Translation Updates from Chi-Young Kim

Chi-Young Kim

Chi-Young Kim, the excellent translator of Lee Dong-Ha’s Toy City (Koryo Press) and Kim Young-Ha’s I Have the Right to Destroy Myself, has sent an update about her work on Young-Ha Kim’s Pitǔi Cheguk, or as it was to have been (literally) titled in English, Empire of Light.

Chi-Young Kim notes that

  • The title of Pitǔi Cheguk will now be Your Republic is Calling You (That’s a pretty radical change  from the original, literal translation of the title and if there is a story behind it, I’ll try to suss it out)
  • Your Republic is Calling You will be released in Fall of 2010

Whatever the title, I’m eagerly awaiting this translation.  The inestimable Stephen Epstein,  in JapanFocus, calls the book:

Perhaps the most significant South Korean novel of the new millennium to involve a North Korean character.

Chi-Young Kim also notes that she is the translator for Shin Kyung-Sook’s Please Look After Mom (which has also been made into a Korean play ), which will be  published by Knopf (and UK’s Weidenfeld & Nicolson) in May 2011. Please Look after Mom was a monster success in Korea and was heavily pursued for translation by many publishers in multiple countries.

Another work to look forward to.