OK then… translate some literature the world cares about..

I shouldn’t be so cranky about this, but the Korea Times has an article about its translation contest winners in which, well.. read it..


Korea Times President and Publisher Park Moo-jong hoped more English translations of Korean literature would boost the chances of a Korean winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in the future.

“It would have been nice if a Korean won the Nobel Prize for Literature this year. But with your participation and love, hopefully, we can have a Nobel Prize winner in the near future,” Park said during the ceremony.

Yeah.. so stop translating so many works that have no chance…

Ahem..

rant over..

looking at what did win the translation contest I am pleased to see a work by Park Wan-suh’s “Ode for Longing.” If there is a Korean author whose subject and style resonate when translated, it is Park (Who ate up all the Shinga, There a Petal Silently Falls, etc..). I must shamefully admit that I don’t know the works of the other writers whose translations won, which means over this break, I have tons of reading to do.

Win-win!

And stop obsessing about the prize.. holy cow… not everything in life is judged by the judges…

πŸ˜‰