Korean Literature

[liehtzu]

Korean fiction is only recently beginning to be translated into English. The first major author translated was Yi Mun-yol (The Poet, a historical epic, and Our Twisted Hero, an alleory about living under dictatorship set in a boys' school).

Hwang Sok-yong is a major Korean novelist with one book in English translation, The Guest. There is a thread about the book here: http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/asian-oceanic-literature/2248-hwang-sok-yong-guest.html and if anyone has a copy in English that they'd be willing to send to Thailand I will be their best friend forever.

Yi Chong-jun, also has a novel translated, Your Paradise, published by the valuable independent publisher Green Integer, that has also published translations of a few volumes of poetry by Ko Un, who has for some time been considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize.

Other writers in translation are Kim Young-ha, Cho Se-hui, Anh Jung-hyo, and Yom Sang-seop.

Several short novels and stories have been translated into English and are available in bookstores in Korea, but as far as I know can be only purchased there, though if someone would care to enlighten me on whether this is truly the case or not...

 

[Mirabell]

Hwang Sok-yong is a major Korean novelist with one book in English translation, The Guest.

IN JUne a translation called "The Old Garden" is going to be published in ENglish.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I've had a recent discovery of Korean Literature. In the last two editions of Guadalajara's International Book Fair, a space was created to discuss contemporary Korean literature, and I met many Korean authors who have been recently published in Spanish by El Ermita?o Editions.
I've read Hwang Sok-Yong with the guest and a very tragic set of stories called Rains by Yun Heung-Gil. I've also read Ko Un poetry which I've found interesting but not as great as I've heard, maybe because of translation.
Here's a list of Korean authors recently translated into spanish.
KIM Jong-gil
PARK Wan Suh
HWANG Sun-won
KIM Chunsu
LEE Hyo-seok
KWONG Jeon-saeng
JO Kyung-ran
GONG Sun-ok

 

[liehtzu]

IN JUne a translation called "The Old Garden" is going to be published in ENglish.

Yes. It was made into a fine film by the talented Korean filmmaker Im Sang-soo a couple of years ago. It would be an import DVD, but there's one available with English subs both in Korea and here in Thailand and for those interested it's certainly worth seeing.

 

[Stewart]

Thanks to PD Smith, I've got this article from the Korea Herald which talks about Korean literature translated into English.

...in the past few years, partly due to good work of the Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI), the number and range of Korean translations has increased dramatically.
​

The author of the article, Charles Montgomery, has a blog where he talks about translation and Korean lit. In the article he talks about where to start with Korean lit and says,

To begin with, you can't go wrong by looking through the Portable Library of Korean Literature (PLKL) from Jimoondang Publishing. The PLKL consists of over twenty slender books of short stories by authors of classic Korean modern literature such as Yi Sang ("The Wings"), Kim Yu-jeong ("The Camellias"), Yi Chong-jun ("The Wounded"), and Choe Yun ("The Last of Hanako"). While many of these works do focus on the "older" issues of modern literature, they are nonetheless quite interesting and a quick way to be introduced to a range of Korean writers.
​

In searching around the net, I found these two lists -

• translations published before 2001
• translations published since 2000

- which are interesting resources, though no doubt incomplete.

 

[Stiffelio]

A couple of unknown (to me) Korean writers have recently been published in Spanish by Emec? with the help of Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI).

Eun Hee-Kyung with "El Regalo del Ave" (also published in french as "Le Cadeau de l'Oiseau").

Yi In-Seong with "Hacia la Hora Ajena". Having read the back cover of this book at a bookstore, I am now most intrigued about this author. All I could find out is that he was born in Seoul in 1953 and graduated from Seoul University. He is described as an experimental writer, someone who writes as if "groping in a dark mist". "Hacia la Hora Ajena" consists of 4 linked nouvelles set in 1973-74 militarized Seoul, about an anonimous soldier returning home after escaping from a war camp. The whole book is an impressionistic internal monolgue. Yi has published three books in English translation but I haven't been able to locate them: "Infinitely Soft Breath" (1989), "Wanting to Go Crazy" (1995), and "An Island at the Mouth of the River" (1999). In French he has published "Saisons d'Exile".

I'd be grateful for more information about these two writers.

 

[Daniel del Real]

A Mexican Editorial, Ediciones el Ermita?o is doing a great job translating into Spanish many Korean authors.
Hwang Sok-Yong is his strongest card, but there are a lot of other writers that sure seems interesting to read. I also read a book of short stories by Yun Heung-Gil, very good also.

 

[luchus]

I I've also read Ko Un poetry which I've found interesting but not as great as I've heard, maybe because of translation.

Indeed. Being relatively familiar with Korean poetry, read in the original, I can only agree.

Many Korean poetry translations into English suffer from the fact, that they were made by Brother Anthony of Taiz?. On the one hand he is a highly admirable person for his unflinching efforts in translating a large number of Korean poets (though his choices can be disputed: some of his poets are on the stale side); on the other he is not really gifted in lending those poets a voice of their own in translation. They all tend to sound the same. Much of the original flavor gets lost, and even more sadly, he does not really have an acute sense of poetic rhythm. Also he tends to be very interpretative. All of this is quite unfortunate. In his contribution to the book of essays on translating Asian poetry, The Poem behind the Poem, David R. McCann, another Korean poetry specialist, for similar reasons even launched a wild attack against 'one fellow in Korea, named Brother Anthony'. And I can only agree.

Other than that, Ko Un does tend to get a bit overrated, indeed. Though the obstinacy in composing his '10.000 Lives' project is in itself quite impressive. And of course, he suffered a lot in the years of military dictatorship in SK.

Some very interesting modern Korean poets to my taste (though out of Brother Anthony's range) would be:

Yi Sang
Chong Ji-Yong
Ki Hyong-Do
Oh Gyu-won
Kim Sang-Mi
Yi Won

There should still be available a wonderful edition of three classic Korean poets, Chong Ch' ol (one of my favourites worldwide), Pak Illo and Yun So-Do, Pine River and Lone Peak, by the great Peter H. Lee. A book, not to be missed.

 

[luchus]

K
Several short novels and stories have been translated into English and are available in bookstores in Korea, but as far as I know can be only purchased there, though if someone would care to enlighten me on whether this is truly the case or not...

Try Korean Book Services, - B?cher aus Korea - Libros coreanos - Livres en Coreen - Filme - W?rterb?cher

It's a German website, which also caters to English speakers. The above page links to the English section.
It circumvents the very strict Korean ID policy in registering at Korean websites, by ordering your books through middle men in Korea itself. Perfect handling of affairs.

 

[heidiadonis]

The best Korean poets are for us So Jeong Ju, Yoon Dong-Ju, Han Yong-un, Kim So-wol, No Chun-Myung(female), Kim Young-Lang, Yi Sang (his surrealism does not work for me), Yu Chi-hwan (His poems are really good, out of his time.), Park Mok-wol, Sin Sok-Jong, I do not remember the rest, but I recognize all the names in KLII. Ki Hyung Do is only famous among younger generation like me.


This site is partially in English and translation list is in the site:Changbi publishers, Inc. - Changbi Books and this one: ::: Munhakdongne :::

This site: http://bh.kyungpook.ac.kr/~mkkim/jaryo/jaryo.htm# has all old Korean literature and e-texts, but you need to know Korean and Han-geul Word Processor to open the files.

 

[Stiffelio]

I will ask my brother about those two authors, Stiffelio:
Eun Hee-Kyung

Yi In-Seong

Thank you!

 

[Daniel del Real]

The best Korean poets are for us So Jeong Ju, Yoon Dong-Ju, Han Yong-un, Kim So-wol, No Chun-Myung(female), Kim Young-Lang(female), Yi Sang (his surrealism does not work for me), Yu Chi-hwan (His poems are really good, out of his time.), Park Mok-wol, Sin Sok-Jong, I do not remember the rest, but I recognize all the names in KLII. Ki Hyung Do is only famous among younger generation like me.

Thanks a lof for these recommendations Heidi, and specially for putting the gender tags at the end of the name. My ignorance never lets me know the gender of the Korean writers, so thanks a lot.

 

[lenz]

I have a book of stories by Korean women:

Words of Farewell: Stories by Korean Women Writers by Kang Sok-kyong, Kim Chi-won and O Chong-hui. Translated by Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton. (The Seal Press, Seattle, 1989)

It was sent to me from England a few years ago, so not sure if it's still available. Is this of any interest?

 

[lenz]

I see it is available on Amazon. Good luck.

 

[JTolle]

To prepare for a reading by a Korean poet I saw (who was sadly disappointing) I got out an anthology of Modern Korean poets and a book of Ko Un's selected verse, The Sound of My Waves, who I've read before and liked a great deal, though I see now Brother Anthony of Taize has done the translation on this book which makes me suddenly wary based on what I read above, but nonetheless I think Ko Un is a strong poet.

Most of the poets I read didn't interest me much, and the writer of the introduction, Kim Yoon-shik, admits that many poets were maybe trying too hard to imitate Western styles and so a lot of early modernist Korean poetry isn't worth reading, but there were a few who really intrigued me:

Park Hee-jin (1931- )--but he might not still be alive, the book came out in 1986 and I couldn't find anything about him online. The best poet in the book, with a very gentle, introspective, but vivid style. I was startled by his images and will try very hard to find more of his work. The editor Chung Chong-wha writes, a bit disparagingly I perceive, "Park Hee-jin is another poet who tries to find his poetic vision through Buddhistic meditations but without much boldness in the use of language and forms." As I mentioned, he has a gentle style, he's just not an experimenter like many of the less-talented poets collected in this book.

From "To an Image of Avalokitesvara"

You bosom the heart of the sun
And the floral fragrance.
In the ever-dawning mirror of the soul
You, deep-filled, listen to the movement of the stars.
Not a finger stirs that holds the bead
Flowing like a dream.

Sung Chan-kyung (1930- )--again, 1986, can't seem to verify if he's still alive or not. Not one of the best poets in the book but definitely one of the really intriguing ones. Writing from the perspective of a Christian (Roman Catholic, I think) Korean, he uses predominately Western religious imagery to explore identity and personal spirituality. I think Christianity in Eastern cultures is a ripe field for study.

From "Tomography"

The blitz corps come down like a pack of wolves
On the Dead Sea Valley and scourge the heart.
Search goes on into the secret chambers
Of poison-secreting deep sea creatures.
Shame lies exposed in her ancient dwellings,
And what a weird beauty there spreads, too!
Diamond mountains, grottoes of stalactite,
Granaries filled with fevered granules
Fermenting, and blowing of clarions.

Hwang Tong-kyu (1938- )--definitely still alive...I think: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx=32474. One of the other really strong poets I found. Vivid imagery, somewhat lovelorn, and beautiful verse, though sometimes Hwang slips in these horrible lines, phrases, images like "my wife and children who had disappeared through layered surfaces return and writhe helplessly" ("Three Handfuls of Earth"). Hwang is also the only author to have prose-poetry included in his selections.

"Rice Paddy I"

How pathetic the rice.
We died in the paddy fields:
In the dark autumn dusk, dimmer than a tiny lamp
Take a breath and hear
The voices of the horribly trampled;
The blade of the sickle shows no glint
Time, entire, shows no glimmer,
Yet it moves.
A flock of the images of night herons flies off
The moon, brighter than amber
Floats above the sorghum field,
The field of sorghum lies dead
Yet it moves;
Inch by inch the land of darkness turning
It is moving.

 

[Liam]

A Quintessential Korean Epic to Rival the Very Best of Tolstoy

Given its length--the 1,167 pages translated, in three volumes, into English, are only one section of a five-part, 6-million word epic--and given its scope, comparisons between Pak Kyung-ni's Land and Tolstoy's War and Peace are inevitable. The titles, however, illuminate a key difference between the two sagas.

The nouns in Tolstoy's title suggest, correctly, that the author is concerned with geopolitical wrangling of the sort that ends up in history books. Land, on the other hand, focuses, as its title indicates, on that fundamental thing the lust for which is the root cause of many wars, but to which peasants are more closely bound than generals. Pak's characters, therefore, are not the actors of history one finds in the Russian master's novels (though Tolstoy was well aware how insignificant individual actors are), but rather the acted upon. Her achievement in bringing the Korean peasantry and their world to life is breathtaking. Land is one of the great national epics, a major contribution to world literature.

To say that Pak's characters are not, by and large, the actors of history but the acted upon is to describe their relationship to history; it is not to say that, even in their remote village, it was possible for them to live outside of the turmoil of their times. This section of Land takes place at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, a time when the country was under pressure to Westernize, and also when it was falling victim to Japanese imperialism, a sad development cemented into place with the 1910 annexation of Korea by Japan.

People, whether peasants or potentates, are political, and Pak makes this clear in the picture she paints of life in the village, both in the infighting--sometimes fatal--of the villagers, but also in the way that many of the events that take place in and around the village mirror what is happening in the distant capital, Seoul.

Just as, for example, the Korean monarchy no longer had the power to stand up to invaders such as the Japanese, so the family that owns the land on which most of the peasants labor is also in decline.

Ch'oe Ch'isu, current head of that family, is weak and nihilistic, but worst of all from the standpoint of the Confucianism that was still powerful in Korea, he is ridden with venereal disease and unlikely to produce an heir. Though the strength of his daughter, Sohui, is evident even when she is a child, the lack of a male heir means the end of the Ch'oe dynasty, and efforts to preserve patriarchal family lines are as central to Land as squabbling over inheritances is to the nineteenth-century European fiction that inspired Pak: Even the peasants are distraught when a male heir refuses to appear.

One speaks of history when discussing a novel as massive as Land because its scope is so much greater than the one, two, or three narrative arcs that define less ambitious works. The history that drives this novel, the history of a nation, is, however, rich in event.

Ch'oe Ch'isu's wife, for example, runs off with a servant. Having obtained a rifle with the help of a Westernized relative, the cuckold goes, unsuccessfully, in pursuit. Later, a scheme is hatched by means of which a servant is to be made pregnant with a child that will appear to be the master's. The plan ends in murder, suicide, and banishment.

These are just a couple of the stories Pak has woven into her tale, stories from which other stories grow, and so skillful is she in moving between these narrative strands and the countless other events that are taking place that it is difficult to believe that the novel was written serially over many years. The rhythm that binds the thousand-plus pages here translated seems more akin to life than to literature, and life this vividly captured is arresting.

Likewise, the characters--there are about 700 of them, 150 of whom are reckoned to be central--that populate Pak's broad canvas are fleshed out enough to be fascinating. Some drop out of the tale for hundreds of pages, but so richly drawn are they that readers will remember and welcome them when they return.

To have Land in English is such a gift that it seems churlish to mention that the book is poorly edited (one can count on a typo every ten pages or so), and that translator Agnita Tennant's English is not always as lucid as it should be. One hopes there will be subsequent editions, and that in them such small infelicities will be corrected. Keep these quibbles in perspective, though. They are fleas on an elephant's back.

 

[Liam]

An upcoming publication: Black Flower, by Young-ha Kim, trans. by Charles La Shure:

In 1904, as the Russo-Japanese War deepened, Asia was parceled out to rising powers and the Korean empire was annexed by Japan. Facing war and the loss of their nation, more than a thousand Koreans left their homes to seek possibility elsewhere--in unknown Mexico.

After a long sea voyage, these emigrants--thieves and royals, priests and soldiers, orphans and entire families--disembark with the promise of land. Soon they discover the truth: they have been sold into indentured servitude. Aboard ship, an orphan, Ijeong, fell in love with the daughter of a noble; separated when the various haciendados claim their laborers, he vows to find her. After years of working in the punishing heat of the henequen fields, the Koreans are caught in the midst of a Mexican revolution.

Some flee with Ijeong to Guatemala, where they found a New Korea amid Mayan ruins.

A tale of star-crossed love, political turmoil, and the dangers of seeking freedom in a new world, Black Flower is an epic story based on a little-known moment in history.

 

[Liam]

Most popular Korean authors of 2012, according to the peeps.

 

[matt.todd]

The Spring 2012 Issue of Asia Literary Review just arrived at my house. It's a Korean special.

Fiction includes stuff from Kim Young-ha, Park Ming-yu and Jeong I-hyeon; poetry from Ko Un; and essays from Michael Breen and Liu Jiaju. There's also an interview with Kyung Sook-shin, who won the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize for her (excellent) novel, Please Look After Mother.

More info here.

 

[Liam]

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang. Animal Farm with a happy ending?