Proofreading Yi Kwang-su and Jang Jung-il

Friday morning early, I received two emails from Dalkey Archive Press with the galley proofs of the following two works of fiction attached, respectively:

Both of these images are borrowed from Amazon: Yi Kwang-su's The Soil and Jang Jung-il's When Adam Opens His Eyes. Both are translation that my wife and I did as a team, sponsored by the Korea Literature Translation Institute. These two English versions represent several years' work, so I was happy to receive the galley proofs -- but a little disconcerted to read that I had only 24 hours to proofread both, for the former is 528 pages and the latter 144 pages, making for 672 pages to read closely within a single day!

Proofing The Soil took all day Friday and more -- from 5:00 a.m. Friday till 12:30 a.m. Saturday -- so I didn't meet the deadline for When Adam Opens His Eyes. The Dalkey people were understanding, however, and gave me an extra day for Jang Jung-il's book.

Anyway, I finished. Sort of. Proofreading is never truly finished. It's just halted.