Translating Cultural Subtext in Modern Korean Fiction :: Free Essays Online

Translating Cultural Subtext in Modern Korean Fiction Translation as an Act of Bridging Two Cultures Literary translation can be described in many ways. In the first place we can think of it as retelling, in that we take a Korean story and tell it in English. In retelling the story we make it public. This means we have an audience, either readers of our translation or listeners of a public reading of that translation. Public readings are an important way of disseminating a translation. And in the case of Korea, readings have a special relevance. In premodern times improvised poems were often shared during gatherings of literati. Even today poetry readings are not uncommon in Korea (though readings of fiction are rare--a vestige of the greater esteem traditionally attached to poetry by Koreans?). Retelling is an especially apt approach to translation when we translate an author such as Pak Wan-sà ´, whose narrators often sound as if they are speaking directly to the reader. Second, we can think of translating as an act of re-creating, in the sense that translators produce something that is recognized as literature (whatever that is--anyone who has read the first chapter of Terry Eagleton’s Literary Theory will realize how difficult it is to precisely define literature). Translation can also be thought of as reenacting. Here I draw on the Lacanian notion of retrieving a lost narrative of our life. Translators may be thought of as taking part as a silent observer, or, to borrow the title of a Joseph Conrad story, as a â€Å"secret sharer,† in the stories they reenact. Finally, translation is a joint enterprise between translator and author. As such, it is desirable to have a good match between author and translator. Such a match often manifests itself as a similarity of aesthetic outlook and a shared commitment to the author’s works. In this joint enterprise the translator is a kind of medium. JaHyun Kim Haboush reports, for example, that the voice of Lady Hong rang in her head for years as she translated that princess’s memoirs, the Hanjungnok. Other translators have described this phenomenon as a merging of themselves with the persona of their author. The late Marshall R. Pihl reported having such an experience while translating stories by O Yà ´ng-su; I myself have had a similar experience in translating stories by Hwang Sun-wà ´n and O Chà ´ng-hà »i.