Translation award honors translators' effort in reading social context

By Kwon Mee-yoo

As more and more Korean authors are becoming cosmopolitan, international interest in Korean literature has picked up and the importance of good translators who can deliver this without harming the original text is increasing.

Hosted by The Korea Times and sponsored by KB Financial Group, the Modern Korean Literature Translation Award aims to promote the translation of Korean literature, especially aspiring translators who hope to enter the field.

The Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Byeong-eon congratulated the winners and emphasized the importance of literature translation during an award ceremony at the Lotte Hotel Seoul, Thursday.

"The Modern Korean Literature Translation Award, which celebrates its 49th year, is the longest-running award among many events organized by The Korea Times. It was established to support literary translation in Korea, bridging Korean literature with international readers," Lee said. "Great literature as it is, it cannot reach readers beyond Korea if not translated. Despite the importance of their role, translators are not treated well enough in Korea and we hope this award to promote the importance of translation and act as a catalyst for globalization of Korean literature."

KB Financial Group Managing Director and Chief Public Relations Officer Sung Chai-hyun also attended the event.

This year, the grand prize in fiction went to Kim Seol-kyung for her translation of "A Covering Hand" by novelist Kim Ae-ran, while Sean Lin Halbert received the commendation award for his translation of "The Other Side" by the same author.

A graduate of Ewha Womans University Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, fiction grand prize winner Kim Seol-kyung said "A Covering Hand" was the first-ever short story she translated in full. The novel revolves around a multicultural child dragged into violence, reflecting on social issues going on in Korea.

"Looking back on the last day of August 2018, I confess it was only barely that I turned in the translated manuscript of A Covering Hand to The Korea Times. I had hoped for this for very long, but I must admit I have been loitering at its edges for years," Kim Seol-kyung said. "I humbly regard it as a gentle encouragement to take yet another small step forward."

Halbert, who started learning Korean five years ago, devised creative solutions to convey the author's attention faithfully in the short story about a couple breaking up.

"When you translate, you have to pay homage to the intentions of the author. I'm used to Korea and Korean literature now, so I can understand what the author wants to say, but some of the implications cannot be translated word-for-word. That's when I use my creativity to represent the author's intentions," Halbert said.

A team of poets Yang Eun-mi and Ed Bok Lee won the grand prize in poetry this year for their translation of Kim Ki-taek's poems.

"As a native Korean speaker, I translate the first draft, faithful to the original text. Then Korean-American Lee, whose mother tongue is English, proofreads the translated poems to revise and polish them into literary language," Yang said of their working process.

Kim Ki-taek, the poet whose work was translated by the duo, said it was good for an author to meet readers from different cultures through translation.

"Some of my poetry collections are translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese, but not in English yet. I have been watching Yang and Lee translating my poems into English and publishing them in journals and it seems that they take enough time to translate and enjoy the process of translation," Kim Ki-taek said at the award ceremony.

Sogang University emeritus professor Brother Anthony, Ewha Womans University professor Jung Ha-yun and Seoul National University professor Min Eun-kyung judged this year's entries.

Jung expressed gratitude for all those who submitted translated works for this contest.

"We judges feel lucky to read newly translated works full of passion and effort every year. We encountered quite a number of new talents this year as well," Jung said.

Jung said the judges found many experimental and less-popular poems among this year's submissions. "It was encouraging to see courageous translators who tackle poems that are worth translation into other languages with a unique angle," the professor said.

For the fiction category both winners translated Kim Ae-ran's novels. "We try to avoid a specific novelist dominating the original works because we want to acknowledge diverse attempts of translators. However, we had to choose between the two translations of Kim Ae-ran's stories. Both translators understand the contemporariness and cultural context of Kim Ae-ran's works."