Korea Times Translation Awards open doors for aspiring literary translators
Aspiring translators said that the Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, hosted by The Korea Times, have become a stepping stone for their literary translation dreams.
The Korea Times held the award ceremony for the 53rd edition of the contest, sponsored by KB Financial Group, at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul, Thursday.
Gene Png, who won the highest honor, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award, as well as the Grand Prize in poetry, for her translation of Jeong Han-ah’s poems, said that the win has brought her a step closer to her dreams.
“I know you can’t make a lot of money through translation but my dream is to be able to make enough with the profession. By translating the novels and poems I’ve read, I wanted to share that experience (with other people). And I take this award as a step forward in the path to my dream,” she said.
The Grand Prize in fiction went to Graham Hand, who translated Kim Ae-ran’s “The Beginning of Winter.”
“The idea that somebody would read (the novel) in my translation is a nice thing to think,” he said. “We can talk about money and passion regarding translation, but I think the most important thing is having fun. It’s just really interesting and I intend to keep pursuing (it).”
Giulia Macri received the Fiction Commendation Award for her translation of Chung Se-rang’s “The Forty-Four Lives of a Wedding Dress.”
“As I’m Italian, I hope to introduce Korean literature in Italy in the future. Not many Korean works have been translated into Italian,” she said.
The three judges — Brother Anthony, also known as An Son-jae, a professor emeritus of English language and literature at Sogang University; Jung Ha-yun, an associate professor of interpreting and translation at Ewha Woman’s University; and Min Eun-kyung, a professor of English language and literature at Seoul National University — said they went through a thorough process to select this year’s winners.
On behalf of all the judges, Jung encouraged the winning translators to accomplish their dreams in the field, applauding them for their thorough work. “Every year I come to the awards ceremony, I’m reminded of its history … I’m impressed how long it has come with the sense of responsibility to promote Korean literature (to the world) in English,” she said. “But more important than the history, I hope you grow to become a better translator as we head to the future.”
For Brother Anthony, The Korea Times conferred an appreciation award to honor his commitment to the awards as a judge for the past 26 years. He also won the Grand Prize in poetry himself in 1991 for his translation of “Headmaster Abe” by Ko Un.
The Korea Times President-Publisher Oh Young-jin said that now is the very time to shape the future of Korean literature in the global scene.
“Along with K-pop and K-culture, K-literature will grow to have more importance in contributing to introducing Korea (globally),” Oh said. “And during the very time when the global interest toward Korea has heightened, we try to do our part in this.”
Adding that the newspaper is in the progress of creating an archive of past awards and their winning pieces, Oh noted that it will contribute to introducing
Korean literature globally.
“(Our archive) will reflect over 50 years of the award’s history and we hope to create this together with you. We ask for your support,” he said.
Yoon Sung-chun, deputy minister for Culture and Arts Policy from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism,
presented the Minister’s Award to Png on behalf of Minister Park Bo-gyoon.
“The Korea Times has played a positive role in various fields, including culturally, which serves as an encouragement to the government and to the Literature Translation Institute of
Korea,” he said in a congratulatory message. “I believe, in order to fully become a culturally influential country, Korean content — especially literature — should reach global audiences. And we intend to work with the private sector together in making it happen.”