The winners of the 13th Korean Literature Translation Awards and the 14th Korean Literature Translation Awards for New Career Translators gathered Wednesday before the award ceremony and spoke of the difficulties of translating Korean literature into other languages.

“It’s always difficult to translate dialects. It sounds awkward when we translate it, so sometimes we have to get rid of it,” said Andrea de Benedittis, one of the winners of the 13th Korean Literature Translation Awards. He translated author Kim Young-ha’s “I Have the Right to Destroy Myself” into Italian, “Ho Il Diritto di Distruggermi” and is a seasoned translator of 10 years who has translated other noted Korean novels into Italian.

“Also, in order to properly deliver the cultural context, we need to explain the historical background, but local publishers won’t allow us to add footnotes. Properly delivering the tone of the writing itself is another difficulty,” he said.

Four teams of professional translators were awarded Wednesday with the Korean Literature Translation Awards. Other award winners include Lee Tae-yeon and Genevieve Roux-Faucard who translated author Han Kang’s “Breath Fighting” into French, “Pars, le Vent se Leve”; Kwon Eun-hee and Seong Cho-lim who translated Bae Suah’s “Sunday Sukiyaki Restaurant” into Spanish, “El Restaurante de Sukiyaki”; and Vu Kim Ngan who translated author Jeong Yu-jeong’s “Seven Years of Darkness” into Vietnamese, “7 Nam Bong Toi.” More.

See: The Korea Times

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