[KS] KSR 2000-13: "Korean Literature in Translation: A Trio

[Stephen Epstein]

Virtuoso",
  review article by Robert J. Fouser
Sender: owner-korean-studies at iic.edu
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: korean-studies at iic.edu

REPLY sends your message to the whole list
__________________________________________

_The Moonlit Pond: Korean Classical Poems in Chinese_, translated and
introduced by Sung-Il Lee, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon
Press,
1998. 153 pages. $17.00 paper. ISBN 1-55659-076-8.

_A Ready-Made Life: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction_, selected
and
translated by Kim Chong-un and Bruce Fulton, Honolulu: University of
Hawai'i Press, 1998. 191 pages. $38.00 cloth (ISBN 0-8248-2015-0),
$15.95
paper (ISBN 0-8248-2071-1).

_The Prophet and Other Stories_, by Yi Ch'ông-jun, translated by Julie
Pickering, Ithaca, New York: East Asia Program, Cornell University,
1999.
189 pages. $22.00, cloth: ISBN 1-885445-61-X; $14.00, paper: ISBN
1-885445-01-6.

Reviewed by Robert J. Fouser
Kagoshima University

[This review originally appeared in a modified form as "Korean
Literature
in Translation: A Trio Virtuoso", in _Translation Review_ 58, (2000):
59-62.]


The last years of the 1990s have been good to Korean literature in
English
translation.  Together, the three works discussed in this review round
out
existing translations by filling a number of important gaps in the
corpus
of Korean literature in English translation.  Though translators and
aficionados of Korean literature frequently lament the state of Korean
literature in translation compared with that of Chinese or Japanese
literature, the three works reviewed are cause for hope because, they
match
the quality of some of the best translations of Chinese and Japanese
literature being done today.

	To date, most translations of Korean literature into English have
focused on shijo, an accessible genre of vernacular poetry from Chosôn
period (1392-1910), the most famous works of classical fiction in
Chinese
and han'gžl, and post-1945 literature from South Korea.  Translations of
post-1945 fiction have appeared mainly in anthologies of short stories
by
different authors.  In recent years, a number of translations of poetry
by
one author have appeared, but novels or collected works by one author
are
still relatively rare.  The works reviewed here all diverge from this
pattern in important ways.

	_The Moonlit Pond: Korean Classical Poems in Chinese_, translated
by Sung-il Lee, is the best one-volume anthology of poetry written in
classical Chinese by Koreans from the Unified Shilla period (A.D.
668-935)
to the Japanese colonial period.  Translating classical Chinese poetry
into
Korean is tricky because the translator needs to maintain the austere,
almost "foreign," tone of the original while making the translation
aesthetically attractive.  In the past, Koreans who could write
classical
Chinese had a choice of two written languages, each language contained
different nuances and filled different functions.  Chinese was formal
and
philosophical, whereas Korean was emotional and spontaneous.  These
differences imply a degree of tension in Korean writers of Chinese
poetry
who were confined at once by the language of classical Chinese and the
desire to express feelings through poetry.  Dr. Lee has done an
admirable
job in conveying the sense of both the original Chinese and the Korean
translation of the original in English.

	Finding fault with _The Moonlit Pond_ is difficult, but the
translator could have included more poems that reflect the social
context
of the times.  There are, for example, no translations of poems by Chong
Yak-yong (1762-1836), one of the greatest philosophers of the Chosôn
period
and a master of terse, sarcastic poetry in classical Chinese.  Nor are
there any long narrative poems, which were often used to comment
indirectly
on court politics or social injustice.  The translator may be correct in
assuming that short poems about nature are more appealing to readers in
English, but the omission of didactic and socially relevant works leaves
a
distorted impression of this important genre of Korean literature.

	_A Ready-Made Life: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction_,
translated by Kim Chong-un and Bruce Fulton, is one of the most
important
collections of Korean short stories to appear in English translation in
years.  The anthology provides a comprehensive overview of important
authors of the first half of the twentieth century, which was dominated
by
the Japanese colonial period.  Many of the works, some of which are
required reading in Korean high schools, are "early-modern classics"
that
established literature in han'gžl as the dominant form of literary
expression in Korea.  Of particular importance, however, is the number
of
major authors who have rarely appeared in English translation: Yi
Ki-yông,
Yi T'ae-jun and Pak T'ae-wôn.  All three went to North Korea before or
during the Korean War and were banned from publication in the South
until
democratization in 1987.  Yi T'ae-jun disappeared shortly after he went
to
the North, but Yi Ki-yông and Pak T'ae-wôn were the only authors from
the
South to survive the purges in the North in the 1950s and enjoy
successful
literary careers.

	Though diverse, the stories in _A Ready-Made Life_ all touch on the
distortion of colonialism in Korean society.  None are overtly
anti-Japanese because Japanese censorship at the time would have
prevented
them from being published.  Rather, they focus on the social dislocation
of
colonial "over-development" that created an educated urban middle and
upper
class--most authors in this period were themselves educated at Japanese
universities--that lived off colonial capitalism, while most Koreans
lived
in abysmal conditions in the countryside.  Indeed, some of the
characters
in "The Barbershop Boy" by Pak T'ae-wôn have Japanese names and his
description of city life in Seoul has an oddly Japanese feel about it. 
Yi
Sang's "The Phantom Illusion" and Kim Yu-jông's "Wife" are "placeless,"
which alludes to the dislocation of the colonial condition.

	The writers represented in this collection dealt with the issue of
language in diverse ways.  Ch'ae Man-shik, Kim Yu-jông, and Yi Hyo-sôk
all
used an earthy colloquial language that evoked images of Chosôn-period
marketplace storytellers known as kwangdae.  Pak T'ae-wôn and Yi Sang
used
experimental language that draws on modernist literary trends in the
West
and Japan.  Pak also used the Seoul dialect, which formed the basis of
the
"standard Korean" that has since spread through much of South Korea. 
Also
present are language pioneers, such as Yi Kwang-su and Hyôn Chin-gôn,
who
were among the first to write fiction in the vernacular.  Their work
established stylistic and grammatical conventions that contributed much
to
the development of the literary language known as "modern Korean."

	The task of translating such complex language into lucid English is
daunting, but Dr. Kim and Dr. Fulton have conveyed the essence of the
original remarkably well.  In particular, the translators bring the
orality
in many of these stories to life without resorting to the clumsy slang
or
contrived colloquialisms that are found in a number of translations of
Korean literature, mostly by non-native speakers of English.  The only
minor quibble with _A Ready-Made Life_ is the literal translation of
some
place names in Seoul, such as Tongdaemun into English as "East Gate,"
while
other place names, such as Sup'yogyo, are transliterated with an English
word added at the end, as in "Sup'yo Bridge."

	If _The Moonlit Pond_ and _A Ready-Made Life_ provide sweeping
overviews of the two sides of literary diglossia in Korean literature,
then
_The Prophet and Other Stories_, by Yi Ch'ông-jun and translated by
Julie
Pickering, offers an in-depth look at one of Korea's best and most
prolific
writers of fiction today.  Yi Ch'ông-jun joins Hwang Sun-won, Yi
Mun-yôl,
and Kim Sžng-ok as one of most gifted storytellers of the
post-liberation
era in South Korea, but unlike Hwang and Yi, his work has never appeared
in
a solo anthology in translation.  Kim Sžng-ok stopped writing in the
late
1970s to become a Christian missionary, though his best short stories
have
long been available in translation.  Yi Ch'ông-jun has won every major
literary award, and _Sop'yônje_, a novel about traveling musicians in
the
colonial period, was made into a hugely successful film in 1993.  _The
Prophet_ thus fills a major gap in the corpus of contemporary Korean
fiction available in translation.

	The title story of _The Prophet_ is a novella about the social life
of a neighborhood bar called the Queen Bee.  One of the regular
customers
in the bar, Na U-hyôn, has the odd talent of being able to predict the
future.  After the bar changes hands, the new owner, known as Madam
Hong,
forces the customers and waitresses to wear masks, which frees them from
social restrictions.  Business booms, but, as Madam Hong becomes
increasingly autocratic, Mr. Na predicts that a murder will take place
in
the bar.  When no murder takes place, he loses his credibility and
becomes
an outcast.  The rest of the story deals with the conflict between the
loss
of credibility and his stubborn faith that he will be proven right.
Written in 1977, the novella is an allegory to the harsh years of
dictatorship in 1970s and the group psychology that supported it.

	Yi's fiction, like much contemporary Korean fiction, is heavy on
narration and light on dialogue.  Much of the dialogue feels stunted,
whereas the description is detailed and, at times, haunting.  In _The
Prophet_, the characters rarely have extended conversation and most
dialogue consists of one-line commentary or simple answers to
nonsensical
questions.  Though gripping in Korean, Yi's fiction burdens translators
with the task of making the work interesting to readers who are used to
extensive dialogue.  Ms. Pickering has done an outstanding job in making
these stories as interesting in English as they are in Korean.  Ms.
Pickering is at her best in dealing with the affectionate but caustic
linguistic banter that marks much of Yi's fiction.

	All three books reviewed here have an informative introduction by
the translator that provides context for understanding the book.  In
each
case, the translator and translators have directed their explanations at
readers with limited background knowledge of Korean literature.  _A
Ready-Made Life_ also contains a concise biography of each of the
authors
that are represented.  Each of the books is a fine production, with few
typographical or other production errors.  Romanization in _A Ready-Made
Life_ and _The Prophet_ follows the standard McCune-Reischauer system of
romanization, which is also officially recognized in South Korea, but
romanization in The Moonlit Pond is somewhat idiosyncratic, which could
confuse readers who encounter translated works by the same poets in
other
collections.

	To conclude, Yi Ch'ông-jun's _The Prophet_ resolves, like the last
movement of a sonata, the tension running through more than a thousand
years of literary diglossia.  Vernacular literature in han'gžl that is
deeply rooted in the Zeitgeist of its time is now paramount in South
Korea.
A sonata, however, can have a fourth movement, usually a minuet,
inserted
before the concluding movement.  The seeming fear of dialogue that many
contemporary Korean writers exhibit suggests that the conflict over
literary language in Korea has not yet reached a resolution and that the
accomplishments of Yi and others may be only a vibrant minuet before a
resolution to the politically enforced "neo-diglossia" that divides
Korean
literature into North and South.


Citation:
Fouser, Robert 2000
Review of Sung-il Lee (tr.), _The Moonlit Pond: Korean Classical Poems
in
Chines_, (1998);
Kim Chong-un and Bruce Fulton (tr.), _A Ready-Made Life: Early Masters
of
Modern Korean Fiction_ (1998);
and Yi Ch'ông-jun (tr. Julie Pickering), _The Prophet and Other
Stories_,
Korean Studies Review 2000, no. 13
Electronic file: http://www.iic.edu/thelist/review/ksr00-13.htm