WEBVTT

Kind: captions

Language: en

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.960

Victoria Caudle: Welcome everyone to our first Kwayong event. My name is Victoria Caudle. I'm a fourth year, Phd. Student at Ucla, working on Korean literature, and I am a translator myself as well.

00:00:11.631 --> 00:00:26.860

Victoria Caudle: The series Quatung, celebrating the process of translating Korean literature was created as a platform form through which translators of new and important works of Korean literature, coming out in English, can make visible the deep consideration and skill that goes into their work,

00:00:26.891 --> 00:00:39.641

Victoria Caudle: thanks to the support of the centre for Korean studies. Here at Ucla we've been given the opportunity to yet again peek behind the publishers curtain and learn more about how works of Korean literature are brought into English.

00:00:40.181 --> 00:00:50.620

Victoria Caudle: The translations we'll be learning more about today are part of a collection of short stories by Pak Gyme, titled The Age of Doubt, which was released by Hanford Star. This Fall.

00:00:50.851 --> 00:01:07.961

Victoria Caudle: This collection boasts seven short stories, each with a different translator. Today we welcome two of the three Ah, two of the seven translators and the editor of this project to share more about how this collection came together. I'll now introduce our three guests and our esteemed moderator for this roundtable discussion.

00:01:08.641 --> 00:01:26.000

Victoria Caudle: Anton, her was a ah double long listed and shortlisted for the twenty twenty ah, two thousand and twenty-two International Booker Prize for his work as a literary translator a graduate of Korea University College of Law in Seoul National University Graduate School. He currently divides his time between Seoul and Sondul.

00:01:26.421 --> 00:01:30.591

Victoria Caudle: He will publish a book on translation in Korea in two thousand and twenty three.

00:01:30.601 --> 00:01:46.760

Victoria Caudle: Ah! As a translator and member of the Smoking Tigers Complaint of translators of Korean literature, many of whom contributed to this collection. I've had the great fortune to be able to call Anton a colleague and a friend who has supported me, and so many others starting our careers in translation.

00:01:47.081 --> 00:02:03.171

Victoria Caudle: You, Tom Kim, is a translator and editor based in Seoul. She won the commemoration prize of the forty, seventh, modern Korean literature translation awards in two thousand and sixteen. She's also a graduate of Lti Korea translation, Academy, Ah, special section and regular course.

00:02:03.181 --> 00:02:22.721

Victoria Caudle: She has translated Literary and Cultural Content, including short stories, children's stories, essays, poetry, Panzodi, Script scenarios and subtitles. While I have not had the pleasure of meeting Yuong in person, her diverse experience in translation and her foresight to establish such a remarkable team of translators, for this collection has left a deep impression on me.

00:02:23.091 --> 00:02:39.780

Victoria Caudle: Tasum Yang is a writer and translator from Korea, now living in Berlin. She holds an M. Fill in creative writing from Trinity College, Dublin, and is writing a collection of essays. Her translation of Pakyungi's stories popped in the short story appears in this collection that we're talking about today.

00:02:39.791 --> 00:02:47.540

Victoria Caudle: I met Tassel when we were both participating in a translation work shop, and I've always admired her commitment to both literature as a translator and as a writer.

00:02:47.741 --> 00:03:02.670

Victoria Caudle: Our moderator today is Dr. Yamsuk Park, who is an assistant professor of Korean literature at Ucla. Her primary field is Korean literature and culture. From the mid th through th century encompassing texts in Korean and classical Chinese.

00:03:02.681 --> 00:03:21.421

Victoria Caudle: Her research interests include intersections of literature and performance of music and dance, the history of gender and sexuality, the comparative history of slavery and ritual studies, travel, writings, and cultural exchanges in East Asia. She is currently working on her first book manuscript, based on her dissertation,

00:03:21.431 --> 00:03:36.640

Victoria Caudle: the government cortisol, status, gender, and performance in late chosen Korea, which examines the music and dance performance in state, ritual and ceremony by government courtisms, female entertainers and female entertainers of hereditary base status.

00:03:36.771 --> 00:03:40.690

Victoria Caudle: Welcome everyone, and Kansu. Please start us off.

00:03:43.631 --> 00:03:55.120

HYUN SUK PARK: Oh, thank you for the kind introduction. We talk about it a little bit by email, but I guess we can start with the roundtable conversations

00:03:55.131 --> 00:04:06.551

HYUN SUK PARK: uh with the translators. Uh, you can really talk about the topics that you want, and then um, I will ask some questions afterwards, and the moderate, the Q. And a sessions one.

00:04:08.301 --> 00:04:19.120

Victoria Caudle: Yeah, I think it would be great to start with you, John, talking about how this project came together, and how the translators were assembled to start

00:04:19.881 --> 00:04:21.911

Victoria Caudle: building this project with Hanford Star.

00:04:22.621 --> 00:04:23.681

You Jeong Kim: Right?

00:04:26.381 --> 00:04:43.081

You Jeong Kim: Oh, I I think I have to tell you like what what is our accomplishing company is doing. The company. Uh is a British Independent publishing house. Um friend, to introduce um three to literary words over East Asia to English images.

00:04:43.301 --> 00:05:00.890

You Jeong Kim: So I joined the team uh last year, about a year ago like this, when Anthony and Taylor uh the two co-founders of the you know who for this there uh we're considering um publishing a Korean female right to right this work.

00:05:00.961 --> 00:05:18.630

You Jeong Kim: So at this time we had a few candidates on our list. But then I just once we realized that. No, not for this is. Your stories have been translated so far like we felt, you know, almost the you know, obligation that our next the project should be about.

00:05:19.091 --> 00:05:20.291

You Jeong Kim: So,

00:05:20.461 --> 00:05:25.290

You Jeong Kim: you know, is it? You know the pleasant in Korean

00:05:25.471 --> 00:05:37.000

You Jeong Kim: how most of them at work is a um um land in English. So it took about twenty five years. Um for her to finish the work,

00:05:38.031 --> 00:05:39.171

You Jeong Kim: you know.

00:05:48.311 --> 00:05:49.501

You Jeong Kim: Newspaper,

00:05:49.561 --> 00:05:51.311

You Jeong Kim: so it's

00:06:00.981 --> 00:06:02.071

You Jeong Kim: so.

00:06:14.641 --> 00:06:15.601

You Jeong Kim: So.

00:06:21.141 --> 00:06:22.121

You Jeong Kim: Um.

00:06:28.121 --> 00:06:30.631

You Jeong Kim: Some of the stories are autobiographical,

00:06:31.081 --> 00:06:42.200

You Jeong Kim: and most of the stories are center around the very strong female uh, very problems from female for Japanese, and which is the environment of

00:06:42.611 --> 00:06:53.400

You Jeong Kim: uh. They are either um with those who lost to their husband to the work, or uh, and they lost their son in an excellent as well,

00:06:57.721 --> 00:07:08.090

You Jeong Kim: or um single women, uh, who always, you know, just by many's prejudices, and biased the use for a soccer from some people.

00:07:08.701 --> 00:07:09.631

You Jeong Kim: So

00:07:09.721 --> 00:07:28.120

You Jeong Kim: because a lot of the stories here in this collection are autobiographical. So may some people may think that it's a rather. It sounds a bit rather, you know, personal. But actually these stories also test a lot of the social issues, like probably in health care system and women's, empowerment,

00:07:28.130 --> 00:07:31.350

You Jeong Kim: and like the challenges to the

00:07:31.521 --> 00:07:32.411

You Jeong Kim: uh.

00:07:32.681 --> 00:07:46.031

You Jeong Kim: So you can also have those like personal accounts and aspects, and then the um insight into the historical families, and all for a context of those times.

00:07:48.781 --> 00:07:52.391

You Jeong Kim: So this is kind of.

00:07:53.341 --> 00:07:57.731

Anton Hur: So from what I understand also for this project,

00:07:58.411 --> 00:07:59.681

Anton Hur: the

00:07:59.761 --> 00:08:13.591

Anton Hur: we were actually talking about translating talked of me on Twitter because Tassel had mentioned on Twitter. I'm, looking at it. Now. This is on October twenty, fourth, two thousand and nineteen uh! That's something that she was working on a sample for Toji,

00:08:13.641 --> 00:08:14.971

Anton Hur: bye bye,

00:08:15.421 --> 00:08:25.060

Anton Hur: and I was reading the uh, the the new penguin poorest I mean it's on you now, but um so proust is being retranslated.

00:08:25.241 --> 00:08:32.421

Anton Hur: Um, I i'm not sure if the whole thing is out yet. But I was reading it as they were coming out like Lydia Davis, like the first one,

00:08:32.441 --> 00:08:37.491

Anton Hur: and so I thought like, and they were, and the way that they did it was that each following kind of different translator

00:08:37.531 --> 00:08:42.180

Anton Hur: and Um lutheran's three-body problem trilogy,

00:08:42.571 --> 00:08:53.730

Anton Hur: a remembrance of Earth's past. Interestingly, it has a similar title to proofs. It takes this title from proof, So the Lew System Trilogy was also translated by two different translators. Um!

00:08:54.031 --> 00:08:55.271

So

00:08:55.561 --> 00:09:01.060

Anton Hur: I thought, Well, this is something that we this is. This makes kind of a project like to you more feasible,

00:09:01.221 --> 00:09:29.921

Anton Hur: although I feel like Ideally, ideally, it would be great if that's not just translate it all to see from beginning to end like, make it our life work. We're basically asking this young woman to sacrifice her entire life for one book. Um so. Um, if if that some isn't up for that, then um, I thought, well, if if if we have a book like Twitchy, or if we have a book like chimming, is one word which I love that we should have, we we can kind of like divide it up like

00:09:29.931 --> 00:09:37.840

Anton Hur: they divided up. And we can also like, because I know that um to. She has like a very strong

00:09:37.991 --> 00:09:47.000

Anton Hur: financial foundation that they might be able to like, subsidize it, and we could kind of cobble together, Lti funding, and into which you find it, or something

00:09:47.091 --> 00:10:06.561

Anton Hur: like. Now we have. Everything is kind of like I was tweeting about that, I quoted. That's something I was telling. I was saying like, Oh, everything is kind of in place. We know how to get funding. We know there is a group of great translators who love working together, and all we need is this one publisher

00:10:06.571 --> 00:10:19.130

Anton Hur: that's willing to invest um it. It would. It's even though they would be subsidized. It would be a huge effort on their part. Someone who's very dedicated to um Korean and Asian literature in translation,

00:10:19.341 --> 00:10:20.711

Anton Hur: and

00:10:20.741 --> 00:10:23.831

Anton Hur: I tweeted about like how that might happen.

00:10:23.961 --> 00:10:29.861

Anton Hur: And then Onford star like slipped into the mention, and we're like, hey? This sounds like an interesting project,

00:10:29.971 --> 00:10:31.881

Anton Hur: and um

00:10:32.051 --> 00:10:50.371

Anton Hur: i'm like, maybe like they were also thinking about doing hacky me for a while, and but um! This was kind of like the first instance where I heard the Onfred Star was interested in that to me, and this was in again like one is in two thousand and nineteen October twenty, fourth, two thousand and nineteen, almost three years uh to the day.

00:10:50.431 --> 00:10:51.601

Anton Hur: Um,

00:10:51.741 --> 00:10:53.001

Anton Hur: and so

00:10:53.181 --> 00:11:06.220

Anton Hur: I always thought uh. So so I I feel like on for stores, maybe playing a long day where you know they want to do some something really really big, and it would be massive. It would be an incredible

00:11:06.301 --> 00:11:25.330

Anton Hur: of translation and publishing to get this off the ground. It would be like korea's proofs being published. It would be like, you know. Uh, Helena Ferranti, at the very least, where you know that that that those four books kind of like created an entire industry.

00:11:25.471 --> 00:11:30.700

Anton Hur: So. Um, yeah, it would be a huge deal, And I I kind of feel like this is a

00:11:30.791 --> 00:11:45.400

Anton Hur: This is a pilot project for that, and it's there. We're kind of like trying to see if we're working. If we work well together, and if we take direction, I don't know. I mean i'm so surprised. Did you talk with the Anthony and Hitler, I mean,

00:11:54.941 --> 00:12:06.320

You Jeong Kim: and nothing has been confirmed yet. But we see we expect some positive results, and, as you said, You know the as of that project was kind of experiment

00:12:06.331 --> 00:12:17.310

You Jeong Kim: about like a how we can work with the multiple translators at the same time, because we want it to be prepared for. This is brandy for that. So this is a really long term,

00:12:17.401 --> 00:12:34.931

Anton Hur: and you know everything only so, because, like this is not a thick book. And why are there eight translators? Right? So there are twenty volumes. If you divide twenty by eight, you you get eight volumes of um

00:12:34.961 --> 00:12:50.111

Anton Hur: like uh touch you from volume to you English for volume one's calling me so I think it would be it'd be a really amazing project to be a part of it that happens. And I'm telling you, if it happens, it would be historic like it would be absolutely absolutely

00:12:50.251 --> 00:13:08.361

You Jeong Kim: right right. And We also knew that. So you know, had, you know, passion for I can use for and uh people we decided to do this and um, we got some, you know. Some other translators also said, Oh, if you're going to do a tell me you have to, you know, separate different things to password.

00:13:16.721 --> 00:13:24.120

Dasom Yang: Yeah, I mean, I feel like just just hearing from Anton and and you, Jung, about how this project came together. It really

00:13:24.441 --> 00:13:27.640

Dasom Yang: is a prime example of of

00:13:27.661 --> 00:13:43.231

Dasom Yang: of the the most like possible. Like most um positive outcome that can come out of collaborative translation projects. And in Korean literature especially, because I mean it really shows a kind of ecosystem that we're working with, which is very um, which is

00:13:43.601 --> 00:13:52.001

Dasom Yang: one of my favorite things about translating Korean literature is the translators themselves that they're you know. So is that we're able to kind of

00:13:53.321 --> 00:14:10.820

Dasom Yang: have that kind of communication about like you know what we're working on. What we're interested in working on. And and who's you know, who has the resources to support that kind of project? Because for me I mean going back to two thousand and nineteen when I was getting kind of more serious about translating back to me. Um!

00:14:10.831 --> 00:14:19.840

Dasom Yang: It was really like a more of a pipe dream than an actual project that sounded feasible because it was just such a gigantic project. I remember. Um,

00:14:20.021 --> 00:14:38.380

Dasom Yang: I mean, I sort of. I've always wanted to translate. I sort of always had this personal connection to her, because my my parents, who really love to work and um, we've had this. You know the the first edition of of of Toji that came out that my dad had bought the entire thing, and

00:14:38.391 --> 00:14:58.060

Dasom Yang: and it was It's very, You know It's one of those books that we're so well warned that um, you know the the pages are kind of. You can really tell that they've been loved, and and it actually has like his. This signature he he he loves like signing his own books whenever he buys them so like with the dates, and like when he bought where he bought them.

00:14:58.071 --> 00:14:59.101

Dasom Yang: Um!

00:14:59.131 --> 00:15:15.491

Dasom Yang: So when I sort of started getting more serious about becoming a literary translator Um, she was always on top of my list, and actually in two thousand and nineteen. I was so three years ago I was on. I was in Korea. I was visiting, and

00:15:16.011 --> 00:15:44.011

Dasom Yang: I think it was Deborah Smith, who who gave me the who told me about the toy foundation that there is this foundation. You can go there. It's a they they actually have like a physical um estate where you know she used. They've sort of restored her her the the house that she used to live in and died in, and there's a there is also. Um! What's it called the Residency program for artists, and not just for writers, but for translators, Artists, You know

00:15:44.021 --> 00:16:02.761

Dasom Yang: artists of of all disciplines. Um! And we sort of had this. She was. She was basing Berlin at the time, and we were talking about how like we, you know we should go there. We should apply for the residencies, and we can, you know. Maybe we can look into this um the the whole project. Um. So when I was in Korea actually just um,

00:16:02.770 --> 00:16:18.000

Dasom Yang: I think I email them first. And they said, I don't know if they'd set that I could come and talk to them, or or if I just show it up. Um! But it was a it was just kind of. I guess I was feeling really really sort of

00:16:18.481 --> 00:16:26.360

Dasom Yang: like eager to get this project going and and to learn more about where this was at, because it it sounded actually a bit um

00:16:26.631 --> 00:16:32.741

Dasom Yang: to me that Toji had never been fully translated into English. So

00:16:32.971 --> 00:16:36.971

Dasom Yang: I went there, and it's in the the foundations in.

00:16:37.181 --> 00:16:47.620

Dasom Yang: Is it a one, Ju, I think, in in calendar not too far from so um. I took the train and I went there. Somebody from the foundation came to pick me up from the from the

00:16:47.841 --> 00:17:07.550

Dasom Yang: No. I actually took a cab or something like that. So it was. It was sort of like there were, you know. It was a bit hard to get to without a car. Um! And I get there, and the impression that I got there was I mean It's It's this beautiful place where you know, surrounded by the mountains, and you know the the column door is, you know It's one of my favorite places in Korea and Um

00:17:07.601 --> 00:17:10.100

Dasom Yang: and the director there was. It was

00:17:10.491 --> 00:17:14.430

Dasom Yang: really happy that there was somebody, you know, who's

00:17:14.561 --> 00:17:18.740

Dasom Yang: seriously looking into this, but she was also, I think, just as

00:17:19.681 --> 00:17:31.371

Dasom Yang: not not cool, as but you know she was just as kind of lost as to you know how this would sort of take off, because there had been an an attempt to translate this, and I think the book

00:17:31.451 --> 00:17:49.100

Dasom Yang: First three books were translate, or maybe first two, and then the the third book was kind of, you know. It had come to a halt, and then that was me. There was already like twenty twenty years ago, and she sort of told me about. You know. I I think it was translator who was based in in the Uk.

00:17:49.181 --> 00:17:50.461

Dasom Yang: And

00:17:50.501 --> 00:17:56.940

Dasom Yang: and they had, like, you know, email a a course correspondences between

00:17:57.021 --> 00:18:08.981

Dasom Yang: the foundation and the and the the former translator, who had sort of told them. Basically You know, the the the publisher that had taken on the project earlier, had sort of

00:18:09.161 --> 00:18:21.321

Dasom Yang: drop the project in the middle because because of the the vastness, and then, and the the the sheer volume of of the work and the commitment that they have they would have to make. And I think maybe in the beginning they didn't necessarily, you know,

00:18:21.671 --> 00:18:30.391

Dasom Yang: understand the scope of it, or maybe the things have changed throughout the process, but but they sort of, you know, had to drop the whole thing, and and they kind of,

00:18:30.401 --> 00:18:48.581

Dasom Yang: but they still at that point I think they had retained the copyright. So you couldn't necessarily like release. They like the foundation wasn't at liberty to release, release the copyright to other translate or other publishers. Um! So it was kind of like at a stand still, and she but she was

00:18:48.591 --> 00:19:03.710

Dasom Yang: talking about how it uh The work had been translated into Japanese, I think fully. And um! There were interest in translating into other languages like French or Russian, and and because fucking had,

00:19:03.721 --> 00:19:13.751

Dasom Yang: you know, she holds such a high regard, and in Korean literature in general. Um! But the way that these transient translations work,

00:19:13.811 --> 00:19:14.911

Dasom Yang: and

00:19:14.951 --> 00:19:18.700

Dasom Yang: with the language like Korean, is that a lot of

00:19:18.791 --> 00:19:20.471

Dasom Yang: translations

00:19:20.811 --> 00:19:22.960

Dasom Yang: first are sort of

00:19:23.791 --> 00:19:33.610

Dasom Yang: funneled into different, like more different languages through in through their English translation, so they need the The The English language is sort of

00:19:33.641 --> 00:19:42.630

Dasom Yang: you. You needed to have that in order for it to be translated more widely and more kind of even like more quickly into other languages. Um.

00:19:43.091 --> 00:20:01.620

Dasom Yang: So yeah, I spent like an afternoon there, sort of listening to to her talk about the the issues that they even have having basically with the with the project. And And also there were some residents there that were very eager to talk about poking me, and like the stuff that they were working on. And there was a there was a

00:20:01.631 --> 00:20:07.630

Dasom Yang: dancer who was sort of um who had his project based on.

00:20:08.221 --> 00:20:22.310

Dasom Yang: Uh, I think Kimyak will get tired of the the other um collection by, and they were putting together like some sort of a musical um with the choreographer, and stuff like that, and everything's just sounded so

00:20:23.061 --> 00:20:33.570

Dasom Yang: it just it. You could really tell that her legacy was just very much alive, and and a lot of our work was, or is adaptable to,

00:20:33.681 --> 00:20:40.880

Dasom Yang: to more contemporary contacts. And and you know what we do with our translations. And

00:20:41.331 --> 00:20:47.701

Dasom Yang: yeah, and it it. It just it gave me a lot of ideas, but at the same time I I I felt, you know

00:20:47.741 --> 00:20:57.610

Dasom Yang: there there is really something out there, but but it it is a big, you know, project for me to take on by myself, and and will I be able to say, you know?

00:20:58.061 --> 00:21:16.951

Dasom Yang: Yes, like I i'll. I'll take this one by myself and spend the rest of my life translating the entire thing, and you know we'll translate like one book a year, and then finish it by the time i'm you know what uh fifty, or something like that? Um! We should be willing to share the work with seven different,

00:21:17.001 --> 00:21:28.720

Dasom Yang: of course. No, that's the thing. I I mean, Yeah, that was. That was what was really amazing about it. Because, like when I put when I tweeted that in October. I kind of did that sort of

00:21:28.991 --> 00:21:30.001

Dasom Yang: as a

00:21:30.081 --> 00:21:39.330

Dasom Yang: you know. I I mean as why why does anybody tweet you know it just kind of like shout into the void. Um,

00:21:40.161 --> 00:22:10.121

Dasom Yang: but Anton responded, and then and then it sort of started off this conversation. And there is a real, I mean, because even already, by then, like Anton was, You know we're joking about how he's the bts of Korean literature, and he's, you know he had I I? You had the the sort of the network and the resources already by then took sort of get the word out there, and to see, you know, if there were trans uh transit other translators or publishers who'd be potentially interested in it. And that's what exactly happened. I think, when

00:22:10.131 --> 00:22:23.110

Dasom Yang: conference or card and got involved with the project. I mean they were. I. I know that Anthony and Taylor were, you know, looking for for uh ways to translate writers like Puck of me.

00:22:23.231 --> 00:22:24.441

Dasom Yang: Um.

00:22:24.881 --> 00:22:31.580

Dasom Yang: But yeah, I mean the way that it came together. And and the way that you know, we've worked on this book together. I thought it was.

00:22:31.931 --> 00:22:35.400

Dasom Yang: It's one of those rare things that you know I

00:22:35.581 --> 00:22:52.931

Dasom Yang: the It's this the way that we've sort of worked on it collaboratively without, you know, working on the same story, or without working on the on the same book directly. Um, but kind of coming together, and and you know, and and having sort of adding our own sort of voices, and

00:22:52.941 --> 00:22:56.270

Dasom Yang: in in the way that we've translated these stories

00:22:56.301 --> 00:23:09.980

Dasom Yang: um and that kind of meeting the meeting the seven different translators through the book, and thinking, you know we could possibly work on a much longer project together, and and something that's um

00:23:10.401 --> 00:23:12.681

Dasom Yang: as monumental as Toji and

00:23:12.941 --> 00:23:15.601

Dasom Yang: and um, yeah, it was really exciting.

00:23:16.511 --> 00:23:33.120

Victoria Caudle: I I know that Anton Um, originally for Hunford Star, You came out with the Kumyong, a collection underground village, which you heroically did all on your own, with all the research and everything that went into it. Um, i'm hearing Tasman talk about how

00:23:33.241 --> 00:23:40.491

Victoria Caudle: You know, this is a great opportunity to have this really interesting collaboration between multiple translators and create

00:23:40.531 --> 00:23:50.710

Victoria Caudle: a voice, but with still individual tinges to each of the stories. I wonder how perhaps you'd say the process was different.

00:23:51.231 --> 00:24:05.481

Victoria Caudle: This collaborative effort was created. Did you have a style, sheet or something, And i'd love if you talk about some of the really interesting choices you made like keeping the dreams, the the sort of

00:24:05.871 --> 00:24:07.321

Victoria Caudle: non

00:24:07.371 --> 00:24:14.951

Victoria Caudle: literal phrases like I go or tongue I love seeing Tum in one of the short stories.

00:24:15.741 --> 00:24:20.950

You Jeong Kim: So basically because we know that we are working with your, you know, top noted

00:24:21.101 --> 00:24:36.340

You Jeong Kim: translators already. We didn't move um many guidelines for them. We kind of let them, you know, play on their own. I mean, we had to really really minimum guidelines like this is American English. You know this before the cohesion.

00:24:47.701 --> 00:25:04.250

You Jeong Kim: Basically, it was like, Okay, do whatever you want, Because you the reason why we wanted to work with you, you know, seven different translators was because we want, I first ease uh, you know this thing Fifty, you know, spend almost three. You know all those the age of

00:25:04.261 --> 00:25:23.321

You Jeong Kim: Sometimes, you know they some of they look like a twin stories, but they uh, you know, independence. The reason the rest of them are very has three different voices, and we wanted to convey those, you know, divers through our, you know, excellent translators, so we didn't have many rules to apply for them,

00:25:23.331 --> 00:25:25.601

You Jeong Kim: and you know

00:25:26.041 --> 00:25:40.890

You Jeong Kim: it was just a you know, great honor for me, you know, to edit Academy collection, and then when I uh so you know I would translate, translate. So you know that may my whole, you know, editing experience even he wants to reveal, you know.

00:25:46.531 --> 00:25:54.271

You Jeong Kim: So I was really happy to work with them, and you know the added in processes. Um, when it's like this. Um,

00:25:54.781 --> 00:26:12.470

You Jeong Kim: Personally, I first to read their translation first, and then later on. Uh, I compare the translations with the Korean source line by line, because I expected, you know, this is no longer than many Korean readers would be interested in this book. So,

00:26:12.481 --> 00:26:29.600

You Jeong Kim: as a Korean eighty speaker, I wanted to make sure We have, you know, as few as translations as possible, so that was one of my focuses, and then actually, they were some other editors, I mean I was um. I covered all the them in different series.

00:26:29.611 --> 00:26:40.600

You Jeong Kim: And then Andrew and Taylor also covered on half the series, plus the commentary I translated. So we were kind of three of us. We were a team,

00:26:40.901 --> 00:26:56.850

You Jeong Kim: so we kind of discussed the you know, on specific issues where they're big. We're smoking before sending our submissions to our translator. So we have, like a kind of multi layer. They're added in process internally, three of us but kind of you know, back and forth. What do you think about this? And

00:26:56.891 --> 00:27:15.861

You Jeong Kim: And then, when we kind of reached the searching agreement, and then we organized all the comments. And then you know those comments with our. And then, later on, we interacted with our translators as well. I think we repeated back and forth. You know the um three or four times at least, so that

00:27:16.531 --> 00:27:18.690

You Jeong Kim: it was kind of dual for this.

00:27:20.661 --> 00:27:40.230

Anton Hur: I just want to add that you don't like really elevated um the translation Um, certainly mine. I don't know about everyone else's, but with mine. I remember because you can, because it's all on track changes. You can tell who like. I. You don't that there are several people editing, but you can tell who is editing what part

00:27:40.241 --> 00:27:57.791

Anton Hur: and you just comments were always like, Very would always make it go. Oh, yeah. And then I would like, do what she tells me to, and it would. So it was just so nice to have an editor who had this like really deep understanding of of, you know the source language and the source text,

00:27:58.301 --> 00:28:00.311

Anton Hur: and someone who could like

00:28:00.361 --> 00:28:11.460

Anton Hur: really tell you why you are doing why you are wrong. And i'm just really really glad that um he had himself with this project. And yeah, I hope

00:28:11.561 --> 00:28:25.210

Anton Hur: she edits all of the future for start projects from Korea. Because Um, yeah, it was just it was just. I mean, it makes it really. Of course, you know the the editor. The editing like it just makes a really huge difference. Because

00:28:25.221 --> 00:28:37.031

Anton Hur: so uh, Onford Star has always been like, very, very good with everything I feel, and that the like what what she described, as you know, letting, letting diversity in and letting translators do do what they want.

00:28:37.151 --> 00:28:48.370

Anton Hur: I think. Um, that's been really really um evident almost to fault, because I always tell the story about um and Chris. Funny there's a story called the Embodiment, and I couldn't think of a title

00:28:48.391 --> 00:28:51.061

Anton Hur: for more. Sorry for Mom Hada,

00:28:51.171 --> 00:28:56.450

Anton Hur: because it's a very Korean word. So it's like I'm just gonna call it the embodiment, because that's the word body in it.

00:28:56.641 --> 00:29:12.520

Anton Hur: And then um! I forgot that I titled this, and this was, and then I sent the manuscript in, and then it came back, and uh, Anthony or Taylor said, Uh, are you sure about the title, because it's a little i'm not sure if it quick that's,

00:29:12.741 --> 00:29:20.660

Anton Hur: and then I was like, Oh, you know I mean it's the the title means this, this, this and this I was like just explaining, like my thinking behind the title I wasn't defending it.

00:29:20.671 --> 00:29:35.851

Anton Hur: But um, that tone doesn't come across, you know, in in writing, and so I think Anthony and Taylor were like. Oh, my God! Anton is really obsessed with the title. But let's let him do what he wants. And so when the book came out,

00:29:35.861 --> 00:29:48.331

Anton Hur: and then I was like looking looking at it like for some reason it it really it even escaped the fact that I was reading it in galleys and whatnot, because I was so obsessed with the text. I was looking at the title, and then I looked at it. Oh, my God, we went to this title.

00:29:48.341 --> 00:29:58.700

Anton Hur: So yeah, So like almost your fault. They um they're very kind of they're very willing to discuss, you know, edits and very open minded about like

00:29:58.781 --> 00:30:03.011

Anton Hur: like what is good editing and um like what they want. And I think

00:30:03.171 --> 00:30:15.141

Anton Hur: this is really important, especially for um aspiring writers and translators. To keep in mind that editing is is not an imperative that comes down from above. It is a conversation

00:30:15.341 --> 00:30:34.631

Anton Hur: process. And so when your editor suggests something, it's like like when you, John, whenever she was correcting things in my manuscript that we're still obviously wrong, that I did even she wasn't, she wasn't saying like, Oh, Anton, you're wrong. She's like well, you know it kind of says it. This in the Korean, and then I feel like this would be a better way to say it. But you know it's up to you

00:30:34.641 --> 00:30:46.350

Anton Hur: like so it's like she always like, put it in like a discussion form. So it kind of makes you a It kind of makes you aware that. Oh, this is, You know this: This is just input you don't have to like.

00:30:46.541 --> 00:30:57.690

Anton Hur: Follow what your editor says, and that's always been like that, was my experience. Um, the editing process for this book, and it's been my experience throughout my other two books from that star,

00:30:59.401 --> 00:31:03.620

Anton Hur: and hopefully for all my future books with on footst. Then I want to work. I die.

00:31:05.751 --> 00:31:07.001

Dasom Yang: Yeah.

00:31:07.091 --> 00:31:08.571

Dasom Yang: Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

00:31:08.861 --> 00:31:12.950

Dasom Yang: I I I just wanted to echo what Anton has just said, because

00:31:13.051 --> 00:31:18.160

Dasom Yang: I I definitely felt like it was a huge um

00:31:18.511 --> 00:31:28.640

Dasom Yang: when for all of us, as trans us to have some have an editor who understands the source tax, and the and the language, and and the author so well, because

00:31:28.651 --> 00:31:46.870

Dasom Yang: there were, I remember we had like a couple of discussions around certain like specific words or or specific like nuances, because, you know we're working with with the stories that were set in, you know, twenties and thirties, and and and certainly with with a lot of you know their language,

00:31:46.881 --> 00:31:48.921

Dasom Yang: the the the

00:31:49.481 --> 00:32:06.360

Dasom Yang: the way that they were using their language was, you know, certainly like influenced by the you know time before you know it wasn't even you know, if you're if you're working with language in the twenties, that means that we were also working with the language from the eighteen hundreds that have, you know, carried into a language at that time. So

00:32:06.511 --> 00:32:16.041

Dasom Yang: yeah, I mean even just having, like certain, like small, small sort of discussions around, like one word I remember we were. We talked a little bit about

00:32:16.601 --> 00:32:35.561

Dasom Yang: I had I I sort of like hit a wall with this uh one-word uh plasma of like plasma and and and and they were talking about, you know my first instinct was like, Are they talking about the the the protagonists in my story? Um

00:32:35.571 --> 00:32:45.540

Dasom Yang: she's at this hospital, and she's kind of recalling this experience when her her mom uh went to buy it. The The The original text is something like

00:32:46.151 --> 00:32:54.281

Dasom Yang: It's a plus or something along those lines, you know. She went to get this Japanese plasma, and

00:32:54.601 --> 00:33:08.280

Dasom Yang: I thought, you know, are they really talking about like plasma Tv at that time like, did they have the Tv like? Was it? Was that possible and sort of I I I kept thinking about it. And then I asked my parents, and then they were like,

00:33:08.291 --> 00:33:21.521

Dasom Yang: and that seems a bit unlikely. But maybe maybe they're talking about like plasma is like how it sound like in the in, and because we're talking about like getting the blood for the for her boy who's dying? Um!

00:33:21.991 --> 00:33:35.560

Dasom Yang: But then, like with the contacts that you know it it didn't really make sense. So I, instead of I think I just left that the sentence blank. And then, you know, we started sort of with between Anthony Taylor and Yujong and I. We sort of

00:33:36.340 --> 00:33:53.310

Dasom Yang: started guessing, and and I think the way that you, John weighed in with the with um sort of you know it. She did this, you know. She brought in the perspective with with the research and and sort of like letting us know that this actually was, you know. There they,

00:33:53.321 --> 00:33:59.860

Dasom Yang: surprisingly enough, they had plasma Tv back in back in that time, and with the contacts we were able to kind of

00:33:59.871 --> 00:34:18.840

Dasom Yang: narrow it down to like a a specific um way of translating that word. And and that was really fun and sort of like. Have, knowing that there is a room for us to have these conversations, and knowing that there is some somebody that I could sort of turn to for their expertise and for their like ability to, you know, for their like um

00:34:19.801 --> 00:34:34.430

Dasom Yang: research sort of capacity. That was um that was really helpful. And to know that. Yeah it What in that in that way that also felt like a collaborative um process between the editor and the and the translators.

00:34:35.611 --> 00:34:36.701

You Jeong Kim: Mhm

00:34:47.181 --> 00:34:53.880

You Jeong Kim: But I think that worked well, and I was always. You know how

00:34:54.241 --> 00:35:00.281

You Jeong Kim: you you guys kind of came up with a lot better people, you know um expressions.

00:35:05.931 --> 00:35:08.881

You Jeong Kim: It was a really good I

00:35:09.801 --> 00:35:11.100

You Jeong Kim: and

00:35:11.171 --> 00:35:12.191

You Jeong Kim: I think

00:35:12.541 --> 00:35:27.810

You Jeong Kim: one thing I found, you know something interesting during the adding processes like, uh as Victoria's engine. Uh you use you Romanized to a lot of Korean traditional terms like I remember uh, from

00:35:28.171 --> 00:35:36.120

You Jeong Kim: okay, Agony or Tama uh a lot of you know, very. And I and

00:35:36.401 --> 00:35:55.361

You Jeong Kim: I ego and aga right. So some intersections, too. So, and I think this is so beautiful. I mean It's kind of, you know. Add some more Korean use to our collection so, but it's kind of this tendency. I could find all you know. Of course you know seven different three.

00:35:55.481 --> 00:36:01.890

You Jeong Kim: I think I we didn't, you know, appreciate any in this matter, but kind of naturally it was

00:36:02.251 --> 00:36:05.570

You Jeong Kim: kind of appears again. I really like that aspect.

00:36:06.391 --> 00:36:14.250

Anton Hur: I think it's really funny. You mentioned that because one of you, Jung's suggestion for my story was I use for? I use porch for Madu,

00:36:14.491 --> 00:36:21.000

Anton Hur: and then you just It's like you know I isn't it quite a porch. It's, you know. It's motto is a lot of,

00:36:21.251 --> 00:36:36.581

Anton Hur: and then I was like, I guess she's right. Motto isn't quite a porch, because then you think of like little house in the prairie, or something like a porch, so i'll say, maybe maybe I could. I don't know what I ended up going with. Are you just said Maru. Or Yeah. Yeah. So we went Mccloud room

00:36:36.591 --> 00:36:49.831

Anton Hur: and hoping that you know they sat on the model and looked at at the yard like, So we're we're we're trying to, you know. We assume that people are gonna get like what the structure is, and this influenced me because, like I was. Um!

00:36:49.901 --> 00:36:59.800

Anton Hur: What was I doing? If I was I? I was doing final edits for uh, not final edits, but final edits for the for the first draft of I went to see my father by,

00:37:00.401 --> 00:37:01.640

Anton Hur: and,

00:37:01.841 --> 00:37:14.960

Anton Hur: like the word motto, appears a lot in the Korean. So It's like changing every it's. It's a port to about. Yeah. So Yujong's edit ended up influencing um,

00:37:14.981 --> 00:37:19.591

Anton Hur: influencing my other books as well. So that was like, really funny and very cool.

00:37:20.351 --> 00:37:40.210

Dasom Yang: Yeah, I I love I mean, i'm a huge advocate of using these proper nouns and cream and Romanizing them instead of translating them, just not for not only for translations, but also for your own writing. Because um, that was just one thing that sort of I've been very adamant about when I was even when I was doing my creative writing course.

00:37:40.221 --> 00:37:42.520

Dasom Yang: Um! I just hated having to like,

00:37:42.551 --> 00:37:45.031

Dasom Yang: explain in English, and and sort of

00:37:45.171 --> 00:37:50.430

Dasom Yang: Anglicize certain expressions or or words even, I mean

00:37:51.531 --> 00:37:59.821

Dasom Yang: like cause you the yes, like model and porch they they they just they conjure different images in your head. Um,

00:38:00.251 --> 00:38:14.710

Dasom Yang: and it's, you know we have. We have a lot of words that have been adapted from different other languages into English, so we use um with with ease and with um frequency enough frequency to make sense of that. So

00:38:14.721 --> 00:38:32.380

Dasom Yang: um! I think it's all that. I feel a certain um obligation to translate it to, you know, propagate the users of certain words like you know, model, or because these are properties that that that describe this very specific thing like a Hun or like a Korean house. Sort of is certain structures. Um:

00:38:32.391 --> 00:38:47.220

Dasom Yang: yeah. I remember when I was translating the word agony. I thought, you know, like for the first, like all traditional oven, or like you know what what is the word um that would best describe this. And let's just go with Albany and Tung Mount also.

00:38:47.721 --> 00:38:48.691

Dasom Yang: I mean

00:38:49.621 --> 00:38:50.821

Dasom Yang: um.

00:38:51.201 --> 00:38:58.251

Dasom Yang: Technically, I could have said the rainy season, or something like that, but it always like rainy season always to me. Sort of

00:38:58.871 --> 00:39:13.401

Dasom Yang: makes me think of makes me sort of I I have. There's a huge association that I have with the word to more tropical climate, which is not necessarily, which is different from Korean climate. And um,

00:39:13.601 --> 00:39:22.271

Dasom Yang: I guess I got a little like n Picky about certain like very small things like that, and and wanted to just make sure. And and and I also personally really love the word

00:39:22.401 --> 00:39:24.230

Dasom Yang: um. So

00:39:24.311 --> 00:39:33.830

Dasom Yang: you know, Monsoon is not. It was not originally a an English word, so you know. But now it's been sort of adapted to English, and we use it as such. So

00:39:33.841 --> 00:39:47.610

Dasom Yang: one day, you know, we'll we'll hear people. The layman of English speakers say, Oh, we're expecting tongue line, Korea this some this summer, and things like that. Um.

00:39:47.901 --> 00:40:05.630

Dasom Yang: And also yeah, I remember we uh during my editorial process we had the I I sort of sort of made a point about saying, You know I I want to keep the the word aga, instead of like saying honey, or like darling or or um other terms of endearment. Because,

00:40:05.911 --> 00:40:13.071

Dasom Yang: yeah, those are just like, you know, terms of endearment are such. They have such strong sort of cultural

00:40:13.121 --> 00:40:20.011

Dasom Yang: um colors, if you like, and it just like. I could not imagine the nineteen twenties

00:40:20.071 --> 00:40:28.451

Dasom Yang: grandma in Korea saying, Darling or honey, it it just it. It didn't really so well with me.

00:40:28.661 --> 00:40:31.511

Dasom Yang: Um! And I got like the way that it

00:40:31.561 --> 00:40:33.800

Dasom Yang: it sounds. You know it's

00:40:34.281 --> 00:40:40.820

Dasom Yang: it, it's diminutive, but but like within with the endearment, but also with

00:40:40.871 --> 00:40:50.140

Dasom Yang: like this, like such like at to Tom, with the with the with the subject that you you express such like intimacy with the subject. And

00:40:50.191 --> 00:40:59.480

Dasom Yang: um, yeah, And I was glad that you know the hum for or the Israeli team were, you know, open to that suggestion? Um!

00:40:59.641 --> 00:41:08.211

Dasom Yang: And I was thinking when I was when I was using when I was kind of in, or like my logic behind. That was, you know you. You read writers like

00:41:08.321 --> 00:41:14.060

Dasom Yang: contemporary sort of American or British, or or any other writers who write in English

00:41:14.121 --> 00:41:26.641

Dasom Yang: sort of bring these words in into English. Like certain. You know, I was thinking of who uses a lot of these brings in a lot of these terms, especially terms of endearment, because in

00:41:26.651 --> 00:41:45.580

Dasom Yang: and different cultures you have so many different words that you use in order to like, refer to people, because in Korean also, because we are the like. The way that Korean language is structured is that we really avoid like addressing each other directly, you know, by saying like you is not very common right like you. You say I either

00:41:45.591 --> 00:41:48.240

Dasom Yang: this person like I would not say like

00:41:48.631 --> 00:41:57.721

Dasom Yang: all tungsten, or like, you know that that's that's always like a tricky thing in Korean, like liter, or the translation, or like just even everyday speech. I would say like

00:41:57.931 --> 00:41:59.790

Dasom Yang: to Anton like an on.

00:41:59.881 --> 00:42:15.611

Dasom Yang: I'm told you. You know i'll take a thing of care rather than like tungsten, or you know so so that kind of like. And then the way that we refer to people. It's always very relational, you know. You would say, like something name or like you know, pony of gun name, or like accused me, and

00:42:15.621 --> 00:42:25.980

Dasom Yang: or you know. So you always need like the title of that person, or or you need to kind of clarify your relationship with that person in order to know how to address, to address them. And

00:42:26.371 --> 00:42:34.770

Dasom Yang: and yeah, and our guys in that sense, it's kind of a relational word and sort of bringing that into translation without

00:42:35.241 --> 00:42:38.540

Dasom Yang: without sort of losing that.

00:42:38.701 --> 00:42:57.410

Victoria Caudle: That essence, I think, was was important. And and yeah, I think I've seen that throughout our collection with other translations as well, and that was that was really nice. Yeah, I think it gives a great credit of intelligence to your readers that you don't need to flatten

00:42:57.481 --> 00:43:06.541

Victoria Caudle: the text for them, and I know Anton is specifically written against the mythical English reader, who,

00:43:06.571 --> 00:43:13.770

Victoria Caudle: you know, often translators are taught to smooth out a text to make it readable. But for who?

00:43:14.021 --> 00:43:17.051

Victoria Caudle: I think this is a collection that really shows

00:43:17.331 --> 00:43:19.491

Victoria Caudle: exactly what you can do

00:43:19.551 --> 00:43:24.311

Victoria Caudle: by leaving in a lot of texture and a lot of cultural specificity.

00:43:25.591 --> 00:43:28.070

Anton Hur: It's interesting because um!

00:43:28.151 --> 00:43:33.321

Anton Hur: A lot of reviewers have pointed out that this is something that I did for love in the big city,

00:43:33.501 --> 00:43:37.511

Anton Hur: and they've been like. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

00:43:37.591 --> 00:43:45.221

Anton Hur: But there were. There was like, I can. I can think of one just Instagram, maybe, where they seem like surprised that.

00:43:45.351 --> 00:43:56.240

Anton Hur: But oh, there's so many things that we're not on translated. But and then he went on to say, like, I assume that this is because I don't read a lot of translated literature, and this is just a convention that they have in translated literature.

00:43:56.501 --> 00:43:58.721

Anton Hur: And i'm like, yeah bent,

00:43:58.841 --> 00:43:59.930

Anton Hur: anyway. So

00:44:00.381 --> 00:44:07.051

Anton Hur: I agree that it is kind of becoming more of a trend to transliterate and not

00:44:07.531 --> 00:44:09.451

Anton Hur: translate certain terms.

00:44:09.471 --> 00:44:13.721

Anton Hur: I I mean. Obviously I think that you can go the other way. But

00:44:13.821 --> 00:44:26.380

Anton Hur: um, I remember like for a court, Dan. Sorry, very deliberately translated a lot of the a lot of the place things because the the meetings that are inside those things like, I think confession would provide um

00:44:26.441 --> 00:44:42.111

Anton Hur: Chinese characters for them, and that and so it's like. Oh, you want us to understand what these place names mean. So I would. I just translated them into English, and once I did that I could see why things were happening the way like in the specific places that they were happening.

00:44:42.141 --> 00:44:47.450

Anton Hur: And so you definitely do have to make a choice. Um, but

00:44:47.511 --> 00:44:54.250

Anton Hur: my! My advice always, as you know, when when I teach people translation, is that like, do you have to really think about it

00:44:54.321 --> 00:45:13.340

Anton Hur: like you, because that was like well, if it's the term of endearment, so I have a very clear reason why I want to keep this in translation and not translate it, and of course it goes the other way around. We're like, Oh, why am I, instead of mindlessly Just trans literary, literary, and everything like you if you have A. If you have a good reason that you can articulate

00:45:13.351 --> 00:45:15.580

Anton Hur: that you want to translate something, then that's what you should do.

00:45:16.231 --> 00:45:18.981

Anton Hur: But Yeah, The The point is, translators should think,

00:45:19.081 --> 00:45:20.750

Anton Hur: and a lot of translators don't,

00:45:20.991 --> 00:45:22.161

Anton Hur: you know we just

00:45:23.191 --> 00:45:25.741

Anton Hur: and just do it because deadlines and all that.

00:45:26.081 --> 00:45:44.601

HYUN SUK PARK: Well, I guess I I can time in uh Sorry to zoom um now, because uh, we are getting some very related questions from the audience, so I guess we can continue this conversation uh with the questions. Um, So I just want to read out the two questions from Amy Ross.

00:45:45.021 --> 00:46:04.670

HYUN SUK PARK: Any I I think any of you can answer uh them and and provide some more related um stories. Um, Amy is asking first of all, as you are working on this project, where there are moments where you felt overwhelmed. If so, how did you overcome this? And I had a similar question as well

00:46:04.681 --> 00:46:15.221

HYUN SUK PARK: ere

00:46:15.261 --> 00:46:33.240

HYUN SUK PARK: her writing style is is very modern, but at the same time I was wondering whether there was any particular moment in which um you found any um, you know overall I mean difficulties. Um of translating some words, some phrases, or or um

00:46:33.281 --> 00:46:40.210

HYUN SUK PARK: carrying a particular like sentiments that she wants to express in her writings. Um!

00:46:40.511 --> 00:46:54.341

HYUN SUK PARK: The second question from Amy us is, what are some key moments in the work that you hope readers really focus on? Were ponder that were tricky to translate and edit or Western readers.

00:46:54.351 --> 00:47:06.821

HYUN SUK PARK: So these are um, I think, related questions. And also you have been talking about these issues already, right? So i'm wondering if you can answer any of these questions in some ways

00:47:06.971 --> 00:47:09.281

HYUN SUK PARK: continue this conversation.

00:47:10.811 --> 00:47:14.280

Anton Hur: I can answer the first, and that so maybe you can answer the second one.

00:47:15.131 --> 00:47:27.390

Anton Hur: Uh, so. Um! Did I ever feel overwhelmed? So I think you mean like re overwhelmed by the rep, the reputation of hack only, and maybe like the content of the translation itself

00:47:27.431 --> 00:47:29.240

Anton Hur: of the source itself.

00:47:29.281 --> 00:47:35.180

Anton Hur: And so, first of all, I translated Kongongy, and I've translated um,

00:47:35.721 --> 00:47:42.300

Anton Hur: you know I I am Confessions translator. And so for me the reputation of a writer is

00:47:43.321 --> 00:47:44.430

Anton Hur: kind of

00:47:44.851 --> 00:47:50.220

Anton Hur: like you, don't You don't really think about that when you, when you start a work, I guess, because

00:47:50.791 --> 00:48:02.770

Anton Hur: when you do, I guess you like like, What does that? What does that really get you? I think um, especially in Korean society, not so much in in Anglophone publishing but in Korean society, if you say that

00:48:03.021 --> 00:48:10.940

Anton Hur: you're translating back to me, and people are like, Oh, do you go to call me like, How dare you like? Who do you think you are? You're translating hooked on me and i'm like,

00:48:11.501 --> 00:48:25.640

Anton Hur: I've translated Kanyeong. Yeah. Translated from something like, why can't I transfer it to me? And so uh, But that's that's how That's how I approach from that out of here, from a attitude of entitlement. So the thing is. Um, I think

00:48:25.651 --> 00:48:35.001

Anton Hur: what might have been overwhelming is, you know the fact that she's so different from who I am. But the thing is about that as a translator you find the path into it.

00:48:35.261 --> 00:48:37.140

Anton Hur: Um, for example, with

00:48:37.361 --> 00:48:39.731

you know, this is a woman who

00:48:39.861 --> 00:48:44.260

Anton Hur: i'm, not a contemporary with, and you know she's from a different part of Korea.

00:48:45.031 --> 00:48:45.991

Anton Hur: Hi!

00:48:46.171 --> 00:49:03.201

Anton Hur: Uh! At the same time I really felt like I understood where she was coming from, because she uh kind of reminded me of these like, you know, all these like heroines who you know, who go go to college or like, go getters. We're like very

00:49:03.281 --> 00:49:13.751

Anton Hur: for very kind of like, very intelligent and very forceful, and like not the demure, shrinking violet, you know, demure Oriental woman

00:49:13.991 --> 00:49:26.470

Anton Hur: trope that doesn't really exist in real life like she was a very powerful woman, and the cat, all of her like female characters in her books were also very powerful, and my mother is, you know, of that kind of

00:49:27.491 --> 00:49:45.740

Anton Hur: of that kind of stripe. So I was like, Okay. So I understand. I understand this character. I'm going to pretend she's like my mother, and you know the really cool like females on those that I had like in college, and i'm just gonna like combine all of that, and and also I needed someone in English. So I thought. Prol Buck is also a very

00:49:45.751 --> 00:49:55.051

Anton Hur: educated woman, who, you know, did a lot of during things. And so i'm gonna combine the the voices of these different women and do the translation. So once I had the voice like, I had everything.

00:49:55.481 --> 00:50:07.351

Anton Hur: So when it comes to translation, I always say you have to have a kind of sense of the voice, and you have to triangulate the right voice for it, for

00:50:07.651 --> 00:50:21.540

Anton Hur: I I thought, like she's kind of contemporaneous with um. I don't mean it like not really, but kind of like they would have influenced like I can't believe it would have influenced her.

00:50:21.551 --> 00:50:29.701

Anton Hur: Um! The the the political mindedness, the force, the fullness uh the the just, the share, courage,

00:50:29.711 --> 00:50:43.071

Anton Hur: and the slight cynicism like I was like, Okay. So this is another voice that I think I can do right. I think I can understand, especially my story, like whenever we twitch it. It's not so much like that. Tw she is a very different Be still together. But

00:50:43.081 --> 00:50:50.211

Anton Hur: for my story and the age of doubt which, by the way, is also a title to you. Um! I felt like this is going to.

00:50:50.531 --> 00:50:52.810

Anton Hur: This would work for this voice

00:50:52.861 --> 00:50:58.290

Anton Hur: like you know, this is a woman who had horrible things happen to her. This is so. But she still persevered,

00:50:58.371 --> 00:51:02.080

Anton Hur: and at the end she definitely for some years. So I think.

00:51:02.131 --> 00:51:09.691

Anton Hur: Yeah, this is I. I haven't been. I can hear from voice in English now and then. I just once you have the voice down everything else you built over that.

00:51:13.251 --> 00:51:18.480

Dasom Yang: Yeah, I mean, that's um. That's something that I would also, you know,

00:51:18.601 --> 00:51:29.261

Dasom Yang: keep in mind as I continue on my path as a literary translator. Um, that's you know, to sort of like, understand the

00:51:29.971 --> 00:51:33.921

Dasom Yang: you know It's not really like transition isn't really about

00:51:34.341 --> 00:51:39.411

Dasom Yang: being able to identify with the characters or with the writer. It's rather that you know you kind of,

00:51:39.681 --> 00:51:59.411

Dasom Yang: and like what Anton has said about sort of the triangulating the the right voice that you can certify you can. You can sort of uh pick out as the as what you can. You know what you recognize? I think that's that's important, and that was definitely helpful for me during my process. This process of translating

00:51:59.421 --> 00:52:04.510

Dasom Yang: the story as well. Um, in my personal sort of struggle with the story sort of

00:52:04.861 --> 00:52:18.650

Dasom Yang: was a bit more, I guess. Yeah was a bit more personal because I was going through. My My mom was very ill during the time who was working with the story So sort of seeing, you know. It was oddly because because my story is about

00:52:19.251 --> 00:52:28.560

Dasom Yang: the the sort of the the mother son like relationship. In a way she she loses her son, and the sort of the way that sort of

00:52:30.401 --> 00:52:41.771

Dasom Yang: the way that it happens. It's also so brutal, so abrupt. But you know, through an accident, and and so like working with the with the story, and throughout the end Um,

00:52:42.691 --> 00:52:49.311

Dasom Yang: yeah, I mean. Looking back, it took me actually a lot longer than I thought it would to work with the story. Because

00:52:55.411 --> 00:52:56.491

Dasom Yang: Um,

00:52:57.131 --> 00:53:15.641

Dasom Yang: but yeah, I mean, in a way it was. It's this: The The story is very meaningful in that way, because the way that it, you know, came out, and and my mom just passed away this this year earlier this year, and sort of it it does. The book came out after she passed away, and the and the

00:53:15.651 --> 00:53:23.830

Dasom Yang: so for a long time. I actually couldn't go back to reading, reading the story or the book, because it was sort of reminding me of the sort of

00:53:24.171 --> 00:53:32.750

Dasom Yang: the the time that I was working with the story it's sort of Co. Uh collided with, you know her illness and and everything. So um!

00:53:32.801 --> 00:53:41.350

Dasom Yang: But then, actually just being able to slowly go back to the stories and like reading other, you know, Anton's translation and other other, the the rest of the collection.

00:53:41.371 --> 00:53:42.680

Dasom Yang: Um,

00:53:43.051 --> 00:53:51.750

Dasom Yang: Yeah, was Was it a a process of personal growth as well? Um, if I can say that. And

00:53:51.871 --> 00:53:59.561

Dasom Yang: so yeah, that was um. So yeah, it has that very like personal connection to me. Um. And

00:53:59.791 --> 00:54:05.241

Dasom Yang: as for the key moments in the work that I hope readers will focus on and ponder.

00:54:05.301 --> 00:54:06.790

Dasom Yang: Um

00:54:06.981 --> 00:54:13.600

Dasom Yang: I mean, because I mean that's also kind of you know. What was really difficult about the transition was that it is such a

00:54:14.761 --> 00:54:17.551

Dasom Yang: a lot of the stories are very sort of

00:54:18.511 --> 00:54:23.161

Dasom Yang: very not rural. I I don't want to certainly say, but

00:54:25.291 --> 00:54:32.990

Dasom Yang: a lot of them are heartbreaking, and they're not, you know, happy stories as such, you know, to not um.

00:54:33.941 --> 00:54:35.241

They don't

00:54:35.501 --> 00:54:54.100

Dasom Yang: a lot of them don't have happy endings, and the way that you know. And I thought, oh, I guess, because because the question also asks specifically for the Western reader. Um. A lot of the stories don't have the same kind of narrative arcs that a lot of Western um stories do

00:54:54.111 --> 00:55:04.460

Dasom Yang: um. And when you you know when you're taking courses and creative writing when you're you know you're you're always sort of there are classic writers who um

00:55:04.951 --> 00:55:19.581

Dasom Yang: you you turn to for like for a A. As a sort of um archetypes of of short stories and and puking these stories Don't really have that. You know that that kind of classic like Western narrative where it sort of,

00:55:19.591 --> 00:55:32.330

Dasom Yang: you know, you enter a conflict, and then it gets resolved in the end, or things like that. And and the way she ends her stories are you often, you know, she ends stories with images or sounds. Um, but not necessarily with like

00:55:33.061 --> 00:55:44.231

Dasom Yang: uh this, you know, with the resolution, or like with what kind of telling you what what has happened, or what you're supposed to, you know, think, or or be leaving with um.

00:55:44.781 --> 00:55:46.080

Dasom Yang: But

00:55:46.321 --> 00:55:49.071

Dasom Yang: I actually that was, you know, One of my

00:55:49.681 --> 00:55:59.610

Dasom Yang: favorite things about her stories is that you know it leaves you with like certain um sensory images that you know that kind of

00:56:00.811 --> 00:56:12.030

Dasom Yang: with leave you with it in a at a different place than you started with, and I mean, I guess I Yeah, I would. I would maybe ask the readers to sort of focus on those moments where it feels like

00:56:12.041 --> 00:56:30.561

Dasom Yang: a little more, you know, like sort of lean into those moments where you feel a little more alienated, or little more unfamiliar with what you know with with the story. Um, I've also seen a few, maybe one or two reviews on, like on Instagram or or was it on Twitter? Somebody had mentioned that, you know

00:56:30.691 --> 00:56:46.090

Dasom Yang: they had a hard time sort of um understanding what happened at the end. They wanted to kind of know it more. Um, but they were sort of left with this feeling of incompleteness. And I would say, I mean, that's the

00:56:46.571 --> 00:57:05.581

Dasom Yang: that's that's the biggest. Maybe that's maybe the biggest charm of her stories is that you know, and and sort of like leaning into that and and seeing where W. Why, that makes you uncomfortable and sort of questioning that I think it's it's an it's a fun sort of It's a good like reading experience as well

00:57:07.461 --> 00:57:26.291

HYUN SUK PARK: erez agmoni. Well, thank you for sharing your personal story, and I'm. I'm really sorry to hear about your mother. Uh, my own father is also struggling right now with very severe illness. And um listening to you. I just realized why it was so difficult for me to read the stories one hundred and one.

00:57:33.491 --> 00:57:49.280

HYUN SUK PARK: So I was going to ask um a question about the expected leadership, and I think you have already answered it pretty much uh uh about it already. But I was going to ask Um! What kinds of leadership do you expect

00:57:49.291 --> 00:58:04.490

HYUN SUK PARK: erez agmoni? And I was very much delighted, and also surprised to see this translation, because because i'm wondering whether Pakyomi is now widely read, even in Korea, and one hundred and one.

00:58:05.171 --> 00:58:18.021

HYUN SUK PARK: Despite this uh precious presence of this woman writer in one thousand nine hundred and fiftys. My impression is that her writings are not, uh, you know,

00:58:18.201 --> 00:58:26.600

HYUN SUK PARK: getting this this, this attention that she deters, especially the short stories other than the land to. So.

00:58:27.101 --> 00:58:44.141

HYUN SUK PARK: Um! I was curious about um. This choice of the writer over other contemporary other writers. I know that you have a lot of experiences of translating more more contemporary recent works. So um

00:58:44.661 --> 00:58:58.671

HYUN SUK PARK: as a reader, and also as a translator, what What was the most appealing um points in the stories of? And what do you expect that the um you know um

00:58:59.231 --> 00:59:08.561

HYUN SUK PARK: mit ctl, And you know about the the responses from the contemporary readers, the readerships in the us or or elsewhere, the English-speaking world.

00:59:11.201 --> 00:59:12.730

Anton Hur: I'm. Not

00:59:13.871 --> 00:59:21.050

Anton Hur: I'm. Only i'm like i'm only known for translating contemporary work like in the literally in the past year

00:59:21.191 --> 00:59:28.480

Anton Hur: I'm. Actually known for taking on historical or historic work that are, that it's very difficult to translate,

00:59:28.531 --> 00:59:30.570

Anton Hur: and that no one wants to touch

00:59:30.841 --> 00:59:33.631

Anton Hur: like. My first book was court dancer,

00:59:35.881 --> 00:59:42.840

Anton Hur: three translators before me, but none of them wanted to touch court dancer, because it's like a historical novel,

00:59:43.221 --> 00:59:53.120

Anton Hur: and it has all of these like historic details that require a lot of research, and not every translator has the range for that. So no one wanted to touch it.

00:59:53.221 --> 01:00:00.320

Anton Hur: And then I said well, and I remember like talking to Brother Anthony about it, and he was like Oh, it's just so. Goddamn long. I'm like,

01:00:00.881 --> 01:00:13.241

Anton Hur: and so I feel like That's the kind of book that I'm known, for my second book was ongoing and undergrad those with offered star. So this book was written, You know all the stories in that book were written in the nineteen twenties and nineteen tenths,

01:00:13.431 --> 01:00:21.920

Anton Hur: and so that required a whole lot of a lot of distance to to bridge, and then my third book was the prisoner by Hong Kong.

01:00:22.131 --> 01:00:30.680

Anton Hur: And this was, you know, such a difficult book to do that the long ago the original translator, like just didn't want to do it.

01:00:30.711 --> 01:00:40.301

Anton Hur: And so it was given to me, and that required a lot of research and a lot of just like, Oh, God! I this is a huge nightmare.

01:00:40.721 --> 01:00:51.870

Anton Hur: And so by the time I was done with the prisoner I was like, Wow! If this I want to do something light and breezy and contemporary, and the two books that I did was love in the big city and Kirsten.

01:00:52.481 --> 01:01:11.811

Anton Hur: So actually, this kind of work is my forter, and it's what I'm kind of yeah this it's. It's my area of expertise, whereas you know, love in the vicinity. And Chris. Funny, like the contemporary works are kind of like. Oh, I did them for fun, And then they got, you know, long list for the Book of prize.

01:01:11.831 --> 01:01:13.080

Anton Hur: So

01:01:13.241 --> 01:01:14.640

Anton Hur: actually like

01:01:15.551 --> 01:01:18.610

Anton Hur: when I and when I choose those works,

01:01:19.071 --> 01:01:33.241

Anton Hur: I don't really think of the readership so much as like. Oh, I want I just want to be. I just want to be challenged. I just want to do something really edgy and like, really just interesting. I want, you know, I see, like a very difficult work. That's why i'm so excited about like, you know, a potential to you.

01:01:33.251 --> 01:01:41.980

Anton Hur: Because that is a lot of distance to to bridge right. That's a huge gap that you need to traverse in order to bring that to the English leadership

01:01:42.171 --> 01:02:00.510

Anton Hur: and to make you know a work like this. Speak in a contemporary language. Not just, you know. Uh, it's not just in its own language, but in a new language in English, which is, you know. They say that Korean and English are the furthest two languages in the world,

01:02:00.521 --> 01:02:16.960

Anton Hur: so we already have that gap to traverse, and then. Now we have, like the gap of distance and culture to traverse. Like you know, it's a challenge that if you are that kind of translator which every one of these people are uh It's a challenge that you're going to embrace

01:02:17.021 --> 01:02:18.781

Anton Hur: and like

01:02:19.301 --> 01:02:20.991

Anton Hur: when I think of like

01:02:21.081 --> 01:02:26.580

Anton Hur: when I, when I think of translating, it works. My only concern is like. Do I like it

01:02:27.001 --> 01:02:32.520

Anton Hur: in that essay that I wrote for by what phenomena the conclusion is, you know i'm the

01:02:32.561 --> 01:02:35.870

Anton Hur: I'm, the mythical English reader, i'm the most important reader,

01:02:35.941 --> 01:02:44.000

Anton Hur: and so will I like it if if I, because I am totally convinced, and this is a very common sentiment that a lot of people in publishing have It's not just me.

01:02:44.041 --> 01:02:49.661

Anton Hur: If I like it. Other people will like it. Other people will see that this is an interesting work,

01:02:50.081 --> 01:02:55.591

Anton Hur: which is why I um whenever I put out a book I just so excited about it, and i'm just like

01:02:55.681 --> 01:03:04.010

Anton Hur: I can't wait for people to read this like i'm not concerned with like. Oh, is there an English audience for it? Of course there's an English audience for it, you know, if I like it.

01:03:04.021 --> 01:03:22.141

Anton Hur: And people, readers, people keep trying, asking me like, How do you predict what readers will like? I don't do that shit. Sorry my boxing back. No, I don't do that, you know, like I. What I do is what I do is I want to surprise the reader with something that they didn't know that they won't like, but end up liking, anyway,

01:03:22.191 --> 01:03:28.770

Anton Hur: you know, like I, No one can predict that a book like Chris Bunny will it like will exist,

01:03:28.781 --> 01:03:48.361

Anton Hur: you know they they They look at the curse, the cover of curse Funny! And then they read it, and they're like, Wow! This is such a weird book. I would never have imagined that this is going, that this would have existed until I read it, and that's the kind of reading experience that I think most readers are interested in like I don't want to be catered to, or whatever and most intelligent readers don't

01:03:48.401 --> 01:03:59.070

Anton Hur: what a reader really wants is to go into a bookstore, look down at all the books being displayed, and then discover a book that they had no idea existed until that moment, and there's no way to predict that

01:03:59.661 --> 01:04:09.710

Anton Hur: other than you know. Did I like that book when I found it like? What did I have that feeling when I found it. And then, if you're a good translator, you are able to convey that that feeling of discovery

01:04:09.911 --> 01:04:11.401

Anton Hur: in your translation.

01:04:12.731 --> 01:04:29.930

Victoria Caudle: It's exciting to see that the age of doubt has had, you know, Instagram reviews It's had several tiktoks about it, so it is reaching a a young, or at least really engaged audience. That is

01:04:29.941 --> 01:04:38.881

Victoria Caudle: exactly as you're saying, just picking up something that they might have absolutely no connection to, because it looks exciting and they

01:04:38.991 --> 01:04:40.261

Victoria Caudle: fallen up.

01:04:42.731 --> 01:04:50.670

Anton Hur: Yeah, it's like It's so fascinating to me, because, like now I have publisher, It's approaching me Korean publishers approaching me with like properties that they have and i'm like

01:04:52.121 --> 01:05:02.030

Anton Hur: like you're You're trying to game the system. You're trying to predict what people overseas like for you're trying to clone. Live in the big city or a clone for money. I'm like can't do that.

01:05:02.101 --> 01:05:09.931

Anton Hur: That's just not something that you can do. And you know I feel like authors understand this, like writers understand this, but

01:05:10.541 --> 01:05:12.040

Anton Hur: publishers

01:05:12.171 --> 01:05:15.750

Anton Hur: are kind of like Korean publishers. A lot of right

01:05:16.261 --> 01:05:17.750

Anton Hur: understand it less.

01:05:18.491 --> 01:05:29.460

HYUN SUK PARK: That's really really exciting great answer. Um, Tassel and Newton, do you want to add anything? Um, on this question of leadership or

01:05:30.991 --> 01:05:32.051

Dasom Yang: um?

01:05:32.131 --> 01:05:39.961

Dasom Yang: No, I I I completely agree with what Anton just said. And um, yeah, And just in in general, I think

01:05:40.101 --> 01:05:51.220

Dasom Yang: translating is a lot like writing your own book, and that in that you know the the way you kind of pick up about the way you sort of picture book the way you deem a book

01:05:51.861 --> 01:05:57.171

Dasom Yang: worthy of translation and worthy of your time worthy of other leaders. Time

01:05:57.641 --> 01:06:07.221

Dasom Yang: really doesn't have so much to do with. You know your understanding of the publishing world, or your understanding of the readership, or you're in your You know the

01:06:07.821 --> 01:06:12.820

Dasom Yang: the you the way you understand the dynamics between. You know

01:06:13.291 --> 01:06:31.810

Dasom Yang: the trends and the dynamics of of the of the Po, of the pushing world. It's. It is really about whether you really you believe in them work enough to to sit with it through the you know, through the time that it's required for you to translate it. Um. And

01:06:31.881 --> 01:06:45.681

Dasom Yang: yeah, it was um for me. It was a share sort of personal attachment. That sort of got me through the through the whole process, and we'll get me through the process hopefully for the next. You know projects of translating work. Um,

01:06:45.961 --> 01:06:47.861

Dasom Yang: and yeah,

01:06:50.481 --> 01:06:59.511

You Jeong Kim: um, I think there was a question about like, you know, any particular that you know we find translating or editing. Um,

01:06:59.531 --> 01:07:03.171

You Jeong Kim: I have one, maybe. I think. Here,

01:07:14.551 --> 01:07:19.651

You Jeong Kim: you know, these stories were written in one thousand nine hundred and fifty and sixty, and there was some

01:07:19.971 --> 01:07:32.851

You Jeong Kim: uh, very old cable, or as an old concept so, and especially because the business is, uh about the Japanese calling station a lot of you know terms of from, you know derivative they're from.

01:08:06.361 --> 01:08:10.331

You Jeong Kim: So the term we were

01:08:10.371 --> 01:08:28.400

You Jeong Kim: by the paper or the majesty. We were lucky because it is our word that came out of nowhere. It it hasn't been mentioned the previously we were like. Oh, what is it? What is it? And then

01:08:28.411 --> 01:08:33.580

You Jeong Kim: finally, Um, Anthony, we did a lot of research. Usually we do. But then

01:08:33.621 --> 01:08:36.740

You Jeong Kim: Anthony realized that we he found the clue.

01:08:44.431 --> 01:08:46.960

You Jeong Kim: We didn't know you know it.

01:08:47.371 --> 01:08:56.430

You Jeong Kim: You had to do an expensive research to get to with. You know this, and there were some other examples. I think it also from

01:08:56.451 --> 01:09:04.171

You Jeong Kim: um until it is about. Uh, you know K. Money Landing Club in South Korea.

01:09:04.451 --> 01:09:09.580

You Jeong Kim: Actually K. Up here. Do you know, of course, many different stories in this collection,

01:09:09.771 --> 01:09:23.371

You Jeong Kim: and I know what it is, but I didn't know exactly how it worked, because, you know, Kay used to be very popular in, you know, back in those times, but not anymore. Now, these people use the credit cards and so other banking systems.

01:09:23.661 --> 01:09:43.150

You Jeong Kim: So I had to call on my mom. How? How? How is it? Okay, working? And please tell me, like you know, who is going to, you know, Get the part in the end. And what is the piece of all? The year of

01:09:43.161 --> 01:09:54.630

You Jeong Kim: very um periodic, you know, vocabulary and concept across all this theories, and it was a really fun experience, I mean, you know, maybe searching calling of Mom about, you know, some service.

01:09:54.691 --> 01:09:56.671

You Jeong Kim: So yeah, I wanted to here.

01:09:59.951 --> 01:10:03.141

Anton Hur: That is so funny about K. Because that is exactly what I get to,

01:10:03.721 --> 01:10:09.221

Anton Hur: and it was like the calling, all the things my mom would say about Kit, because my Mom would do it,

01:10:09.431 --> 01:10:26.041

Anton Hur: and I and she'd be like Oh, you know, i'm the last person on the care line, but that means I get the most interest. So it's all good. And then and then I would be like, Oh, what if the kids you like the She runs away to America like they so often do in drama.

01:10:26.231 --> 01:10:42.890

Anton Hur: Yeah, it's um, And then I would, and then I googled, and then I would be like, How does it work? And then I googled it, and I was like I just really really studied it. But I still couldn't understand like exactly how it would work, because it was so complicated, and I don't know how our how all of our four mothers

01:10:42.901 --> 01:10:47.581

Anton Hur: did it, because they must have been like, you know, excellent math minds.

01:10:50.611 --> 01:11:10.570

HYUN SUK PARK: Well, we have been uh. You have been talking a lot about um collaborative works already. Uh, we have another question about team work from the audience, so I want to read it. A question from Della Calledropy. Um, Hello! And thank you. This is fascinating for me as the idea of team work in translation,

01:11:10.581 --> 01:11:28.051

HYUN SUK PARK: for example, buildings uh a bridge building can go in so many directions. So um! What are your views on exponential translation from Korean to English to another language? Um, say Italian or any other language

01:11:30.261 --> 01:11:41.490

Anton Hur: like i'm fine with it as long as I get paid like as long as the bridge translator in the middle gets paid like i'm fine with it as a practice, Italian, though there are quite a few,

01:11:41.591 --> 01:11:48.611

Anton Hur: you know. There there are Korean, Italian, uh translators now, so I like. I know one personally. So

01:11:49.181 --> 01:11:53.520

Anton Hur: I think it's kind of less of an issue for that language. But

01:11:53.961 --> 01:12:12.621

Anton Hur: if it's for um smaller languages, then yeah, as long as you get paid. But even then, like if it's for a smaller language, and uh, perhaps a country that um and a publishing scene in that country where it's not like a lot of They don't have a lot of funds. Then i'm willing to concede

01:12:12.751 --> 01:12:19.030

Anton Hur: translation rights for like a dollar symbolically, or whatever, if it's, if it's, you know, if the

01:12:19.241 --> 01:12:22.170

Anton Hur: if everyone is okay with that, And the author is okay with that.

01:12:22.501 --> 01:12:25.850

Anton Hur: Yeah, So it is. It is something that. Um.

01:12:26.341 --> 01:12:34.850

Anton Hur: But what happens more often in practice is, I know for a fact that one of because someone told me that one of my translations um

01:12:35.561 --> 01:12:40.790

Anton Hur: was is being used as a reference by translators into other languages,

01:12:40.891 --> 01:12:43.611

Anton Hur: because they consider it like the Earth translation,

01:12:43.741 --> 01:12:45.480

Anton Hur: and like the

01:12:45.611 --> 01:12:55.280

Anton Hur: kind of reference for the Korean translation. So there's for that for their translation. So they're not just looking at the Korean text. They're looking at my text as well for a certain,

01:12:55.911 --> 01:12:57.110

Anton Hur: but that's been like.

01:12:57.161 --> 01:12:58.851

Anton Hur: Translate it into

01:12:59.161 --> 01:13:00.811

Anton Hur: several languages now.

01:13:01.421 --> 01:13:02.371

Anton Hur: So you

01:13:02.451 --> 01:13:03.670

Anton Hur: I think it's cool.

01:13:03.691 --> 01:13:04.590

Anton Hur: Why not?

01:13:05.931 --> 01:13:10.101

Dasom Yang: Yeah, I think it's um. It also brings up important points about.

01:13:10.181 --> 01:13:17.990

Dasom Yang: You know the issue of acknowledgments and and and credit uh giving, and and you know who sort of

01:13:18.351 --> 01:13:24.630

Dasom Yang: benefits from bridge translations, and and who you know, and how that's um sort of

01:13:24.861 --> 01:13:30.251

Dasom Yang: these can really credits and such get distributed in the translation process. Um,

01:13:30.861 --> 01:13:48.170

Dasom Yang: yeah. I remember, Anton, when you you posted something you or you tweeted something about how like in in J. Like the German translation of love in the big city, they sort of just use the title Love in the big city. They didn't translate the title into German, and they do that, you know, in in other languages, too, where

01:13:48.441 --> 01:13:57.290

Dasom Yang: a lot of actually European languages. Sometimes they they just like prefer to use the English titles. Um, for whatever the reason, you know, they think it sounds

01:13:57.431 --> 01:14:02.920

Dasom Yang: cooler, or it sounds more fitting for that for that book specifically. Or maybe they just

01:14:03.681 --> 01:14:10.480

Dasom Yang: didn't want to put in the work of finding the the the most fitting title in in German or in other languages. Um,

01:14:10.651 --> 01:14:12.931

Dasom Yang: So these things I I mean, I think

01:14:13.201 --> 01:14:15.190

Dasom Yang: you know how you get

01:14:15.321 --> 01:14:26.381

Dasom Yang: credited, or how you get, you know, referenced and recognize. I think, a lot of these things mean. You need to be kind of stipulated and contract and and translation contracts, and

01:14:26.461 --> 01:14:31.050

Dasom Yang: and Yeah, and that sort of also brings up the the important

01:14:31.161 --> 01:14:49.790

Dasom Yang: discussion around um translators rights. And and you know how these needs to be legally recognized and, like, you know, stipulated. And in the contract. And and yeah, which are, you know, being advocated by a lot of transers these days, it's yeah, it's an important work,

01:14:50.751 --> 01:15:10.691

Anton Hur: you know. Like every um, I think every contract I have stipulates um relay translation rights like what would happen if it's like. I don't think it's ever been exercised. So which is why something like that? That incident where the German addition of Levin to make city use my title, because this is not sign of Parks title. This is the title that I translated

01:15:10.891 --> 01:15:13.751

Anton Hur: Love in the Big Sea. It could have been

01:15:14.111 --> 01:15:22.351

Anton Hur: any like that title could have been translated in any number of ways like there was some Instagram user it was like, Why isn't this title in English like cosmopolitan love story.

01:15:23.311 --> 01:15:28.801

Anton Hur: Um, And you know there are all these like, you know, suggestions for us like. Now I want it to be like, you know,

01:15:29.021 --> 01:15:34.110

Anton Hur: that machinery book, bright lights, big city loving the big city like I wanted to have like that echo.

01:15:34.721 --> 01:15:49.031

Anton Hur: So so and with and I do realize the titles are not copyrighted, and you know you can't claim copyright on title, but just, you know, in terms of good manners. It would have been nice to be asked,

01:15:49.041 --> 01:15:55.051

Anton Hur: or even in form, that Oh, hey, we're the German publisher like we would like to use your title

01:15:55.501 --> 01:16:02.511

Anton Hur: and um. So thank you for doing what you and instead of like me discovering it in the Instagram story of

01:16:02.591 --> 01:16:12.421

Anton Hur: Sang on Parks Korean editor who have to go to Austria or something. And then he was like taking photos of what he signed the bookstores, and then he found that level of the city.

01:16:12.441 --> 01:16:20.891

Anton Hur: I was like what this is not A. Because I saw the title of this like this is not a cover that that I know. And then like. Oh, it's the German edition, and they're using English for almost

01:16:21.411 --> 01:16:24.480

Anton Hur: That's bad manners that's bad manners, Germany.

01:16:29.961 --> 01:16:36.781

HYUN SUK PARK: Well, it's interesting because we um. I talked a little bit about this issue with Victoria yesterday.

01:16:36.791 --> 01:16:51.651

HYUN SUK PARK: Um, namely, about the practice of translating Korean literature into um another language by somebody who doesn't really know the Korean language. The so called mediated um translation

01:16:51.661 --> 01:17:10.660

HYUN SUK PARK: um, And I think it's related to the question of how flexible, how creative a translator's job can be, and i'm a scholar classics. So if the translator omitted one single word or phrase, I would not really trip, trust the the whole translation.

01:17:10.681 --> 01:17:25.441

HYUN SUK PARK: But in contemporary literature you may have some different ideas on the practice, on the flexibility or creativity of the translators themselves. So i'm. I'm wondering if you want to add any comments on that as well

01:17:27.701 --> 01:17:38.880

Anton Hur: like. There are white translators who go around, you know, um, exploring the work of translators of color, who are from where her speakers heritage speakers of that language.

01:17:38.961 --> 01:17:51.071

Anton Hur: Lti Korea expected me to become one of these. You know language servants, because when I was in Lti Academy they didn't give me a fellowship. I don't you, John Bathing give you a fellowship right?

01:17:51.181 --> 01:17:52.141

Anton Hur: I

01:17:53.311 --> 01:17:54.841

Anton Hur: Yeah. So

01:17:55.111 --> 01:18:00.160

Anton Hur: So when you're an ethnic Korean and a Korean citizen like you, Jung an Ir

01:18:00.321 --> 01:18:02.421

Lti does not give you a fellowship,

01:18:02.621 --> 01:18:19.871

Anton Hur: they will, for the foreigners much on the program for the non Korean citizens from the program. So the messaging is very clear. You are not expected to become a literary translator itself. But you are expected to be the language servant of these white people. Basically, I mean, not all the foreigners are white, but

01:18:19.961 --> 01:18:28.981

Anton Hur: that is definitely the expectation that Lti had at the time, and I believe they still do so. I imagine that it really annoys me that

01:18:35.771 --> 01:18:37.621

You Jeong Kim: not I won't you. But,

01:18:37.641 --> 01:18:56.910

Anton Hur: yeah, they offer a tiny bit of money. It's like a million. It's like a thousand dollars for an entire semester, so it doesn't compare to like, you know, plain tickets. Um it doesn't compare to like the monthly stipend. So they're trying to just like, try not to say face or something with that.

01:18:56.921 --> 01:19:00.900

Anton Hur: But until funding reaches parity for Koreans and

01:19:00.991 --> 01:19:06.181

Anton Hur: and for um foreigners like I don't see how they can justify

01:19:06.761 --> 01:19:22.641

Anton Hur: me criticizing like I I don't. I don't see how they can justify that stance other than you know. They don't expect Korean citizens like me to become translators, so I remind them of that fact every day, and I will tell anyone who like whenever this comes up. I'm. So eager to tell people that the expectation

01:19:22.651 --> 01:19:29.901

Anton Hur: is is for me to become, You know, a crypt translator for me to be the language servant, while some

01:19:30.541 --> 01:19:32.831

Anton Hur: foreigner uses my words to

01:19:33.421 --> 01:19:37.080

Anton Hur: uh to like, make it palatable for their leadership,

01:19:37.171 --> 01:19:56.261

Anton Hur: and you know. And so this is why this is part of why this question uh was so carefully asked and so sensitively asked by um by the person who posted it because Um, there is this kind of like miasma of this political issue around it.

01:19:59.691 --> 01:20:03.480

Dasom Yang: Yeah, I mean It's a it's a very important issue, and I think. Um

01:20:03.631 --> 01:20:08.790

Dasom Yang: I mean I am all, for I think all of us are for for you know, for

01:20:09.101 --> 01:20:26.061

Dasom Yang: to kind of enlarge the capacity of translator as a, you know, to to had to take on more sort of authorial capacity, and not be, you know, restricted to a a a mere sort of technical um renderer of words. Um!

01:20:26.071 --> 01:20:35.861

Dasom Yang: Who you know, through whom you know you, you sort of you insert words, and then you kind of spit it back into and in different languages. Um,

01:20:36.311 --> 01:20:46.500

Dasom Yang: I don't. Yeah, I don't believe in that. And and you know we're all we're all for it like creativity and flexibility of of translation. Translators. Um:

01:20:46.931 --> 01:20:49.050

Dasom Yang: Yeah. At the same time it doesn't.

01:20:49.151 --> 01:20:50.111

Dasom Yang: You know

01:20:50.271 --> 01:20:58.891

Dasom Yang: It's It's it's a really like. I think if you're a good writer, if you're a good translator, then you're a good writer, and that means, you know,

01:20:59.691 --> 01:21:17.600

Dasom Yang: understanding the the way that the language works with the within the contacts or within the context, not just within the Texas, but with the with the that the writer, the author has with the with the text, and and all that combined. So um!

01:21:18.931 --> 01:21:37.680

Dasom Yang: And having set that, I mean it is, I think, also easy to sort of abuse that. And say, you know it's a it's a sort of or like it's certain. Why, translators are certain, like for a people of a translators who have certain privileges and access to publishing um

01:21:37.691 --> 01:21:42.420

Dasom Yang: have sort of used that concept to to to say Oh, like this is a

01:21:42.451 --> 01:21:43.451

Dasom Yang: You know

01:21:44.511 --> 01:21:45.651

Dasom Yang: that

01:21:46.301 --> 01:21:55.611

Dasom Yang: i'm in that you know it to sort of make up for the for the lack of like full understanding or their full capacity as a transgender. Um

01:21:55.751 --> 01:21:58.640

Dasom Yang: yeah, that's definitely a political issue There, I think.

01:22:02.071 --> 01:22:20.201

HYUN SUK PARK: Yeah, certainly. It seems like a political, very complicated um issue. Well, uh, we still have a couple of minutes. Um, I just typed um on chat, but we can still uh be accepting some questions, so please feel free to uh type them on. Q. A.

01:22:20.211 --> 01:22:31.830

HYUN SUK PARK: Uh before we end. I just wanted to um ask you about your future plans. Um! It's! It's fascinating for me to see uh

01:22:31.841 --> 01:22:47.190

HYUN SUK PARK: erez agmoni. This group of young translators working together, and I was wondering you talked about this twenty project already, but I was wondering whether you have any uh project for the future as a group or as an individual one hundred and fifty,

01:22:51.051 --> 01:23:00.430

Anton Hur: so i'll go first um next year They're publishing constructions. I went to see my father from aster books in the Us. And why didn't full of Nicholson in

01:23:00.471 --> 01:23:03.001

Anton Hur: the Uk in April.

01:23:03.431 --> 01:23:13.461

Anton Hur: Um, you know, as counterweight, which is another Science Fiction book. It's wonderful and exciting um that I just got to cover

01:23:14.191 --> 01:23:24.011

Anton Hur: covers yesterday, and there there's a stunning cover uh counterweight is coming out, I believe, in July. It's supposed to coincide with San Diego Comic-con,

01:23:24.371 --> 01:23:26.611

Anton Hur: and Uh

01:23:26.631 --> 01:23:34.791

Anton Hur: I'm also translating what is arguably my first poetry book, which is, uh in translation, which is Um.

01:23:35.061 --> 01:23:40.371

Anton Hur: These song books indeterminate, and Florence in fluorescence, and that's coming out in the September.

01:23:40.441 --> 01:23:53.190

Anton Hur: I'm. Currently, I think uh so. Chris. Funny, too, as we are, as comfort, Store and I are kind of like jokingly calling it like, So that's

01:23:53.391 --> 01:23:59.681

Anton Hur: we haven't really discussed like when the release will be. But I, you know, like it will come out at the end of next year.

01:23:59.841 --> 01:24:09.091

Anton Hur: Um, but uh, i'm, i'm not allowed to. I don't think i'm allowed to, but i'm allowed to say that you know that the contracts for that are assigned, and we are.

01:24:09.321 --> 01:24:20.950

Anton Hur: I think they're signed. Well, they're signed on my end. So um we are uh so that is a go. Probably. So we're looking at four books. Oh, Strangers Press. Uh, there's also publishing

01:24:21.031 --> 01:24:24.791

Anton Hur: this uh series of short stories that I edited,

01:24:24.961 --> 01:24:36.811

Anton Hur: and this is also by seven different translators. They're eight stories, but I had to translate two of those stories because I could not find a good translator for one of the stories

01:24:36.821 --> 01:24:50.200

Anton Hur: very long story. Um, like no one was available like, you know. That's what it's like, if you wanna like. If you want to hire like, for example, a smoking type or like it's almost impossible. There was like a period where it was like almost impossible, because everyone had work.

01:24:50.441 --> 01:25:00.621

Anton Hur: And so i'm amazed. The Onfred Star got like, you know Page and I, Morris, and so people, and then like only game one or like this kind of busy people like Wow, you manage to. That's a really great feat.

01:25:01.091 --> 01:25:06.520

Anton Hur: Um: So yeah. So I have. I guess I have those five those five projects coming out.

01:25:07.271 --> 01:25:08.701

Anton Hur: So that's exciting.

01:25:10.521 --> 01:25:15.270

Dasom Yang: Yeah, Um, i'm currently pitching a couple of books. Um!

01:25:15.341 --> 01:25:29.210

Dasom Yang: I was really eager to work on uh the poet chessing da uh her non-fiction. I'm so I I would I my next project. I really wanted to um

01:25:29.271 --> 01:25:31.041

Dasom Yang: translate something

01:25:31.191 --> 01:25:33.431

Dasom Yang: non-fiction. Um,

01:25:33.551 --> 01:25:49.551

Dasom Yang: Well, mainly because that's the Jonah that i've been working on for myself from my own writing. Um, and I've been spending a lot of time reading a lot of nonfiction. Um, but I just found out that the her so she chose to go when she did her um

01:25:49.561 --> 01:26:07.391

Dasom Yang: residency at the at at Iowa University for the creative writing um program. I don't know, Anton. Have you read that book the her? So this is you're about to witness an extremely awkward moment. Um! So I have to write for that book.

01:26:07.401 --> 01:26:24.661

Anton Hur: Oh, you do. Oh, my gosh, Okay, that's amazing, but I would, but i'd be very happy to to see them to you if if this is the book that you were talking about, I was like Oh, which which non-fiction chessing double, because i'm also doing a sample for that one But if you if you want to do it, then I think I could see here I could see how that would make

01:26:24.851 --> 01:26:36.351

Dasom Yang: a lot of sense. I mean I would I would let him do it. That's amazing. I just talked to the publisher. Um, what was it

01:26:36.851 --> 01:26:38.851

Anton Hur: They're they're yeah,

01:26:38.861 --> 01:27:04.290

Dasom Yang: yeah, yeah, that's so funny. I love that book, and

01:27:04.301 --> 01:27:20.920

Dasom Yang: and it's so like I I just I. I read it while I was in Korea this time, and I picked it up from a bookstore, and I just like read the entire book on my way back to to to Queensland, where my family is on the Cape on Ktx, and it was just like, so great. Yeah,

01:27:20.931 --> 01:27:25.271

Anton Hur: yeah, yeah, let's talk after this.

01:27:25.331 --> 01:27:26.630

Dasom Yang: Um.

01:27:27.071 --> 01:27:43.811

Dasom Yang: And yeah, I mean I I I just um. When I was I was in Korea this summer. I will not This summer, when I was saying, just the past month, and and just uh going to a bookstore and just browsing through this. There's an amazing, you know, and

01:27:43.821 --> 01:27:50.820

Dasom Yang: sort of, or or or group of writers, or writing the really exciting works. Um: So

01:27:51.111 --> 01:27:59.081

Dasom Yang: yeah, I'm: i'm just focused on sort of pitching a lot as much as I can, but it's It's also in the process. I've been finding out how many,

01:27:59.851 --> 01:28:15.040

Dasom Yang: how active cream transit is are out there. It's just a lot of books are being translated, and and I think it's going to be very exciting in the next couple of years to see um a lot of younger sort of contemporary writers being translated and

01:28:15.181 --> 01:28:23.180

Dasom Yang: and yeah, specifically for like non-fiction poetry. Um for fiction i'm seeing a lot of sort of speculative

01:28:23.291 --> 01:28:32.481

Dasom Yang: fiction you know, in the genre of sort of like Science fiction or speculative speculative fiction. Um. And I think Anton's work on curse. Funny,

01:28:32.551 --> 01:28:34.121

Dasom Yang: really sort of like

01:28:34.891 --> 01:28:44.181

Dasom Yang: opened up that. Possibly because the Science Fiction and I think speculative speculative fiction. It's always been a very big, very popular genre in Korean literature.

01:28:44.191 --> 01:29:01.751

Dasom Yang: Um, I think the the publishers overseas are also seeing. You know It's it's. I. I feel that in the Anglo Anglophone contemporary literature, it's being it's kind of getting more popular as well, and they're kind of turning like looking at Korean literature, seeing all There's a lot of really exciting stuff happening there. Um.

01:29:01.791 --> 01:29:14.670

Dasom Yang: So yeah, I mean for me. Nothing's been confirmed yet, so I can't like name books yet. But um but yeah, hopefully, hopefully, some announcements to come.

01:29:17.061 --> 01:29:18.271

You Jeong Kim: Um,

01:29:18.471 --> 01:29:19.451

You Jeong Kim: you know.

01:29:44.091 --> 01:29:49.451

You Jeong Kim: And personally I mean now it is working uh on,

01:29:49.631 --> 01:29:53.010

You Jeong Kim: or some use of. So there is it?

01:29:53.281 --> 01:30:02.121

You Jeong Kim: I'm. Not

01:30:07.041 --> 01:30:20.960

You Jeong Kim: so. I was wondering why none of these we can experience having translated, and since i'm, you know, interested in, you know, children's nowadays. So I contacted him. So we are talking about.

01:30:30.891 --> 01:30:31.840

You Jeong Kim: It wouldn't work out.

01:30:33.991 --> 01:30:43.440

HYUN SUK PARK: Thank you so much. Um, I really wanted to read out the the last question from Nowla, but I think Anton already answered um by typing,

01:30:43.661 --> 01:31:00.521

HYUN SUK PARK: so I guess we can um wrap up our our discussion today here. Um, thank you so much for this this fascinating conversation. It's such a precious opportunity to have this translators as a group and have this kind of conversation, and I really appreciate that.

01:31:00.531 --> 01:31:20.641

HYUN SUK PARK: And um as a as as a general reader as well, I will. I'll be following up your your future uh projects. Uh, before we depart I want you to show the book once again. Um! The age of doubt uh which came out um, just in two thousand and twenty to this year from um

01:31:20.651 --> 01:31:29.661

HYUN SUK PARK: on, for it starts so I guess I will be assigning this book in my classes, so that you that should be reading um,

01:31:30.241 --> 01:31:49.691

HYUN SUK PARK: and also um. I wanted to say thank you, Victoria, for organizing this event and this speaker series as well. Um, This series, quad on um is sponsored by the center for Korean studies at Ucla, and will be ongoing over the year. So please stay tuned. Thank you so much.

01:31:52.801 --> 01:31:54.320

Dasom Yang: Thank you. Everyone.

01:31:54.381 --> 01:31:55.490

You Jeong Kim: Thank you.