"Koreanische Literatur auf Englisch, Folge 3"

Visit Korea!

The website Visit Korea has a review in German -- Koreanische Literatur auf Englisch, Folge 3 (i.e., Korean Literature in English, Number 3) -- of the English translation that Sun-Ae and I did of Jang Jung-il's novella When Adam Opens His Eyes, so if you read German, get thee thence and read! Here's what the review briefly says about us:

"When Adam Opens His Eyes" wurde ins Englische von Hwang Sun-ae und Horace Jeffery Hodges, Professor an der Ewha Womans University, übersetzt. Sie sind auch die Übersetzer des achten Romans in der Serie der Library of Korean Literature, „The Soil“, geschrieben von Yi Kwang-su.

In English, that reads:

When Adam Opens His Eyes was translated into English by Hwang Sun-Ae and Horace Jeffery Hodges, Professor at Ewha Womans University. They are also the translators of the eighth novel in the series of the Library of Korean Literature, The Soil, written by Yi Kwang-su.

At the end of the review, we learn that the review was written by Sohn JiAe, an editor with Korea.net, and was translated by Gesine Stoyke. Nothing is said about the quality of our translation, but I assume no complaints.

I was just about to bring this entry to a close, but on a hunch that there must be an English version of this review, I Googled and found it, so we can now check how close my English translation above is to Sohn's English original:

“When Adam Opens His Eyes” was translated into English by Hwang Sun-Ae and Ewha Womans University Professor Horace Jeffery Hodges. They also translated the eighth novel in the Library of Korean Literature series, “The Soil” written by Yi Kwang-su.

I guess I was close enough . . . though I'll redo it now for better English than my original attempt:

When Adam Opens His Eyes was translated into English by Hwang Sun-Ae and Ewha Womans University Professor Horace Jeffery Hodges. They have also translated the eighth novel in the Library of Korean Literature series, The Soil, written by Yi Kwang-su.

This now differs by only a verb tense and a comma from Sohn's English version (if we set aside the question of quotation marks vs. italics for book titles). The tense is a stylistic choice, for either present or present perfect works, but the comma is grammatically necessary. Otherwise, not bad, though I think this bio ought to have mentioned Sun-Ae's doctorate in German literature (and perhaps my novella).

Anyway, Jang Jung-il is definitely worth reading, especially for readers interested in a young Korean man coming of age during a time when Korea itself was coming of age and opening up, but be forewarned: sex and violence fill his writings, rather explicit, in fact.