1
00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:07,360
um i'm delighted to welcome all of you to
today's event uh gender in contemporary uh korean
2
00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:13,840
poetry and thank you for joining us today my
name is namhi lee i teach modern korean history
3
00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:20,400
and also director center for korean studies
at ucla and for those of you who may be new
4
00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:27,440
to our center's events the center for korean
studies promotes korean studies program at ucla
5
00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:35,200
and engages the ucla community and the general
public with various issues related to korea
6
00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:44,240
and beyond by organizing lecture series symposia
film screening and cultural events please visit
7
00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:51,520
our website to learn more about our programs and
events and before i introduce today's participants
8
00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:57,280
i'd like to also make a very brief announcement
about upcoming events that the center for korean
9
00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:04,000
studies is organizing over the years a number of
community activists and scholars have been working
10
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:12,480
on curating and translating a set of documentary
evidence concerning the japanese imperial military
11
00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:19,760
comfort women system into a readily
accessible english format and on may 20th
12
00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:27,520
our center and uci's law school and a number of
other organizations would have a public event
13
00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:34,800
to discuss these resources in an effort to
enhance ongoing discussions in the legal
14
00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:42,640
scholarly and educational communities in
the u.s south korea and the international
15
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:50,880
community at large so please be sure to check
more information on that event on our website
16
00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:59,680
returning to today's event it is the second of the
series called kwajang celebrating the process of
17
00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:07,280
translating korean literature which will be about
which will be a bilingual reading of selected
18
00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:14,640
poems from e soho's catcalling and discussion of
themes of gender in contemporary korean literature
19
00:02:14,640 --> 00:02:22,720
by translators hoje and professor judy han
today's webinar will be recorded and will
20
00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:29,520
be made available on our center's website and
after speaker's presentations there will be a
21
00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:37,120
time for q a please use the q a function on the
bottom of your screen to submit your questions
22
00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:47,040
i also like to thank um kim our assistant director
of the center and alex chu uh it technical support
23
00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:52,960
coordinator at the international institute and
of course i would like to extend my warmest
24
00:02:54,320 --> 00:03:04,240
thanks to both soldier and judy han and
of course also victoria cordell this
25
00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:11,920
um uh series was actually conceived and
organized by victoria cordell who's a second
26
00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:19,520
year phd student in korean literature in the
department of asian languages and cultures at ucla
27
00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:26,400
so victoria will be saying a few words
about the series and also introduce sojai
28
00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:34,400
my job is to introduce professor judy han
who is a cultural geographer an assistant
29
00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:41,040
professor in gender studies at ucla where
she teaches classes on gender and sexuality
30
00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:49,280
korean studies mobilities or
immobilities and what does this say
31
00:03:49,280 --> 00:04:00,160
comics her research and publications uh cover a
wide range of topics including conservative uh
32
00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:08,400
religious formations cure activisms and protest
cultures i especially like to thank professor han
33
00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:17,680
for agreeing to be a discussion today as she's
been extremely busy um with the uh series uh
34
00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:24,720
that she's been leading the webinar series called
feminist politics in korea and the korean diaspora
35
00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:33,840
which it features invited guest speakers who are
activists and filmmakers and you should definitely
36
00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:43,200
check out this series the information can be also
found on the cks website so without further ado
37
00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:49,920
i'd like to hand over the microphone or
the i don't know what you call this too
38
00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:54,960
oh victoria i'm
39
00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:06,000
this is uh as just stated our second event
in the celebrating the process of translating
40
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,760
korean literature series and with the support of
the center for korean studies kwatong is seeking
41
00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:17,040
to bring to the forefront uh those dedicated
individuals who bring works of korean literature
42
00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:22,320
across into english and thereby enrich our field
of study and provide materials that we can use
43
00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:30,080
in our undergraduate classes and share these
fantastic and prescient works of literature with
44
00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:36,640
those who are not yet of the linguistic capability
of reading them in their original korean
45
00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:44,240
and it's my great pleasure to introduce our
guest translator soldier soulja and i first met
46
00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:50,640
and collaborated at a translation workshop held at
uc berkeley uh when they were still an undergrad
47
00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:54,640
and their passion for korean literature and
their dedication to their craft has only
48
00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:58,880
increased exponentially since then and
led to the publication of their first
49
00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:04,160
full-length translation yemi's poetry
collection unexpected vanilla in 2020
50
00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:10,800
and april 2021 sees the publication of the topic
of our discussion today isoho's cat calling
51
00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:18,000
and uh further in the future in may we'll see
the uh the publication of their first full-length
52
00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:24,720
novel to the warm horizon by xi jinyoung as well
so a really busy year an exciting year with really
53
00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:31,120
exciting works that are dealing with
topics of gender and topics of sexuality
54
00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:38,720
that are um you know sorely missing from the
extant translated works uh soja is not only a
55
00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:44,000
talented translator but also works to broaden and
deepen connections between translators building
56
00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:48,640
community through their projects such as the
translations in choca which invites translators
57
00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:54,000
and those aspiring to translate to submit their
own versions of one poem per quarterly issue
58
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,480
in order to highlight the versatility of
language and of translators creativity
59
00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:01,680
they are truly inspiring in their
craft and their presence and i'm
60
00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:05,760
so grateful they agreed to share their
work here with us today thank you both
61
00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:16,240
wow thank you victoria i didn't realize you were
going to bring up my undergraduate days but thank
62
00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:21,680
you for that very generous introduction and also
for organizing this wonderful series highlighting
63
00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:28,400
translators of korean literature i'm a really
big fan of the poet translators jack zhang
64
00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:36,400
and sakurakayasu and i'm very honored to follow
them in this event today it's quite a jump
65
00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:43,840
um that we'll be attempting between italian
and iso and i'm going to share my screen now
66
00:07:55,360 --> 00:08:02,960
yes um yeah it's quite a jump um but there is
a connection visual experimentation to express
67
00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:07,840
the subjective self beyond written
language i thought i'd take advantage
68
00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:15,200
of the particularities of a zoom lecture and share
my most visual translations of eso's cat calling
69
00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:21,920
i know the assignment is gender and i'll
get to that too i promise so isoho was born
70
00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:29,840
hyunjin being her given name in 1988 she studied
creative writing at the seoul arts university
71
00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:35,280
where she was taught by the poet kimesun among
others then went on to earn an m.a in korean
72
00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:41,920
literature from tongkuk university she won
the newcomer award in modern poetry in 2014
73
00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:48,400
and the kim jung literary award for her debut
collection catcalling in 2018 and i want to
74
00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:54,880
clarify that she is a cis hat woman and i'm
not dead naming her by acknowledging her birth
75
00:08:54,880 --> 00:09:01,440
name actually kyung jin the semi-fictionalized
version of isho's past self is the protagonist
76
00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:06,240
and one of the many speakers of catcalling
which exposes and ridicules the quotidian
77
00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:12,080
violences that keong jin experiences as she
grows up and becomes an artist under patriarchy
78
00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:19,280
the connection between form and content in this
collection is palpable and persuasive easel blurs
79
00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:25,680
text to recreate the after effects of physical
abuse scatters verb conjugations into a collage
80
00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:31,840
spells out the honorific yes with that very word
repeated 400 sometimes and recounts verbal abuse
81
00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:37,600
without spaces so that it takes up as little
space as possible and we'll be looking at some
82
00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:45,680
of those today i know i just said i'll discuss the
visual poems but i thought i'd sort of ease us in
83
00:09:45,680 --> 00:09:51,680
if that's even possible with this collection
uh with the very first poem as a kind of curse
84
00:09:51,680 --> 00:09:58,880
of her teeth i say curse because it's very
intense and an indication of the violence to come
85
00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:08,086
[in foreign language]
86
00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:29,520
cohabitation i was born but somehow
you were born too from one to two
87
00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:41,200
we crumple ourselves into the cramped stroller we
use the same uniform man room on knee the doctor
88
00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:48,480
says i should do whatever i want so omni i'm not
going to call you on me anymore because i love
89
00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:55,520
you i'm going to call you by your name let's be
real you don't deserve to be called a big sister
90
00:11:55,520 --> 00:12:02,640
my little sister says peeling the apple with a
knife it's the last apple so you better finish it
91
00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:09,840
little sister points the knife at me as she
peels the apple crunch crunch i eat the apple
92
00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:17,440
i slit little sister's wrists for her mom says
you slept inside her like it was your grave
93
00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:23,840
i slit little sister's wrist again hushed
little baby your prettiest when you sleep
94
00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:30,080
i put her to sleep on her stomach i put her
to sleep pulling the blanket to the top of
95
00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:37,840
her head how cramped how cramped the
knight is from one to two from one to two
96
00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:51,840
thank you and for this next poem i'm
going to be um off screen for a little bit
97
00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:05,840
[in foreign language]
98
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:11,840
is
99
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,000
so so never can ever get very little
100
00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:33,840
just the two of us let's lean on each
other and die it'd be super great
101
00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,840
don't forget i'm the only one
102
00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:53,940
say
103
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:37,920
november 21st 2014 the day she
didn't beat me with a frying pan
104
00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:49,840
as a result of those strikes i had the
strange experience of briefly seeing double
105
00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:54,080
thank you could you hear me okay
106
00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:02,160
okay great i was getting a a message in the
chat about the volume so just making sure
107
00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:12,400
so this is the third poem in cat calling and the
moment i saw this i knew i wanted to translate it
108
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:18,640
i'm always looking for works that are exceptional
in some way works that can bring something new to
109
00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:25,280
the english language and literary scenes obviously
this accomplishes both as you can see i don't know
110
00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:30,720
if you can see my mouse cursor but as you can
see there is a footnote in the korean as well
111
00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:35,760
editors tend to be very anti-footnote when it
comes to translations because they're seen as
112
00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:42,000
you know pedantic and distracting but most of the
footnotes in cat calling i did not introduce into
113
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:48,160
the text myself i gave a reading on open letter
books instagram last week where i broke down my
114
00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:54,400
translation and editorializing of the footnotes
in xi jin's home a house of dead stones so i
115
00:17:54,400 --> 00:18:01,200
won't really get into the footnotes today unless
someone has a specific question later so there is
116
00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:07,280
a very obvious blurred effect on the page and the
footnote very kindly explicates the intent which
117
00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:12,720
is the double vision or traumatic disorientation
kanjin experience from her younger sister's
118
00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:21,040
physical and verbal violence as for my kwajang i
made two text boxes on microsoft word and overlaid
119
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:26,720
them and adjusted the opacity so that the text
wouldn't become so bold but i think the layout
120
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:32,240
editor open letter anthony blake might have done
something a little bit different for the effect
121
00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:40,080
here i have an example where my approach looks
quite different from his and we can think about
122
00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:47,360
the many ways visuality can be translated and
transmuted on the left we have the poem by iso
123
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:54,800
in the middle the version that i turned in and
third this is the final version that anthony
124
00:18:54,800 --> 00:19:00,960
laid out so i think part of the process involves
the publisher's in-house style including font
125
00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:07,760
and spacing and had i known that anthony the
marketing director was also the layout person
126
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:14,640
i probably would have annoyed him a lot more with
little tweaks but this was a lesson for me too in
127
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:20,640
terms of realizing all the ways that translation
becomes a collaboration through publication
128
00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:26,800
at this point i want to turn our attention
to the word onni which has already come up
129
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:33,200
many times in these two poems i've written an
essay on ani called not exactly a sister for
130
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:38,000
modern poetry and translation the essay
is much more nuanced than i'm going to be
131
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:43,360
today taking into consideration the historical
evolution of the word but in the interest of
132
00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:49,040
time and specific relevance to catcalling i've
summed it up into this sort of rudimentary chart
133
00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:55,360
omni meaning older sister is what a female
person would call an older female person
134
00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:01,680
out of respect and a sense of familiarity oppa
meaning older brother is female to older male
135
00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:09,280
nuna meaning older sister is male to older female
tongue meaning older brother is male to older male
136
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:16,800
if you haven't caught on age order is a huge deal
in korean culture this explains why keong jin is
137
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:23,760
and has to be on me or older sister to shidin
the honorific title is inextricable from their
138
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:30,640
relationship in an interview iso said my sister
and i are only a year apart but the role and
139
00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:36,160
responsibilities vested by that single year are
so different eldest daughters are pressured to
140
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:42,000
be unconditionally patient i wanted to speak
about the unfairness of this so you can start to
141
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:48,480
understand the weight of this word as a symbol
of power and responsibility and even violence
142
00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:56,400
at the same time non-binary koreans such
as myself are excluded from this lexicon
143
00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:04,000
or is it an exclusion part of my realization of my
identity came from the fact that i don't identify
144
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:12,240
as either an ani or uppa but because i worship
at the nightclub of munoz i do sometimes wish
145
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:18,640
that there were alternatives to call my queer
korean siblings and beloved and move away from
146
00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:24,880
anti-relationality like like nibbling
the gender-neutral term for niece
147
00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:33,040
nephew neologisms will be inevitably divisive some
people will love it some people will find it corny
148
00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:38,320
so we'll find we'll see what kinds of new
languages surface and stick around in korean
149
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:46,480
those with some engagement with k-pop will
know that these four terms are also romantic
150
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:52,960
and sexual terms despite or because of the incest
taboo it seems like lots of familial words are
151
00:21:52,960 --> 00:22:00,240
recycled into sex like daddy mamacita and so
forth so it's not unique to korean culture but
152
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:05,920
i find it interesting that the power dynamic is
slightly less hierarchical than the parent-child
153
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:12,160
relationship i made a quick slide of some
pieces of culture from the last three years
154
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:18,880
or so containing the word unni in the title this
evidences the popularization of feminism as well
155
00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:25,600
as less mainstream lesbian narratives because only
simultaneously reveals the speaker and addressee
156
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:31,600
to be female it's a powerful word for suffix
and straight women seeking sisterhood alike
157
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:38,160
it's politically powerful and also convenient
marketing wise to be able to signal in just one
158
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:45,920
word that it's quote made by women for women
and living in korea i've been noticing cases
159
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:51,840
of localization which is the process of
adapting certain products for the target culture
160
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:58,000
involving on me as well i wrote about my
sister the serial killer being translated
161
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:04,480
as annie i killed a man in my essay and sort
of the incongruence of the title and content
162
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:11,920
but what a title right and the next screenshot
i have is about ocean's eight because the korean
163
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:18,640
media really rendered the cast of ocean's eight on
nice to make them more familiar and approachable
164
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:24,000
to the korean female audience these are some of
the reviews and articles written on that movie
165
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:30,720
and one usage of ani even comes from warner
brothers korea and it's about some hat giveaway um
166
00:23:31,360 --> 00:23:37,520
so maybe you get my sort of jadedness over this
word but nonetheless i hope that it's clear
167
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:47,360
why it's become such a go-to word for feminist
culture and now after ani we have oppa who in the
168
00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:54,400
landscape of k-pop and k-dramas is a much more
familiar figure but you haven't seen oppa like
169
00:23:54,400 --> 00:24:01,840
this unless you've been gas-lit by a korean man
which i dearly hope you have not been the unnamed
170
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:07,760
male speaker of oppa likes that type of girl is
indeed referring to himself in the third person
171
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:14,480
which is cringy as hell regardless of how you feel
about oppa in general but i wanted to highlight
172
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:21,360
this poem because one i appreciate the way izoho's
night his words take up less space in her poetry
173
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:28,160
and two i might have used variations of sister in
my translation had it not been for this oppa poem
174
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:33,680
because this oppa doesn't translate to
older brother in the biological sense i
175
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:45,840
decided to bring both oppa and ani into my english
translation again i will cover my camera for this
176
00:24:49,130 --> 00:24:55,641
[in foreign language]
177
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:07,040
what are you trying to say if you're feeling
sick go cook yourself porridge why call me i'm
178
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:13,440
sick of you you want to cuss me out huh go ahead
what are you afraid of i gave you everything
179
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:20,320
but nothing satisfies you this is why i don't like
depressed girls hey stop whining and talk straight
180
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:27,200
and think it over before you talk have i been
dating a stupid girl that's not it you're smart
181
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:33,120
i can have a conversation with you so don't act
like you know something i don't oppa will explain
182
00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:40,720
everything to you one by one i'm doing this all
for you hey you don't believe me i'm just kidding
183
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:45,600
why are you glaring like that i've told you
before but it's because you're stubborn and
184
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:51,680
sensitive that our romance turned sour any other
man would have dumped you already i'm letting you
185
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:58,400
off the hook again don't do this again if you're
having such a hard time drink yourself to sleep
186
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:04,480
you're good at that you're gonna shake it off
anyway can't we just hang up happy now i couldn't
187
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:10,320
stand to look at your outfit earlier buy yourself
some clothes when you get paid not from an outlet
188
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:16,480
mall but something brand name so you won't [ __
] embarrass me hey only i'm telling you this you
189
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:22,240
can't find another man like me anywhere it's
not that oppa changed you changed you used to
190
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:28,480
at least pretend to get dolled up but i guess
you don't even try these days anyway i'm busy
191
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:35,680
can't you understand that if you don't have a job
why don't you get a hobby watch tv stop watching
192
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:43,040
me i like a woman who's productive what are you
going to do with what i did today stop asking me
193
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:49,280
do you not trust me you're so obsessed i feel like
i'm going to lose my mind every time you do this
194
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:55,920
this is why all those guys dumped you only i'd
stay with you all this time don't take this the
195
00:28:55,920 --> 00:29:01,600
wrong way you think lovers can't say stuff like
this to each other i'm closer to you than anyone
196
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:11,840
else in the world i'm the only one who thinks
of you don't forget it so be nice to your oppa
197
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:17,920
thank you
198
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:29,520
i can see judy laughing um if you couldn't tell
that was 100 me reading with my voice pitch down
199
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:38,240
in garageband um i my plan was to sort of do
a drag performance where i'm like lip syncing
200
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:43,760
but i i sort of ran out of energy this week
um so unfortunately i couldn't wow you with
201
00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:50,080
um some drag makeup and whatnot but maybe
maybe at a future reading i can accomplish
202
00:29:51,200 --> 00:30:02,480
that plan um i have one more poem to
read i want to check the chat okay
203
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,840
[in foreign language]
204
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:47,600
a musical variation for the fighting spirit
you would grab because you're grabbing you will
205
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:56,000
probably grab would you have grabbed will you grab
i'm not sure you grab i heard to grab you grab ya
206
00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:02,720
though you grabbed you would have grabbed or
if you had grub even when you grabbed you grab
207
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:08,800
if you were to have grab you must have grabbed
you're grabbing huh you're garb and you will
208
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:15,440
grab butt you grab in yet you must have grab you
must have grabbed yeah oh you must have grabbed
209
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:21,760
if you had grab while you would totally grab
while you're grabbing not even grabbing you
210
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:27,520
who'd grabbed you're totally gonna grab you
might have grabbed after all even if you'd grab
211
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:33,760
if you were to grab you had to have grabbed
your grab but then again sir you grabbed me
212
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:41,040
grab me i know you had grab even if you grab
even while grabbing you must have grabbed but
213
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:48,240
should you grab you must have grabbed plus in
order to grab you grab i see would you have grab
214
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:55,680
must have grabbed ya you're grabbing butt you'll
grab huh if you grab if you were to grab you grab
215
00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:04,240
duh because you grab me you grab if you had grab
even if you had grab you grabbed i'm telling you
216
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:11,280
you had to grab you either grab or you grab
and you grabbed her too the more you grab
217
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:18,320
because you grab you grab me because you
grab yeah you'd grab you grab butt you grab
218
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:29,200
or even if you were to grab yeah you'd grab you
do grab you did grab you who grabs thank you um
219
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:40,160
i read this as another visual representation of
the disorientation following a traumatic event
220
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:47,120
um first i know that the korean verb is to
touch bandita i accepted my editor anastasia's
221
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:54,480
suggestion to change it to grab because a it's
somehow more violent but also in the it also
222
00:33:54,480 --> 00:34:01,440
innocuous in the context of like grabbing lunch
grabbing drinks um b i felt like touch could carry
223
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:08,000
sort of a positive connotation and and these
covet times and see i was translating when
224
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:14,720
grabbing by the was still very much part of
the national conversation and so that verb
225
00:34:14,720 --> 00:34:22,560
was unfortunately resonant for me and korean
has a bunch of conjugations based on tense mood
226
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:28,160
and honorifics without specifying the subject or
object so you can imagine that there's no gender
227
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:34,240
specified here either it's entirely up to the
reader whether it's a he or she or they or you
228
00:34:34,240 --> 00:34:41,680
grabbing me you him her or them and understanding
the heteronormative context easel was writing from
229
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:47,840
i seriously considered him grabbing her
or more seriously mixing all pronouns but
230
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:54,960
since i read it as a singular traumatic incident
i also like how the second person makes it more
231
00:34:54,960 --> 00:35:00,560
confrontational and implicates even the
reader in the violent act i added these
232
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:06,720
extra words like yeah or da because i needed
to somehow come up with 72 discreet phrases
233
00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:11,920
and i wanted to differentiate them in tones
similar to the way the honorifics do but sort
234
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:18,880
of in the opposite direction in korean there's
the formal high banja nita informal high manja
235
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:26,400
informal low manja and plain form mandata
and that's all without changing the tense
236
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:35,920
that's just the levels of formality speaking
of honorifics they is the formal yes which
237
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:42,640
is why i rendered it as yes mom in relation
to the title i did consider yes mom and dad
238
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:50,160
but it became very difficult to fit in one page so
sometimes translation choices really do come down
239
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:56,560
to pragmatism in that way and each book you
know presents a different set of challenges
240
00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:02,400
and thrills for the translator and catcalling was
certainly a roller coaster to translate last year
241
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:08,640
i wish i could have read the chat while screen
sharing but i hope that you got a sense of all
242
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:15,040
the twists and turns from my experience and now
i'm very excited to speak with professor han hello
243
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:26,080
um hi i'm i i i think part of me is wondering
if i if i'm even allowed to laugh um
244
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:33,280
add some of these uh the both the poems in the
original and the translations but thank you
245
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:40,000
thank you so much this has been such an amazing
experience in immersing uh in the reading
246
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:47,680
and now uh talking with you i'm i you know i
i'm just so fascinated by your discussion of ani
247
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:54,320
um and the language of queer kinship uh so i
actually really want to start there because
248
00:36:55,680 --> 00:37:00,560
i don't really care about no just anything
else um no that's not true but you know the
249
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:06,240
gender pronouns in translation um like
in such this had head to a patriarchal
250
00:37:06,240 --> 00:37:12,000
you know binary gender context of of
korea and korean culture cultural customs
251
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:19,760
and the phenomenal interest in feminism uh in
recent years and of course the backlash there
252
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:28,160
is so much in both the politics and and poetics
of gender and sexuality and the the names we
253
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:33,200
call each other um this is such an interesting
topic for korean studies and translational
254
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:40,720
studies i think there's a lot we can do in queer
theory um to think through some of these issues
255
00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:47,360
in translation um but i wanted to actually
ask you to say a little bit more about ani as
256
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:53,600
a sexualized term um i know this is something
that you wrote about a little bit in the essay
257
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:59,600
that you mentioned but it also comes up in this
discussion too in the idolizing of the only
258
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:05,920
figures in some of the ways that you've shown
there's also the idolizing and desiring um the
259
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,520
i don't know if it's necessarily an
older woman but it's it is an older
260
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:20,240
yeah it's a it's both incestuous and
uh you know sapphic lesbian nick and
261
00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:26,240
also something other than that it's there's
something very korean about this kind of same
262
00:38:26,240 --> 00:38:32,720
gender you know identification slash desire
in familial terms um can you say a little
263
00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:38,560
bit more about this because there's a lot
of this in the poems too yeah for sure um
264
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:47,040
in this context of cat calling it is the only
figure is limited to the familial right xi jin and
265
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:53,360
counting our biological sisters but then there's
also there's like sexualized violence happening
266
00:38:53,360 --> 00:39:00,720
between the mother and daughter between the
sisters so it's sort of this complicated
267
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:09,840
uh relationship that i don't know if easel
whole um intended us to read necessarily in
268
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:17,040
a queer context but she i think wanted to sort of
heighten every form of violence possible between
269
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:25,520
two human beings for sure um as for ani as a
figure of desire what's funny is that every time
270
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,840
i talk about this in an interview
it gets cut out for some reason
271
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:37,200
really no no no like what i'm about to say
which is the personal anecdote that i've
272
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:44,560
never dated an older korean person i see and
i find this very relevant to my perspective
273
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:51,280
right like i even before i you know identified
as non-binary um i never really had the chance
274
00:39:52,240 --> 00:40:02,480
of anyone older to me you know a woman older to me
on me and i wonder if that limits my sort of own
275
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:09,520
propensity to see and on me as a sexualized term
so when i should bring up the afraid of that thing
276
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:17,840
like somehow it always gets edited out in post um
but i i have um talked to different friends who
277
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:26,240
are you know who do i identify as cis lesbian or
cis bisexual and they do call their partners on me
278
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:33,920
and because they're in a romantic and
sexual relationship that term also becomes
279
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:40,480
sort of heightened erotically right and which
i've always i mean you have your you know
280
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:47,440
i mean i think i also find that to be very uh
jarring uh to imagine a romantic relationship
281
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:54,080
where there would be someone calling the other ani
but of course happens you know of course happens
282
00:40:54,080 --> 00:41:00,480
daddy happens i mean of course right right yeah
but i think but i think ani has held up especially
283
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:06,880
in a kind of a global sisterhood feminist context
where there is this isn't supposed to be about
284
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:13,360
romantic alliances or romantic relationships
but but really much more about uh shared um
285
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:20,480
you know rage against patriarchy so there's
a there's something so subversive in in
286
00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:28,800
opening that possibility with just even that
use of the term in queer context yeah and the
287
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:36,240
most prominent sort of um i don't know if
they would use this term necessarily but um
288
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:41,680
lesbian and queer women inclusive
organization in korea is called
289
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:51,280
a new network yeah you know yeah so it's
definitely used in both assist political
290
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:56,240
sisterhood context as well as like we we call
each other on the in bed kind of thing right
291
00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:03,520
yes i'm gonna have nightmares about this
again i'm and of course among gay men too
292
00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:10,560
yeah so yeah i mean there's and the the thing
the interesting thing about oni too um and the
293
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:16,640
way that you're engaging in in translation
uh with this with this work is also that
294
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:26,560
only is is the naming of of relations within a
family hierarchy um it's naming of one's location
295
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:33,120
um simply by just like in the uh the examples
that you've shown just by calling someone udni
296
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:40,720
you're also locating yourself um in the hierarchy
so in many ways it speaks to the heart of what's
297
00:42:40,720 --> 00:42:46,080
conventionally often you know the biggest
question in translating korean to english
298
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:54,560
the the subject the i um all kinds of ways that
ani actually helps name and locate the speaker um
299
00:42:54,560 --> 00:43:01,040
i mean so all the it's all the different ways that
you translated that location whether through using
300
00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:08,560
the word on knee capitalized or big sister little
sister you i mean can you walk us through some
301
00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:17,440
of some of that dilemma it's i mean it must have
been such a myriad like possibilities before you
302
00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:28,480
yeah um i guess when i made the executive decision
to introduce these korean terms into the text
303
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:35,600
um i then had many options as you just
pointed out i had older sister big sis
304
00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:41,040
omni sort of these three things and then
we i also had the name kyongjin so um
305
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:49,120
once i opened up myself to those possibilities
then i sort of had all these tools um to
306
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:57,520
experiment with rhythm like i would see oh like
in this line or in this poem it's better if i
307
00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:04,720
say big sis you know or you know i try to think
about um how the word is presented in relation
308
00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:11,600
to the sentence so if there's another sort of
set of korean words you know um place names
309
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:17,840
then maybe i would use sister instead of on
me to sort of lessen the ratio of korean words
310
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:24,960
in a line right so yeah yeah in an english context
i could also see that yeah that makes sense um the
311
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:34,800
other way um that i think the these hierarchies
and um gender politics and pronouns come into play
312
00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:43,200
is in the use of you um in the cohabitation in
the poem that you read too just when the younger
313
00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:49,680
sister says i won't call you andy anymore you
don't you don't deserve that um clearly that it's
314
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:56,480
the kind of dynamic where any is also seen as uh
you know a qualification that actually one could
315
00:44:56,480 --> 00:45:03,920
be dispossessed of um as well so so in places
where like um i think it's actually probably most
316
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:14,000
clear in i'm looking at my notes in cohabitation
but in other places too where i lost my place
317
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:26,080
yeah um when u is uh when u is used when u is
used as the the object uh do you think that
318
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:34,160
uh takes away from any nuance or ambiguity
that exists in korean where the you remains
319
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:43,680
unnamed in the case of cohabitation because
you just put it so beautifully like it is a
320
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:51,120
dispossessing of a title or sort of a ranking
in relation right to the younger sister i wanted
321
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,160
to capture that in the tone of the sentence
322
00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:00,800
right like i'm not going to call like you
don't deserve that you know to sort of um
323
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:12,160
uh i'm blanking on the word i want to use but uh
yeah sort of use that tonally to show that this u
324
00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:17,200
is not just a simple you that it is in english
right and just because we don't use honorifics
325
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:25,040
in english doesn't mean that we don't have all
these hidden hierarchies and like yeah disparaging
326
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:29,840
tones against each other yeah i mean except
you know in conversation we usually have a
327
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:36,000
chance to explain these things right i mean i
i remember immigrating to um to the states when
328
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:40,720
when i was 12 and i remember the first day of my
younger brother and sister because i'm the oldest
329
00:46:40,720 --> 00:46:47,520
sister and the it's yeah um when my younger
siblings used an english sentence and said and
330
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:54,160
used the word you in like it was it was something
like probably like why did you do that and then it
331
00:46:54,160 --> 00:47:00,800
was like you did did you just call me you i mean
it's it's this confrontation that um that that
332
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:08,240
is so everyday in the english language and yet in
the korean context when when the words are like no
333
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:14,000
it's it's a it's not just you
how do you i mean how do you
334
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:20,000
what are some of yeah we have tang
which is the formal extremely um
335
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:27,920
respectful version of that so anything lower
than tungsten becomes immediately sort of
336
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:32,640
it could be insulting but also it could be a
very familiar kind of thing like oh we're really
337
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:39,840
good friends so i can call you you right so so
going back to the they pronoun the gender pronoun
338
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:48,800
um i know that you had referred to they in korean
um yeah right so do you think that could also
339
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:54,480
border that sort of you know both pejorative you
know condescending but also intimate and familiar
340
00:47:55,200 --> 00:48:00,320
yeah i actually i want to pull up my you
had a slide right yeah a slide on that um
341
00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:06,080
my presentation got closed out
and i'm i'm trying to find it like
342
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:11,680
so forgive me i love the infographic so i knew
about infographic i'm going to have to steal
343
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:20,480
it for every korean lecture oh yeah feel free i
mean it's it's like janky emoji i love it um but
344
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:28,960
i'm glad you enjoyed it i am pulling it up heater
is being slow but um yeah i actually have another
345
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:38,240
thing that i wanted to talk about with day um i
what i find hilarious and heartwarming is that um
346
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:46,880
if i just explain the singular day to koreans as
a grammatical concept they love it they're like
347
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:54,000
so down with it because the singular they
just exist you know as a concept in korean
348
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:59,120
so that's sort of the approach that i take
nowadays like in in relation to my own gender
349
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:05,440
identity if i'm just like oh you know we have coup
in korean they're like oh yeah it's kind of like
350
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:12,320
yeah it's sort of i mean it is like a survival
tactic for me right to sort of introduce myself
351
00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:20,560
in that roundabout way but i found that people are
quite excited to learn that english you know we we
352
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:27,120
have another option beyond he and she and that
this is a discussion and there's room for change
353
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:33,600
yeah yeah for sure um and ivan jihad the korean
performance artist that i mentioned in my aniase
354
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:38,560
at the end um she has another essay i just
remembered it this morning where she's like
355
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:46,400
you know um i'm wildly paraphrasing her but
she's like i can't believe i was colonized by
356
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:55,520
the english language into dividing everyone into
he and she and like now all my queer korean friend
357
00:49:55,520 --> 00:50:00,480
career korean american friends are looking down on
me for like not catching up with the times like i
358
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:07,360
can't believe you guys colonized me and then like
left into liberation all by yourselves so there's
359
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:16,240
like sort of this i guess sort of delay um in
how queer language is transmuted um so it's been
360
00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:21,760
an interesting conversation in korea yeah yeah i
would imagine and so i mean it's it's clear to me
361
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:28,320
that you're in conversation with not just this
particular book of poetry but with uh feminist
362
00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:36,560
poetry with uh feminist discussions you know a
popular discourse um broader like can you can
363
00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:43,600
you share a little bit about how you came across
this particular poet this book this project when
364
00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:48,640
i mean you can't possibly translate everything
you find interesting so when when does it become
365
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:59,840
the next year of your life um i wish it was a year
i played it just so quickly i had like oh really
366
00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:07,840
tight deadlines i translated this in about two and
a half months oh wow yeah um and then i promptly
367
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:14,800
fell ill i do not recommend it um
but like i said in the beginning um
368
00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:22,000
you know i read a lot of interesting things
but some some things really stand out in
369
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:30,480
in the sort of pile of books that i have and i
think about like what would be most interesting
370
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:39,360
to read in a slightly different context right
and cat calling definitely was that for me
371
00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:47,840
um not only the visuality of these poems but it's
so korean in this way uh usual herself like one
372
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:53,040
of the first times i met her she's like you know
i'm so korean i'm like from the chosen dynasty
373
00:51:56,160 --> 00:52:03,600
what does she mean by that you think um well
it's it's definitely sort of a millennial korean
374
00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:09,280
thing to be self-deprecating like oh like i'm so
behind and like backwards that i'm from the chosen
375
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:16,560
dynasty so it's like very korean humor um but you
know if you read through this collection there are
376
00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:25,120
a lot of very specific korean references
to tata to specific place places in seoul
377
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:32,640
across korea in a way that my first poetry
collection unexpected vanilla like it's completely
378
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:40,960
not in that way so i i like finding projects that
even contradict each other and what they're trying
379
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:46,880
to say about korean-ness because you know korean
poets aren't trying to represent korea in in the
380
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:55,680
way that dysport poets often feel the need to
um but i like how sort of my own body of works
381
00:52:56,720 --> 00:53:04,880
become a very complex tapestry of korean-ness so i
i like how i got to sort of share that aspect yeah
382
00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:09,680
i i'm i think i've i remember seeing
somewhere that you're you identify as 1.5
383
00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:14,240
are you you're korean-american in the background
background right did you grow up in the states
384
00:53:14,240 --> 00:53:19,920
i i immigrated when i was seven so a little
bit younger than you when i moved over but
385
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:26,160
yes my citizenship is um the us that's i
wasn't asking about your citizenship status
386
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:36,080
of you know of uh just looking to korea
for korean-ness or korean like passport
387
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:41,840
koreans looking for signs of things that represent
korean-ness um i think that's also an interesting
388
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:50,240
um comment in this context because especially
because this this work is always so irreverent
389
00:53:50,960 --> 00:54:00,480
it's like it is just so um just graphic
um and uh perverse and uh and violent
390
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:07,920
um and uh despite what she might say about
herself also just fundam like just deeply
391
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:14,640
and intrinsically in some ways anti-traditional
um yeah there's there's something just unruly
392
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:22,800
uh just unkempt about her whole way of uh
narrating and ex and describing her experiences
393
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:28,640
and her relationships uh do you did you
struggle with any any of that like was
394
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:33,760
it did did at any point during those months
that you spent time intimate time with with
395
00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:39,680
the poor with the poems did you think this
is just too much i i mean i lost my mind
396
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:49,680
without mincing words i mean because maybe
because it was such an intense translating
397
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:56,480
um period like i was really just living
and breathing this collection right and
398
00:54:57,120 --> 00:55:02,720
it did get very overwhelming but i think that
level of intensity also helped me because i
399
00:55:02,720 --> 00:55:09,200
was so in it that i was sort of like you know i
have to sort of process all this violent language
400
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:20,320
through my own body and make it convincing so it
was overwhelming um but i'm glad i'm glad it's out
401
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:27,600
yeah and do you think um you struggled with maybe
striking a balance between what is graphic in one
402
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:34,720
language with the the same level of graphicness or
impact in the other language that i mean i can't
403
00:55:34,720 --> 00:55:39,600
imagine i i mean probably later on i'm gonna have
to ask you why are you translating poetry like
404
00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:45,280
for someone who doesn't translate poetry i cannot
imagine a more difficult task this is incredible
405
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:53,840
to me that you even do this but that's that's for
later um my own masochism to me questions yeah i
406
00:55:53,840 --> 00:55:59,440
don't i don't know there's something incredibly
creative about about this process but yeah but
407
00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:04,560
what about that balance between what is you
know what remains uh ambivalent what remains
408
00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:13,760
graphic on the one hand how do you translate
that into the other well you read korean also
409
00:56:13,760 --> 00:56:20,240
so i i kind of want to flip the question back to
you and ask you did you feel that the impact was
410
00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:27,840
um equal or at least similar in like across
the two versions i think i think it they vary
411
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:33,600
yeah with yeah with some poems i think they were
more impactful i don't usually use that word but
412
00:56:34,240 --> 00:56:41,760
um in english um and you know and then sometimes
it's just so perverse in korean um but in english
413
00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:51,280
like the word you i mean i think for me like i'm
i'm sort of old school that way you know for like
414
00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:59,520
the idea that someone for instance would talk to
their parents and use diga or digabonde or like
415
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:05,840
even even the ani was a year older there's
a there's a transgression that's involved in
416
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:13,520
even those small acts of linguistic you know
confrontation right yeah and now that i know that
417
00:57:13,520 --> 00:57:20,800
you're the firstborn in your family i'm just like
extra how dare you yeah yeah yeah oh that's a good
418
00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:27,440
point yeah hmm i mean so it's not just cuss words
right and it's not just throwing around words like
419
00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:32,240
uh [ __ ] and [ __ ] like it's not just about
that there's there's so much built into the
420
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:36,240
the structures of translation yeah so
how do you how do you do it what are
421
00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:46,240
well if i sort of provoke the admit response that
you i feel like maybe i failed judy in some way
422
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:50,400
no no no that's not what i mean man isn't the
difference i thought the difference was like
423
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:54,800
sometimes greater than others sometimes they were
like right on par and then sometimes it's just
424
00:57:54,800 --> 00:58:01,520
like you know different yeah no i'm just kidding
but i i think i my my intention is always to
425
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:07,840
sort of keep them level um and like you pointed
out sometimes the cultural context is just too
426
00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:16,240
big for me to achieve that in just one line and
of course there are certain you know footnotes
427
00:58:16,240 --> 00:58:22,240
throughout this collection that sort of um
contextualizes certain things for the reader but
428
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:27,920
with the you i felt like it would be too extra
for me to like go in there with the footnote and
429
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:33,760
say you know this is like that's an insulting
curve right right no that's yeah definitely
430
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:38,560
don't do that i mean and i think and i think the
reason i keep bringing that up is because i'm
431
00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:44,560
i'm just confronted with this realization that
there is no one-to-one replication uh you know
432
00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:50,560
transference of meaning in translation and i think
that's what i was so struck by your work with um
433
00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:59,200
the idea that multiple translators can translate
the same poem in multiple ways and for that to be
434
00:59:00,320 --> 00:59:06,320
okay you know what they mean that this wasn't
about a competition like to win the best
435
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:12,160
translation that this wasn't to try to get at the
most authentic or truthful or faithful meaning
436
00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:19,840
um i thought that was just so brilliant yeah thank
you for bringing up choca i had no idea you would
437
00:59:19,840 --> 00:59:29,840
also look into that um yeah i mean i was in a
translation program where it was very much of
438
00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:36,240
the like we must get to the essence of the source
text but then after a while especially while doing
439
00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:43,760
poetry you you realize like the korean is written
ambiguously and it's meant to be read that way
440
00:59:43,760 --> 00:59:49,200
and there are multiple interpretations even in
untranslated works you know i think we turn to
441
00:59:49,200 --> 00:59:57,680
poetry because it is so nuanced and ambiguous
and mysterious and multivalent and so i
442
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:03,040
decided to start this project where we could sort
of freely pursue all these different directions
443
01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:10,000
without canceling each other out so yeah thank
you for bringing that up yeah do you see a lot of
444
01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:18,160
room growth potential do you see a lot of interest
in translating poetry i definitely yeah our last
445
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:27,680
um issue we had 12 different translations of one
poem so it's yeah steadily growing yeah as their
446
01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:32,640
project goes on i mean it's interesting because
i'm probably more likely to do a translation
447
01:00:32,640 --> 01:00:38,480
project of declarations and manifestos and you
know press conference statements which are of
448
01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:43,600
course in a different genre but in some ways there
are the kinds of nuances and cultural contexts
449
01:00:44,160 --> 01:00:52,160
um that one deals with in any genre um i would
imagine challenges exist across the board and what
450
01:00:52,160 --> 01:00:59,040
do you think are some of your biggest challenges
in translating not just poetry but poetry with a
451
01:00:59,040 --> 01:01:04,640
lot of political teeth a lot of political currency
and also just kind of under in the spotlight
452
01:01:05,760 --> 01:01:13,840
yeah i i want to deliver the emotional impact
that the source did had on me so i sort of want
453
01:01:13,840 --> 01:01:23,200
to replicate my experience of reading the poem
and sometimes it involves reorganizing footnotes
454
01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:30,000
you know changing words from you know um
no to your name or something like that so
455
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:39,920
yeah i i do i also translate non-poetry and
non-literature i do some technical translation as
456
01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:45,680
well so i i can sort of contrast that personally
between the different projects that i do and
457
01:01:45,680 --> 01:01:53,920
speaking of manifestos and manuals um i saw on
your calendar for feminist politics you have
458
01:01:53,920 --> 01:02:02,160
an upcoming event with hijin shim from survive
and punish then i actually trend this was my
459
01:02:02,160 --> 01:02:10,080
only project that i've done um from english into
korean so the opposite way for me and i translated
460
01:02:11,360 --> 01:02:19,040
uh sort of a manual for queer survivors of
domestic abuse no way too that the project
461
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:25,600
oh you did that yeah oh did you read yeah the yeah
i've read it and i've i've attended that they're
462
01:02:25,600 --> 01:02:32,000
yeah with their workshops yeah yeah so when i saw
that i was like wow what a small world it is a
463
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:38,480
small world i i've never met in in person we just
became twitter friends and then i ended up doing
464
01:02:38,480 --> 01:02:49,440
this gig for them so even with that project um i
i definitely use the terminology like sort of the
465
01:02:51,600 --> 01:03:01,840
you know the casual vocab uh slang of the
career community here um so i i try to
466
01:03:02,640 --> 01:03:10,720
like in addition to paying close attention to
the text itself i try to just be mindful and
467
01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:18,000
curious about things that are happening um right
now around me right it seems like that's also
468
01:03:18,000 --> 01:03:25,120
advice you could give to aspiring translators
that you don't just study translation yeah i read
469
01:03:25,120 --> 01:03:32,320
i mean now nowadays less so but what back when
i live in the states actually right now i'm so i
470
01:03:32,320 --> 01:03:38,320
brought up my citizenship because it's i have this
sort of dual immigrant status of like i'm a korean
471
01:03:38,320 --> 01:03:45,120
american back in korea but back when i lived in
the states attending uc berkeley as an undergrad
472
01:03:45,120 --> 01:03:50,720
i had um a twitter account where i would just
follow p i didn't tweet out anything but i just
473
01:03:50,720 --> 01:03:57,920
followed a bunch of queer korean activists and
just like people and that's sort of how i picked
474
01:03:57,920 --> 01:04:06,240
up a lot of um queer terminologies that are being
used you know outside of academia or you know in
475
01:04:06,240 --> 01:04:11,760
everyday contexts so that kind of knowledge
definitely paid off once i got here right and
476
01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:17,840
even people were talking about yeah no for sure
and and among feminists too they're the kind of
477
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:25,440
um activist jargon or or slang the colloquial
language that also appears in like throughout
478
01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:31,120
this portrait collection too um you must have
to make some decisions on how to match that to
479
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:36,640
perhaps what is current in english do you have an
example of that in in this collection you think
480
01:04:37,920 --> 01:04:44,480
i don't know i mean because like cat calling
is not exactly one of those terms but that is
481
01:04:44,480 --> 01:04:48,880
that is certainly an equivalent in
both no that's uh that's such a good
482
01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:52,960
example oh my screen sharing disappeared
i was going to get to the t chair
483
01:04:54,400 --> 01:05:00,000
eventually i'm sorry eventually no no no why are
you please don't apologize um i should have gotten
484
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:07,120
through that but uh what were you talking about
cat calling so uh the korean title is kekkoring
485
01:05:08,320 --> 01:05:16,800
transliteration of the english into hunger and
i actually almost changed the title in english
486
01:05:16,800 --> 01:05:26,960
translation um because quoting is less of um
like it is the term that's used in korea by
487
01:05:26,960 --> 01:05:32,640
people who are already aware of the phenomenon
but catcalling is less a thing in korea as
488
01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:41,920
a form of you know street harassment um am i gonna
go into this i mean the sex crimes here are more
489
01:05:43,360 --> 01:05:49,120
digital based i'm sure you've been reading
the news yeah all the more moroccan
490
01:05:50,240 --> 01:05:56,400
cameras in like public restrooms and i don't know
to what extent i should be explaining this for our
491
01:05:56,400 --> 01:06:04,000
audience here watching um should i sure i mean
especially because it's such a such a concern
492
01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:08,560
yeah and iso actually in her next collection
that hasn't been published yet she sent me
493
01:06:09,200 --> 01:06:16,560
um her manuscript and it has because you know she
engages in visual poetry one of her next poems
494
01:06:16,560 --> 01:06:25,600
is a picture of a bathroom stall with tiny holes
drilled into the stall and then she has a footnote
495
01:06:25,600 --> 01:06:34,240
where she sort of like that's the poem um and so
to give context to what's happening is um cis men
496
01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:43,840
are entering women's bathrooms and drilling holes
tiny tiny holes into the stall to install tiny
497
01:06:43,840 --> 01:06:50,800
cameras where they either like live stream women
going to the restroom or like taking pictures
498
01:06:52,160 --> 01:07:00,480
and it's so perverse but it's so prevalent
it's like it's become one of the most
499
01:07:02,240 --> 01:07:12,240
prevalent sex crimes in korea um and it's such
a violation of women's privacy and also it's
500
01:07:12,240 --> 01:07:21,040
meant to humiliate you know like the the sort of
psychology that the psychological reasoning that
501
01:07:21,040 --> 01:07:30,560
um articles have presented is like oh they they
feel so disempowered by women's empowerment that
502
01:07:30,560 --> 01:07:37,360
they have to watch women at their lowest to feel
better about themselves so it's this whole thing
503
01:07:37,360 --> 01:07:47,120
and if you go to like a subway like a um a metro
restroom and you will find these tiny holes
504
01:07:47,120 --> 01:07:55,040
and it's it's frightening you know like you
don't know where it's like you don't know which
505
01:07:55,040 --> 01:08:02,000
which of these holes has been um yeah yeah i've
i've seen people carry uh little kits with uh
506
01:08:02,000 --> 01:08:07,600
stickers right right so when you're entering
this like this whole mark yeah it's i feel so
507
01:08:09,120 --> 01:08:14,080
frustrated about the world because now there's
a market for anti-worker you know hidden camera
508
01:08:14,640 --> 01:08:22,000
technology and so women have to pay money to be
safe against these cameras but i yeah i went on
509
01:08:22,000 --> 01:08:28,160
a sort of with tangent so my point is cat quoting
cat calling as a concept is less familiar in korea
510
01:08:28,160 --> 01:08:36,080
because the men are less confrontational to
you oh right sex crimes are hidden and yeah
511
01:08:36,080 --> 01:08:42,640
um so i i was thinking because cat calling when
translated literally into english like everyone
512
01:08:42,640 --> 01:08:48,560
knows what cat calling is in english so i was
like well you know it's not gonna have that same
513
01:08:49,120 --> 01:08:55,040
sense of foreignness mm-hmm so i i
was going um so i was just going to
514
01:08:56,320 --> 01:09:01,600
uh pick out like some some of my favorite
phrases from different poems like one of the
515
01:09:01,600 --> 01:09:08,080
options was playing with scars which is from a
poem in the fifth section because you know easel
516
01:09:08,080 --> 01:09:13,200
like what is she doing if not playing with
her own scars um but ultimately i was vetoed
517
01:09:13,760 --> 01:09:21,600
by the publisher so we went with cat calling
um but yeah um that's it's such a that's
518
01:09:21,600 --> 01:09:26,720
such an um interesting point too because
catcalling is a kind of violence that puts
519
01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:32,800
on display in a public context it's it's about
being subjected to harassment and violence
520
01:09:33,440 --> 01:09:40,160
um in public where others might be present but
whether it's about the kind of digital sex crimes
521
01:09:40,160 --> 01:09:45,440
you're talking about or the kind of intimate
family violence um and even violence among
522
01:09:45,440 --> 01:09:54,400
sisters and and obviously with oppa like i mean
all the the all those kinds of you know forms of
523
01:09:54,400 --> 01:10:02,320
violence in in in one's proximity um that's that
yeah that's not covered by a focus on cat calling
524
01:10:02,320 --> 01:10:11,360
per se yeah and i wanted to mention that herself
um i asked her um at one point because while i was
525
01:10:11,360 --> 01:10:17,440
like oh you know like maybe it just doesn't carry
the same valence so i asked her you know well how
526
01:10:17,440 --> 01:10:21,840
would you feel about changing the title and she
was very open she really liked playing with scars
527
01:10:22,560 --> 01:10:27,760
which was very validating and she told me she
picked cat calling not because she felt like it
528
01:10:27,760 --> 01:10:31,920
was the repres because there's a poem called
cat calling and she picked it as a title not
529
01:10:31,920 --> 01:10:36,800
because she felt like that poem in particular
was representative of the whole collection but
530
01:10:36,800 --> 01:10:44,080
she just felt like it was catchy cat calling as a
word is catchy because to koreans it's less of a
531
01:10:44,640 --> 01:10:51,600
violent it carries less of a violent connotation
they're like sure like it sounds cute that's also
532
01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:59,280
the critique that we have in english that it's
such um it doesn't do the you know harassment
533
01:10:59,280 --> 01:11:08,240
justice in terms of how it sort of neutralizes
the actual fear that people encounter right
534
01:11:08,240 --> 01:11:14,800
yeah that's that's such an interesting so you so
you had the executive decisions along the way to
535
01:11:15,440 --> 01:11:21,600
make some decisions but not all uh yeah the author
herself didn't have all the decision-making power
536
01:11:21,600 --> 01:11:29,600
either it sounds like yeah yeah i mean i tried
because you know she's alive and very online um
537
01:11:29,600 --> 01:11:36,160
i i emailed her a lot about um different thoughts
that i was having you know i i contacted her
538
01:11:36,160 --> 01:11:40,720
less to be like oh is this the right one but i
would sort of give her different options like
539
01:11:40,720 --> 01:11:46,480
you know i floated different you know um titles
like playing with scars or i don't know what else
540
01:11:47,200 --> 01:11:51,200
i forget but i had i gave her like five different
things and i'm like oh this is sort of and then i
541
01:11:51,200 --> 01:11:58,400
would translate them back into korean to sort of
convey the meaning and so she would be like oh
542
01:11:58,400 --> 01:12:08,400
i like this and i would do that with the poems
themselves too like um he god he who rides and
543
01:12:09,520 --> 01:12:18,000
every man who has written and written me that poem
um with getting the sort of the rhyme um yeah i
544
01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:23,280
gave her like eight different options i was like
you know these are all the different ways we can
545
01:12:23,280 --> 01:12:31,120
um sort of recreate the cinder which is
a homonym right for to write and also to
546
01:12:31,120 --> 01:12:36,960
use yeah so i would always give her all these
options and then she would give me her thoughts
547
01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:42,000
you know she'll be like oh i like this and but
then sometimes like a lot of the times i would
548
01:12:43,280 --> 01:12:50,000
be in agreement with her but sometimes i
would not agree with her you know was was
549
01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:54,720
there yeah was there any moment in this
collection that you thought this poem
550
01:12:54,720 --> 01:13:00,800
meant this and then you talked to her and
was you were off in your interpretation
551
01:13:01,680 --> 01:13:09,040
yeah speaking of speakers um when it's not
specified you know not spelled out in the korean
552
01:13:09,040 --> 01:13:18,160
i uh i workshop uh some of these poems with uh
translators who happen to be korean nationals and
553
01:13:19,040 --> 01:13:21,840
they would disagree with each
other and then i would like
554
01:13:24,160 --> 01:13:28,880
like one one person would correct me and then i
would ask another person to make sure and then
555
01:13:28,880 --> 01:13:35,920
they'll be like no you were right so i'd be like
oh my god like this is no authority this speaks
556
01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:41,200
yeah i mean this speaks to the difficulty but
also it validates you know my my confusion and
557
01:13:41,200 --> 01:13:47,120
then ultimately i would ask easel whole like i try
to not ask her about like subject stuff because it
558
01:13:47,120 --> 01:13:55,200
just seems so basic but but it's so important
and but it is so completely changed yeah yeah
559
01:13:55,200 --> 01:14:00,400
and i didn't realize like sometimes i'm like well
of course it's i and then and then someone will be
560
01:14:00,400 --> 01:14:04,960
like no it's you and then and then you will
be like no it's i and i'm like yes i got it
561
01:14:06,320 --> 01:14:14,080
um so yeah uh there there were maybe two instances
where like the subject was different from what i
562
01:14:14,080 --> 01:14:22,880
assumed yeah dummy is back yeah i think i think
we do have to transition to q a but okay yeah
563
01:14:22,880 --> 01:14:27,520
there's actually a question that that's sort of
related to this about translating and the nuances
564
01:14:27,520 --> 01:14:34,320
um sja i had a question about there are some
words in korean that has more nuance right like
565
01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:43,680
um and so how when this gets translated into
crunch crunch or simply knife um from shikar
566
01:14:43,680 --> 01:14:50,800
to knife um it seems like you know that's the kind
of nuance um that's that one struggles with it do
567
01:14:50,800 --> 01:14:58,480
you do you remember struggling or uh or i don't
know did did you spend any time pouring over this
568
01:14:58,480 --> 01:15:06,880
war choice knife uh knife i think in terms of
rhythm i didn't want to go with cooking knife
569
01:15:08,080 --> 01:15:14,480
because sometimes kitchen knife cleaver
they're all kinds of yeah sure yeah because
570
01:15:14,480 --> 01:15:21,840
or like fruit knife because it's a it's a very
cutting an apple but my my thinking is that
571
01:15:22,800 --> 01:15:29,360
sometimes translators will get so specific
to you know get at every nuance of the word
572
01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:38,240
that it bogs down the poem itself and and then
you know readers might be like of course it's a
573
01:15:38,240 --> 01:15:45,760
kitchen knife right you know so i i went with
knife as for paddock that was definitely something
574
01:15:45,760 --> 01:15:52,720
that um i poured over because you know korean
has all this ornamental yeah like it ital that
575
01:15:53,280 --> 01:16:00,720
don't exist in english or are less developed
than english so um everyone knows domi choi
576
01:16:00,720 --> 01:16:08,160
the brilliant poet translator in her translations
of kimusun she would often double verbs in that
577
01:16:08,160 --> 01:16:16,000
same way um so i took a page from don mi and
interesting so that's a strategy yeah yeah
578
01:16:16,000 --> 01:16:20,320
yeah what other strategies do you have for
folks who say you know there are just some
579
01:16:20,320 --> 01:16:28,800
words in korean that just don't exist in english
even in you know the idea you know it's usually
580
01:16:28,800 --> 01:16:32,880
things like you know like i'm not let's not
get into han or chong or things like that
581
01:16:37,120 --> 01:16:42,640
i mean these words that people often bring up as
uh examples of the kind of korean-ness that we
582
01:16:42,640 --> 01:16:51,840
mentioned earlier yeah how do you respond to that
well because it's poetry i also invite people to
583
01:16:51,840 --> 01:16:56,800
make up their own words you know crunch crunch
is not a word that you can find in the english
584
01:16:56,800 --> 01:17:03,360
language so you sort of frankenstein these
different languages together to find something
585
01:17:03,360 --> 01:17:10,000
coherent i think yeah that's brilliant nami
did you should i ask that you ask a question
586
01:17:11,600 --> 01:17:18,000
i use my executive privilege no actually um the
conversation was so thought provoking but also
587
01:17:18,000 --> 01:17:23,520
so much fun that i didn't want to disrupt you
um i wish we can spend more time just talking
588
01:17:23,520 --> 01:17:30,080
there are two questions however uh from the
audience so should we go ahead should i go ahead
589
01:17:30,080 --> 01:17:35,840
and read those questions sure uh they're actually
by the same person it looks like yes well actually
590
01:17:35,840 --> 01:17:41,680
two from ashley kim but let's go ahead with the
first one i feel that the majority conservative
591
01:17:41,680 --> 01:17:48,080
korean media constantly gaslights feminists
do people who are part of the korean feminist
592
01:17:48,080 --> 01:17:57,840
literature community see translation as an escape
from that hypersensitive online mob society
593
01:17:58,560 --> 01:18:05,360
like could the english translation possibly offer
a way out of this you know kind of a close chamber
594
01:18:06,400 --> 01:18:09,920
interesting that's interesting i
haven't thought of it that way i
595
01:18:09,920 --> 01:18:17,840
i because i'm facing a different audience right
the korean feminists i mean cat calling is sold
596
01:18:17,840 --> 01:18:24,880
in korea as well but you know i wrote this with
people living elsewhere so i i don't know if i
597
01:18:24,880 --> 01:18:34,000
can offer them an escape but i would love love
if give him any sort of solace yeah yeah or
598
01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:42,160
validation from elsewhere that then becomes
legitimacy when right this sort of poetry is taken
599
01:18:42,880 --> 01:18:48,240
seriously enough to be published elsewhere yeah i
i i definitely get that sense from ethel herself
600
01:18:49,520 --> 01:18:56,080
she she was telling me um i think a lot of
people would be surprised to find um that she
601
01:18:56,080 --> 01:19:05,840
lives with her parents no yeah despite all her
sisters her sister lives in uh australia with her
602
01:19:05,840 --> 01:19:11,360
boyfriend which is why okay anyway i'm not
gonna go into that whole thing but she lives
603
01:19:11,360 --> 01:19:16,560
with her parents and she told me she's like
thank you for translating this collection
604
01:19:16,560 --> 01:19:22,080
because now that my book is available
in the u.s my parents finally respect me
605
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:30,800
her parents are like oh like she's actually doing
something with her life that kind of thing she's
606
01:19:30,800 --> 01:19:38,800
never helped one person you had a hand in yeah
in holding up this yeah yeah yeah her parents are
607
01:19:38,800 --> 01:19:45,280
sort of just you know like they didn't expect
this right when their daughter became a poet
608
01:19:45,280 --> 01:19:52,320
um um i guess there's another question from
s lee i'm curious what the experience was of
609
01:19:52,320 --> 01:19:58,000
being edited by someone who's not familiar with
korean which i presume was the case though i'm not
610
01:19:58,000 --> 01:20:02,640
certain was there significant input
from the publisher aside from design
611
01:20:03,280 --> 01:20:12,720
aspects yeah um anastasia nicholas at open
letter books my poetry editor is wonderful she
612
01:20:14,320 --> 01:20:23,360
she had read a lot of korean feminist poetry and
translation um by tommy choi emily changmin yoon
613
01:20:23,360 --> 01:20:28,480
you know all these people who have come
before me and so anastasia was actually
614
01:20:28,480 --> 01:20:36,640
quite i i feel like i mean she might deny this
but i think she was pretty um knowledgeable in
615
01:20:38,160 --> 01:20:46,240
korean poetry in translation and then so she could
sort of see how cat calling fit into the existing
616
01:20:46,240 --> 01:20:53,920
canon i guess in translation um but on like
a word to word level no she couldn't read the
617
01:20:53,920 --> 01:21:00,000
korean so it was up to me to explain to her
you know this is this there's this homonym
618
01:21:00,640 --> 01:21:04,400
um in korean that i'm struggling to deal
with so i would sort of spell it out for
619
01:21:04,400 --> 01:21:09,520
her and then we would have these conversations
and um she was really really great in terms of
620
01:21:10,160 --> 01:21:17,760
um like being my sounding board in terms of
like oh this this cultural context like you
621
01:21:17,760 --> 01:21:22,800
need to spell this out a little bit more so
yeah i i found it to be a good experience this
622
01:21:22,800 --> 01:21:29,520
also confirms that the rumor that translation
is not an isolated experience that you engage
623
01:21:29,520 --> 01:21:37,440
certainly with the author the editors yeah
the world your parents yeah my parents oh god
624
01:21:39,600 --> 01:21:41,840
the test
625
01:21:45,520 --> 01:21:52,240
yeah well and also the i noticed a pattern in a
lot of the translators of poetry that they are
626
01:21:52,240 --> 01:22:02,160
poets themselves are you a poet yourself oh i feel
embarrassed because i haven't really been actively
627
01:22:03,440 --> 01:22:11,200
publishing them but yeah i i started as a
writer and yeah hope to pursue my own poetry
628
01:22:11,200 --> 01:22:16,720
as well excellent i'm really looking forward
to seeing more work um i feel like we should
629
01:22:16,720 --> 01:22:23,040
call on victoria who was the mastermind
behind this amazing conversation right
630
01:22:23,040 --> 01:22:28,800
let's do that uh but let me just go ahead
and read one more question from ashley kim
631
01:22:28,800 --> 01:22:35,360
uh the theme of vengeance has a different register
in korean culture and therefore korean art forms i
632
01:22:35,360 --> 01:22:40,960
feel that that's just so perfect for feminist art
but a different part of me feels that it can also
633
01:22:40,960 --> 01:22:47,120
be limiting how do you see vengeance playing out
in the literature you translate and have you ever
634
01:22:47,120 --> 01:22:53,280
faced difficulties in communicating that intense
form of anger to the english-speaking reader
635
01:22:58,160 --> 01:23:05,120
yeah now that you sort of position cat
calling in the over of you know pakton
636
01:23:06,880 --> 01:23:21,040
you know vengeance trilogy wow hmm yeah i huh let
me think about this what a great question i think
637
01:23:21,040 --> 01:23:28,240
it's also vengeance in the form of a certain
violence or the expression of rage right yeah
638
01:23:29,280 --> 01:23:36,720
i think it's slightly different because
we now are receiving it from an entirely
639
01:23:37,440 --> 01:23:44,240
female feminist perspective you
know um is male of course he has um
640
01:23:45,600 --> 01:23:52,240
lady vengeance as well with young
a um which is great um but to have
641
01:23:53,120 --> 01:24:04,480
a woman sort of penning all these revenge revenge
and violence um literary violence yes yeah
642
01:24:08,800 --> 01:24:09,520
victoria
643
01:24:12,640 --> 01:24:18,640
thank you for inviting me to ask questions as
well yeah i suppose so they touched on this
644
01:24:18,640 --> 01:24:27,760
earlier in the discussion but um in selecting
texts to form what essentially will become the
645
01:24:27,760 --> 01:24:35,040
english canon of soldier the translator what do
you what do you look what do you think you're
646
01:24:35,040 --> 01:24:41,200
um potentially looking for in the
future we have um your collection
647
01:24:41,920 --> 01:24:52,160
here poems which are uh more queer uh
romantic poetry perhaps sensual erotic poetry
648
01:24:54,800 --> 01:25:03,280
and uh we have the upcoming uh to the warm
horizon which is a uh somewhat sci-fi futuristic
649
01:25:03,280 --> 01:25:10,880
apocalyptic novel lesbians in the apocalypse
wow exactly this is awesome yeah yeah i mean
650
01:25:10,880 --> 01:25:16,880
i guess sort of tying back into the previous
question about vengeance like this is my this is
651
01:25:16,880 --> 01:25:22,960
the only work that i've translated that deals with
vengeance or violence like everything else is very
652
01:25:23,520 --> 01:25:34,160
not this energy um so you won't be typecast that's
the translator yeah yeah you know i do really
653
01:25:34,160 --> 01:25:42,960
think about trans translators as sort of actors as
well um like i've talked about method translating
654
01:25:44,240 --> 01:25:48,560
before yeah yeah but victoria
i cut you off did you have like
655
01:25:48,560 --> 01:25:54,880
a question no no that was the question of just
what what are you looking forward perhaps to
656
01:25:56,960 --> 01:26:02,960
adding to our english canon of korean literature
because um it's really with translators such
657
01:26:02,960 --> 01:26:07,440
as yourself and anton hur and our other
smoking tiger friends uh sophie bowman so
658
01:26:08,560 --> 01:26:15,600
just fantastic young generation of translators
who are broadening what we can see now
659
01:26:15,600 --> 01:26:25,040
as korean literature in english so what are
you looking to yeah because the first sort of i
660
01:26:25,760 --> 01:26:30,080
anton and i have had a discussion
about this and we sort of disagree
661
01:26:30,080 --> 01:26:38,080
on how we define the generations of korean
translators but i i feel like i'm sort of in
662
01:26:39,840 --> 01:26:46,800
the 3.5 like we you and i are in the 3.5
like i always feel sort of in between
663
01:26:48,400 --> 01:26:54,880
third and fourth generations yeah yeah um but
he he thinks that we're still in the third or
664
01:26:55,680 --> 01:27:00,640
even second but anyway yeah it's like a
whole thing maybe we'll he and i will do
665
01:27:00,640 --> 01:27:06,560
a talk later on this but the first generation
of korean translators i want everyone to know
666
01:27:06,560 --> 01:27:12,640
that a lot of these were white men who
were who came to korea as missionaries or
667
01:27:13,760 --> 01:27:22,720
like uh un people you know so they were sort
of approaching korea as outsiders and then
668
01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:30,480
they went on to become academics so they had
an interest in um replicating the korean canon
669
01:27:31,040 --> 01:27:38,880
in translation right um a lot of male authors
right but then uh whatever generation we're in
670
01:27:38,880 --> 01:27:44,240
now um everyone is sort of turning like looking
at different things like we have jack jung who's
671
01:27:44,240 --> 01:27:50,560
you know doing the very canonical thing but he's
sort of in the minority now for pursuing colonial
672
01:27:50,560 --> 01:27:56,960
poets um and then we have a lot of um
members of smoking tigers doing really really
673
01:27:57,600 --> 01:28:06,160
cutting edge sci-fi stuff which hasn't been um
which hadn't been translated that much um previous
674
01:28:06,160 --> 01:28:16,000
to this decade i would say so it's really exciting
um interesting because for me because um so
675
01:28:16,000 --> 01:28:21,680
someone like sophie bowman you know she talked
about her like growing up with sci-fi and her
676
01:28:22,320 --> 01:28:29,120
long-long interest in sci-fi like i have no desire
to compete with a true sci-fi fan you know i think
677
01:28:29,120 --> 01:28:37,520
it's great that we all have our sort of niches
and passions so mine mine i guess is like queer
678
01:28:38,080 --> 01:28:47,440
queer stuff kristoff hopefully i i've i've been
noticing more non-binary poets as well so that
679
01:28:47,440 --> 01:28:53,920
would be interesting to translate but right now
my next um the next project that i've decided on
680
01:28:54,640 --> 01:29:01,360
i hope i could talk about it i don't see
why not um is a novel by tongsera sarang
681
01:29:01,360 --> 01:29:07,920
who is the author of the school nurse files i
don't know if people have seen the netflix show um
682
01:29:15,280 --> 01:29:21,040
like i like to use the word shimmy she
shimmies between these uh the literary
683
01:29:21,040 --> 01:29:28,240
very literary fiction and sort of wacky
sci-fi world and she has um a novel called
684
01:29:29,840 --> 01:29:36,720
that was a bestseller last year it was um
picked as like the number one book of 2020
685
01:29:36,720 --> 01:29:44,080
and that is about a family who um celebrates their
686
01:29:45,200 --> 01:29:51,840
mother slash grandmother's chez 10th anniversary
chez in hawaii so it's about how a family
687
01:29:53,440 --> 01:30:04,400
subverts the traditional expectations of mourning
ceremonies you know ancestral rights by going to
688
01:30:04,400 --> 01:30:14,240
hawaii and sort of um thinking about lineage in
a new way um there's i'm not doing a great job
689
01:30:14,240 --> 01:30:21,760
explaining this right now um it is still early
in the morning for me and now you blame the time
690
01:30:21,760 --> 01:30:27,680
now i blame the time but um it's like it's
not just some like empty like oh they go on
691
01:30:28,640 --> 01:30:35,120
an island vacation like they go to hawaii and then
realize that they're part of the problem and you
692
01:30:35,120 --> 01:30:41,680
know how tourism affects the environment is like
a staunch environmentalist so she thinks about
693
01:30:41,680 --> 01:30:49,120
how um she thinks about ecologism she thinks
about indigenous sovereignty like there is like a
694
01:30:49,120 --> 01:30:56,720
chapter dedicated to like the indigenous people of
hawaii so yeah it's it's a really interesting book
695
01:30:56,720 --> 01:31:04,480
in terms of how she uses tachezah as like a
plot point but then the cesar is like totally
696
01:31:04,480 --> 01:31:10,160
different from what we expect a korean chesa to
look like no that's so interesting especially in
697
01:31:10,160 --> 01:31:16,400
an indigenous indigenous context and the yeah the
yeah the conjuring of ancestors i i can see this
698
01:31:16,400 --> 01:31:21,920
being an amazing connection so what i'm hearing
is that you don't care much about the sort of the
699
01:31:21,920 --> 01:31:27,280
generational genealogy like in the selection
process do you feel pressured to like i mean
700
01:31:27,280 --> 01:31:34,480
does anybody tell you like you can't do this you
have to do this first oh uh i feel like that was
701
01:31:34,480 --> 01:31:43,120
more of an issue when i was in school maybe but
then now i'm a freelancer so i'm so just i mean
702
01:31:43,120 --> 01:31:51,440
for better or worse i'm so disconnected from those
people so yeah yeah i have fewer naysayers um
703
01:31:52,480 --> 01:31:59,920
yeah i guess what i'm what i'm hearing for
myself is i'd like to translate different
704
01:31:59,920 --> 01:32:08,320
authors who redefine korean-ness now this is so
exciting i am just so i i'm yeah i'm going to
705
01:32:08,320 --> 01:32:15,120
be thinking about this for for a very long time
it's one of the most eye-opening and enjoyable um
706
01:32:16,080 --> 01:32:20,400
conversations experiences this whole
year yeah it was so nice to meet you and
707
01:32:20,400 --> 01:32:25,840
talk about me and everything
oh and there's so much more
708
01:32:27,920 --> 01:32:33,680
i can i can only concur with what just judy said
and we're going to have to have you back sometime
709
01:32:33,680 --> 01:32:41,680
very soon i would love to personally yes in
person definitely um and to continue to talk about
710
01:32:41,680 --> 01:32:49,440
all the just very thought-provoking um
subjects that we've covered so far um the um
711
01:32:50,880 --> 01:32:57,760
we are hoping the center for korean studies is
hoping to continue with this series of kwajang
712
01:32:58,960 --> 01:33:03,760
and with the obviously the help
of victoria and all other people
713
01:33:06,240 --> 01:33:15,280
sometime in the fall will be our third event of
this series uh series um so i'd like to thank you
714
01:33:16,000 --> 01:33:27,040
um so there judy and victoria all so very much for
this wonderful event and such a fun event actually
715
01:33:27,040 --> 01:33:38,000
it's one of the few times it was so fun to be
part of um yeah yes so thank you so very much once
716
01:33:38,000 --> 01:33:45,200
again and for those of you whose questions have
not been answered i am sorry about that uh perhaps
717
01:33:45,200 --> 01:33:53,120
so they will be open to getting questions uh
in person sometime yeah uh after the event
718
01:33:53,120 --> 01:33:58,400
um do you have a website actually there was a
question about sharing your work yes oh yeah i
719
01:33:58,400 --> 01:34:04,960
saw that too from julie kim um i haven't posted
my poetry they live on very private google docs
720
01:34:09,920 --> 01:34:14,240
um but i do have a website
it's um smokingtigers.com
721
01:34:15,760 --> 01:34:19,600
i think and then i have uh twitter sojiflux
722
01:34:21,600 --> 01:34:27,600
so you can probably dm me your questions if
they're urgent great thank you so much um thank
723
01:34:27,600 --> 01:34:35,600
you victoria and uh thank you so much once again
all three of you uh we would probably have to uh
724
01:34:35,600 --> 01:34:44,800
end our event today uh and for those of you again
who would like to look up the the website of the
725
01:34:44,800 --> 01:34:51,520
center for korean studies for future events
and also possibly donate to our fundraising
726
01:34:53,120 --> 01:34:59,600
so that we will be able to continue with
this kind of program in the future please uh
727
01:34:59,600 --> 01:35:03,920
go take a look at this john duncan fellowship
in korean studies john duncan is the
728
01:35:04,720 --> 01:35:07,440
former director of the center for korean studies
729
01:35:08,240 --> 01:35:18,480
so once again thank you and good night um
thank you thank you so much everyone bye-bye