable gap between them. Winning this award means a lot to me,” Cho said.

The translation of “Left-Handed Woman” was the first acknowledgement of Kwon and Park’s collaboration. Kwon is a freelance translator and Park is an in-house translator for the Korean Culture and Information Service. They said it took longer than expected to choose what novel to translate into English. “We chose this novel because it made us want to read it again after closing the book. It had something resonating within us,” Park said on behalf of the team.

Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup lauded the translators’ achievements, emphasizing the significance of their efforts. “The award was established 46 years ago to build a foundation for Korean literature to make its way to the world,” Lee said. “Koreans still consider economic indicators important to becoming an advanced country, but increasing cultural appreciation is more important. A Korean writer could win the Nobel Prize in Literature once Korea truly becomes a developed country.”

Kim Jung-ki, deputy president of KEB Hana Bank, recognized the significance of the award for promoting the globalization of Korean culture.

“The Korean language is suitable for literary expression, but it is tricky to translate into another language,” he said. “The Korea Times’ Translation Awards cultivates talent in promoting Korean literature to the world and Hana Financial Group will offer its support until Korean literature reaches the center of the literary world.”

The winning translations were published in the Nov. 2 edition of The Korea Times.