“I hope that through the publication of this book in English, many unique and individualistic Korean poems will be read in English-speaking countries.”
Translator Hong Jin-hui (61), author of the anthology of Chinese poems by Dasan Jeong Yag-yong (1762-1836), “A Confucian Autobiography of Tasan Chong Yagyong,” translated into English, said this. He selected 134 of Dasan’s best poems from 1776, when he was on a ship to Hanyang to get married, to 1836, when he was 75 years old. The translated original Chinese poems consist of 1,817 lines and a total of 14,408 Chinese characters.
This book was published in April by BRILL, an international academic publisher based in the Netherlands, with support from the Academy of Korean Studies’ “100 Korean Classics in English Translation Project (now the Korean Academic Translation Project).” This is the first time that a single volume of poetry by a single person from throughout pre-modern Korean literature has been published in English. While the poetry of famous Chinese writers such as Du Fu and Tao Yuanming has already been widely translated and read in the English-speaking world, there was no translated anthology of poems by a single person in Korea. Translator Hong said, “The field of Chinese poetry is so tricky that there aren’t many researchers, and the status of Korean Chinese literature has not been high,” and “This publication will allow researchers in the English-speaking world to compare Dasan’s Chinese poetry with existing studies of Chinese Chinese poetry.”
The book came out after more than 10 years of ‘pains of labor’. It all started when the late Han Hyung-jo, a professor at the Academy of Korean Studies, suggested to translator Hong in 2014, “Let’s work together to publish a collection of Dasan’s poems in English.” Since then, translator Hong, professor Han, and Kim Eon-jong, director of the Institute for Korean Classical Translation, have formed a team and met every month to read and discuss Dasan’s poems. Hong, who studied for a doctorate in ‘History and East Asian Languages’ at Harvard University in the United States for 10 years, was in charge of the English translation. Director Kim said, “Through discussions, we have corrected errors in existing Korean translations and have come closer to the original meaning of Dasan’s poems,” and “It was an opportunity for Mr. Dasan to debut on the international stage.”
The simple translation was completed in about three years, but it took longer to actually publish it because it reflected the overseas publisher’s request to “increase the completeness by adding commentary to the poems.” Translator Hong took the concept of “Dasan’s autobiography” and supplemented the book over several years by adding commentary that covers not only the meaning of the poems but also Dasan’s life. A list of people related to Dasan was also included in the book to help with understanding.
The book features many aspects of Dasan’s humanity. In the poem “Duchijin (豆巵津)” written when he was 19, Dasan is shown as a dualistic figure who admires the market where all kinds of special products such as alcohol, meat, and fish are gathered, but also criticizes the “world that pursues profit.” In the poem “Tanbin (歎貧)” written when he was 34, we can read his complex feelings of not being satisfied with the peaceful and happy life. Translator Hong said, “We can properly catch a glimpse of Dasan’s modest life, who has been known only as a Silhak scholar who ‘saves the nation’ due to the nationalist perspective.”
Reporter Sa Ji-won [email protected]
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2024-08-30 01:31:35