Korean writer Han Kang (53) became the first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature on the 10th. To commemorate the award, we are publishing a book review essay on Han’s latest book, “Never Say Goodbye,” published on May 21 in this newspaper’s “Into the Forest of Foreign Literature.” ‘ The author is Nozomi Kubota, translator and poet.
When the work was published in South Korea in 2021, it won a major literary prize abroad. This seems to have helped him win this prize. In Japan, it was published by Hakusuisha in March this year, translated by Mariko Saito.
“Don’t Say Goodbye” by Han Gang
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◆ The literature of visionaries
Snow falls on “thousands of black logs” planted “from ridge to foothills.” It rains to cover everything. After reading this, I thought, “This is the literature of visionaries.”
In-sung, a friend of mine for 20 years, cut off his finger with a power saw while working. Writer Kyung-ha runs to her house. To save the lives of birds that would easily die if they ran out of water and food. There is no time. The snow that was falling while I was waiting for the bus was soft snow that fell gently and melted quickly.
Paddling through knee-deep snow. The forest is of light light, shadows of black trees, and dark and deep groping stories. Migraines and Kyung-ha’s own bean porridge, In-sung’s mother used to put it under her bed to ward off nightmares, the saw scroll, and the cave.
Inseong’s mother was murdered in what can be described as “the most traumatic event in the modern history of the Korean peninsula” when she was young. The incident of Jeju April 3, 1948. By chance, the mother’s gestures, voice and fragmented stories, as well as the fragments of heavy memories engraved in the daughter’s heart, weave a fabric of light ink color.
◆ Putting memories into words
In-sung and Kyung-ha plan to create a visual work by arranging a forest of black logs on the beach. I wonder if that plan, which was canceled once, became this story, in order to promote memories in words. This is a novel that pushes the reader’s imagination to the limit.
The daughter, who investigates historical facts that have been sealed away and gives insight into the mysterious appearance of her mother while she was alive, and her friend, who hears this as if it is a hallucination, are like twins in the story. The immediate moment of the story becomes solid and connects the illusions that arise one after the other. Reading the story of dreams and salvation in Japanese Supple was an experience filled with the grace to find “the ultimate love from death to life.”
I am very impressed with the words of the author mentioned in the commentary, “The act of writing is the act of creating light in the absence of light and moving forward.” Japanese to know about them.
After its publication, it was immediately welcomed by many readers, was quickly translated into French, and won prizes such as the Prix Medici (for foreign novels), which reminded me of the long lineage of French visual literature.
Nozomi Kubota (translator/poet)
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