background
Please upgrade to a browser that supports HTML5 video or install Flash.image-(L.640x360)-3c-eq1-sc-wu2.png

Gender in Contemporary Korean Poetry

Kwajŏng: Celebrating the Process of Translating Korean Literature

Gender inequality, gender expression, and the persistence of physical and sexual violence against women are hot button issues in contemporary South Korea. As young authors break onto the scene and face these issue head-on, queer and feminist literary publications have seen an increase in popularity among readers and garnered positive critical reception. At the forefront of bringing these works across into English is the translator Soje. Making their debut in 2020 with the poetry collection Unexpected Vanilla by Lee Hyemi (Tilted Axis Press), 2021 sees the publication of Soje's translations of Catcalling, a poetry collection by Lee Soho (Open Letter Books) and To The Warm Horizon, a novel by Choi Jin-young (Honford Star). The Kwajŏng series continues its exploration into the world of literary translation by inviting Soje to share the context of the works and authors they translate and the unique challenges faced during the translation process.

The event will be a bilingual reading of selected poems from Lee Soho's Catcalling and discussion of themes of gender in contemporary Korean literature by translator Soje and discussant Professor Judy Han. The discussion will highlight the creativity of the process of translating such urgent contemporary works of Korean literature into english and how the issue of gender impact contemporary Korean society.

Catcalling is Lee Soho's debut work from 2018 and winner of the prestigious Kim Su-young Literary Award. The collection tells the story of the speaker-protagonist Kyungjin in five parts as she navigates and exposes the violence of a patriarchal world that presents new brutalities at every stage of her life. The assemblage of poems ranges in style from lyric, to prose, to concrete and experimental forms building a strange and vivid picture of a treacherous society through which Kyungjin must traverse. 

To attend the event, please register here.


Soje is the translator of Lee Hyemi's Unexpected Vanilla (Tilted Axis Press, 2020), Choi Jin-young's To the Warm Horizon (Honford Star, 2021), and Lee Soho's Catcalling (Open Letter Books, 2021). They also make chogwa, a quarterly e-zine featuring one Korean poem and multiple English translations. Soje graduated magna cum laude in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where they won the Dorothy Rosenberg Prize in Lyric Poetry and scholarship for their research on Oh Jung-hee and Toni Morrison. They received a two-year fellowship to attend the Literature Translation Institute of Korea's Translation Academy and served as Modern Poetry in Translation's 2020 Writer in Residence.

Ju Hui Judy Han is a cultural geographer and Assistant Professor in Gender Studies at UCLA, where she teaches classes on gender and sexuality, Korean studies, (im)mobilities, and comics. Her research and publications concern conservative religious formations, queer activism, and protest cultures. Judy grew up in Seoul and has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Berkeley/Oakland, Vancouver, and Toronto.

Please upgrade to a browser that supports HTML5 audio or install Flash.

Audio MP3 Download Podcast

Duration: 01:35:02

Gender-in-Contemporary-Korean-Poetry-rl-elo.mp3

Transcript:

1

00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:07,360

um i'm delighted to welcome all of you to 

today's event uh gender in contemporary uh korean  

2

00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:13,840

poetry and thank you for joining us today my 

name is namhi lee i teach modern korean history  

3

00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:20,400

and also director center for korean studies 

at ucla and for those of you who may be new  

4

00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:27,440

to our center's events the center for korean 

studies promotes korean studies program at ucla  

5

00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:35,200

and engages the ucla community and the general 

public with various issues related to korea  

6

00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:44,240

and beyond by organizing lecture series symposia 

film screening and cultural events please visit  

7

00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:51,520

our website to learn more about our programs and 

events and before i introduce today's participants  

8

00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:57,280

i'd like to also make a very brief announcement 

about upcoming events that the center for korean  

9

00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:04,000

studies is organizing over the years a number of 

community activists and scholars have been working  

10

00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:12,480

on curating and translating a set of documentary 

evidence concerning the japanese imperial military  

11

00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:19,760

comfort women system into a readily 

accessible english format and on may 20th  

12

00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:27,520

our center and uci's law school and a number of 

other organizations would have a public event  

13

00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:34,800

to discuss these resources in an effort to 

enhance ongoing discussions in the legal  

14

00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:42,640

scholarly and educational communities in 

the u.s south korea and the international  

15

00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:50,880

community at large so please be sure to check 

more information on that event on our website  

16

00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:59,680

returning to today's event it is the second of the 

series called kwajang celebrating the process of  

17

00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:07,280

translating korean literature which will be about 

which will be a bilingual reading of selected  

18

00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:14,640

poems from e soho's catcalling and discussion of 

themes of gender in contemporary korean literature  

19

00:02:14,640 --> 00:02:22,720

by translators hoje and professor judy han 

today's webinar will be recorded and will  

20

00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:29,520

be made available on our center's website and 

after speaker's presentations there will be a  

21

00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:37,120

time for q a please use the q a function on the 

bottom of your screen to submit your questions  

22

00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:47,040

i also like to thank um kim our assistant director 

of the center and alex chu uh it technical support  

23

00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:52,960

coordinator at the international institute and 

of course i would like to extend my warmest  

24

00:02:54,320 --> 00:03:04,240

thanks to both soldier and judy han and 

of course also victoria cordell this  

25

00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:11,920

um uh series was actually conceived and 

organized by victoria cordell who's a second  

26

00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:19,520

year phd student in korean literature in the 

department of asian languages and cultures at ucla  

27

00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:26,400

so victoria will be saying a few words 

about the series and also introduce sojai  

28

00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:34,400

my job is to introduce professor judy han 

who is a cultural geographer an assistant  

29

00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:41,040

professor in gender studies at ucla where 

she teaches classes on gender and sexuality  

30

00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:49,280

korean studies mobilities or 

immobilities and what does this say  

31

00:03:49,280 --> 00:04:00,160

comics her research and publications uh cover a 

wide range of topics including conservative uh  

32

00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:08,400

religious formations cure activisms and protest 

cultures i especially like to thank professor han  

33

00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:17,680

for agreeing to be a discussion today as she's 

been extremely busy um with the uh series uh  

34

00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:24,720

that she's been leading the webinar series called 

feminist politics in korea and the korean diaspora  

35

00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:33,840

which it features invited guest speakers who are 

activists and filmmakers and you should definitely  

36

00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:43,200

check out this series the information can be also 

found on the cks website so without further ado  

37

00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:49,920

i'd like to hand over the microphone or 

the i don't know what you call this too

38

00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:54,960

oh victoria i'm

39

00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:06,000

this is uh as just stated our second event 

in the celebrating the process of translating  

40

00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,760

korean literature series and with the support of 

the center for korean studies kwatong is seeking  

41

00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:17,040

to bring to the forefront uh those dedicated 

individuals who bring works of korean literature  

42

00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:22,320

across into english and thereby enrich our field 

of study and provide materials that we can use  

43

00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:30,080

in our undergraduate classes and share these 

fantastic and prescient works of literature with  

44

00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:36,640

those who are not yet of the linguistic capability 

of reading them in their original korean  

45

00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:44,240

and it's my great pleasure to introduce our 

guest translator soldier soulja and i first met  

46

00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:50,640

and collaborated at a translation workshop held at 

uc berkeley uh when they were still an undergrad  

47

00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:54,640

and their passion for korean literature and 

their dedication to their craft has only  

48

00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:58,880

increased exponentially since then and 

led to the publication of their first  

49

00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:04,160

full-length translation yemi's poetry 

collection unexpected vanilla in 2020  

50

00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:10,800

and april 2021 sees the publication of the topic 

of our discussion today isoho's cat calling  

51

00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:18,000

and uh further in the future in may we'll see 

the uh the publication of their first full-length  

52

00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:24,720

novel to the warm horizon by xi jinyoung as well 

so a really busy year an exciting year with really

53

00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:31,120

exciting works that are dealing with 

topics of gender and topics of sexuality  

54

00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:38,720

that are um you know sorely missing from the 

extant translated works uh soja is not only a  

55

00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:44,000

talented translator but also works to broaden and 

deepen connections between translators building  

56

00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:48,640

community through their projects such as the 

translations in choca which invites translators  

57

00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:54,000

and those aspiring to translate to submit their 

own versions of one poem per quarterly issue  

58

00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,480

in order to highlight the versatility of 

language and of translators creativity  

59

00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:01,680

they are truly inspiring in their 

craft and their presence and i'm  

60

00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:05,760

so grateful they agreed to share their 

work here with us today thank you both

61

00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:16,240

wow thank you victoria i didn't realize you were 

going to bring up my undergraduate days but thank  

62

00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:21,680

you for that very generous introduction and also 

for organizing this wonderful series highlighting  

63

00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:28,400

translators of korean literature i'm a really 

big fan of the poet translators jack zhang  

64

00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:36,400

and sakurakayasu and i'm very honored to follow 

them in this event today it's quite a jump  

65

00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:43,840

um that we'll be attempting between italian 

and iso and i'm going to share my screen now

66

00:07:55,360 --> 00:08:02,960

yes um yeah it's quite a jump um but there is 

a connection visual experimentation to express  

67

00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:07,840

the subjective self beyond written 

language i thought i'd take advantage  

68

00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:15,200

of the particularities of a zoom lecture and share 

my most visual translations of eso's cat calling  

69

00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:21,920

i know the assignment is gender and i'll 

get to that too i promise so isoho was born  

70

00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:29,840

hyunjin being her given name in 1988 she studied 

creative writing at the seoul arts university  

71

00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:35,280

where she was taught by the poet kimesun among 

others then went on to earn an m.a in korean  

72

00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:41,920

literature from tongkuk university she won 

the newcomer award in modern poetry in 2014  

73

00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:48,400

and the kim jung literary award for her debut 

collection catcalling in 2018 and i want to  

74

00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:54,880

clarify that she is a cis hat woman and i'm 

not dead naming her by acknowledging her birth  

75

00:08:54,880 --> 00:09:01,440

name actually kyung jin the semi-fictionalized 

version of isho's past self is the protagonist  

76

00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:06,240

and one of the many speakers of catcalling 

which exposes and ridicules the quotidian  

77

00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:12,080

violences that keong jin experiences as she 

grows up and becomes an artist under patriarchy  

78

00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:19,280

the connection between form and content in this 

collection is palpable and persuasive easel blurs  

79

00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:25,680

text to recreate the after effects of physical 

abuse scatters verb conjugations into a collage  

80

00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:31,840

spells out the honorific yes with that very word 

repeated 400 sometimes and recounts verbal abuse  

81

00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:37,600

without spaces so that it takes up as little 

space as possible and we'll be looking at some  

82

00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:45,680

of those today i know i just said i'll discuss the 

visual poems but i thought i'd sort of ease us in  

83

00:09:45,680 --> 00:09:51,680

if that's even possible with this collection 

uh with the very first poem as a kind of curse  

84

00:09:51,680 --> 00:09:58,880

of her teeth i say curse because it's very 

intense and an indication of the violence to come

85

00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:08,086

[in foreign language]

86

00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:29,520

cohabitation i was born but somehow 

you were born too from one to two  

87

00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:41,200

we crumple ourselves into the cramped stroller we 

use the same uniform man room on knee the doctor  

88

00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:48,480

says i should do whatever i want so omni i'm not 

going to call you on me anymore because i love  

89

00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:55,520

you i'm going to call you by your name let's be 

real you don't deserve to be called a big sister  

90

00:11:55,520 --> 00:12:02,640

my little sister says peeling the apple with a 

knife it's the last apple so you better finish it  

91

00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:09,840

little sister points the knife at me as she 

peels the apple crunch crunch i eat the apple  

92

00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:17,440

i slit little sister's wrists for her mom says 

you slept inside her like it was your grave  

93

00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:23,840

i slit little sister's wrist again hushed 

little baby your prettiest when you sleep  

94

00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:30,080

i put her to sleep on her stomach i put her 

to sleep pulling the blanket to the top of  

95

00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:37,840

her head how cramped how cramped the 

knight is from one to two from one to two

96

00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:51,840

thank you and for this next poem i'm 

going to be um off screen for a little bit

97

00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:05,840

[in foreign language]

98

00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:11,840

is

99

00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,000

so so never can ever get very little  

100

00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:33,840

just the two of us let's lean on each 

other and die it'd be super great

101

00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,840

don't forget i'm the only one

102

00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:53,940

say

103

00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:37,920

november 21st 2014 the day she 

didn't beat me with a frying pan  

104

00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:49,840

as a result of those strikes i had the 

strange experience of briefly seeing double

105

00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:54,080

thank you could you hear me okay

106

00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:02,160

okay great i was getting a a message in the 

chat about the volume so just making sure

107

00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:12,400

so this is the third poem in cat calling and the 

moment i saw this i knew i wanted to translate it  

108

00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:18,640

i'm always looking for works that are exceptional 

in some way works that can bring something new to  

109

00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:25,280

the english language and literary scenes obviously 

this accomplishes both as you can see i don't know  

110

00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:30,720

if you can see my mouse cursor but as you can 

see there is a footnote in the korean as well  

111

00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:35,760

editors tend to be very anti-footnote when it 

comes to translations because they're seen as  

112

00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:42,000

you know pedantic and distracting but most of the 

footnotes in cat calling i did not introduce into  

113

00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:48,160

the text myself i gave a reading on open letter 

books instagram last week where i broke down my  

114

00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:54,400

translation and editorializing of the footnotes 

in xi jin's home a house of dead stones so i  

115

00:17:54,400 --> 00:18:01,200

won't really get into the footnotes today unless 

someone has a specific question later so there is  

116

00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:07,280

a very obvious blurred effect on the page and the 

footnote very kindly explicates the intent which  

117

00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:12,720

is the double vision or traumatic disorientation 

kanjin experience from her younger sister's  

118

00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:21,040

physical and verbal violence as for my kwajang i 

made two text boxes on microsoft word and overlaid  

119

00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:26,720

them and adjusted the opacity so that the text 

wouldn't become so bold but i think the layout  

120

00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:32,240

editor open letter anthony blake might have done 

something a little bit different for the effect  

121

00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:40,080

here i have an example where my approach looks 

quite different from his and we can think about  

122

00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:47,360

the many ways visuality can be translated and 

transmuted on the left we have the poem by iso  

123

00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:54,800

in the middle the version that i turned in and 

third this is the final version that anthony  

124

00:18:54,800 --> 00:19:00,960

laid out so i think part of the process involves 

the publisher's in-house style including font  

125

00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:07,760

and spacing and had i known that anthony the 

marketing director was also the layout person  

126

00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:14,640

i probably would have annoyed him a lot more with 

little tweaks but this was a lesson for me too in  

127

00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:20,640

terms of realizing all the ways that translation 

becomes a collaboration through publication  

128

00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:26,800

at this point i want to turn our attention 

to the word onni which has already come up  

129

00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:33,200

many times in these two poems i've written an 

essay on ani called not exactly a sister for  

130

00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:38,000

modern poetry and translation the essay 

is much more nuanced than i'm going to be  

131

00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:43,360

today taking into consideration the historical 

evolution of the word but in the interest of  

132

00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:49,040

time and specific relevance to catcalling i've 

summed it up into this sort of rudimentary chart  

133

00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:55,360

omni meaning older sister is what a female 

person would call an older female person  

134

00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:01,680

out of respect and a sense of familiarity oppa 

meaning older brother is female to older male  

135

00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:09,280

nuna meaning older sister is male to older female 

tongue meaning older brother is male to older male  

136

00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:16,800

if you haven't caught on age order is a huge deal 

in korean culture this explains why keong jin is  

137

00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:23,760

and has to be on me or older sister to shidin 

the honorific title is inextricable from their  

138

00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:30,640

relationship in an interview iso said my sister 

and i are only a year apart but the role and  

139

00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:36,160

responsibilities vested by that single year are 

so different eldest daughters are pressured to  

140

00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:42,000

be unconditionally patient i wanted to speak 

about the unfairness of this so you can start to  

141

00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:48,480

understand the weight of this word as a symbol 

of power and responsibility and even violence  

142

00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:56,400

at the same time non-binary koreans such 

as myself are excluded from this lexicon  

143

00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:04,000

or is it an exclusion part of my realization of my 

identity came from the fact that i don't identify  

144

00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:12,240

as either an ani or uppa but because i worship 

at the nightclub of munoz i do sometimes wish  

145

00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:18,640

that there were alternatives to call my queer 

korean siblings and beloved and move away from  

146

00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:24,880

anti-relationality like like nibbling 

the gender-neutral term for niece  

147

00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:33,040

nephew neologisms will be inevitably divisive some 

people will love it some people will find it corny  

148

00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:38,320

so we'll find we'll see what kinds of new 

languages surface and stick around in korean  

149

00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:46,480

those with some engagement with k-pop will 

know that these four terms are also romantic  

150

00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:52,960

and sexual terms despite or because of the incest 

taboo it seems like lots of familial words are  

151

00:21:52,960 --> 00:22:00,240

recycled into sex like daddy mamacita and so 

forth so it's not unique to korean culture but  

152

00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:05,920

i find it interesting that the power dynamic is 

slightly less hierarchical than the parent-child  

153

00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:12,160

relationship i made a quick slide of some 

pieces of culture from the last three years  

154

00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:18,880

or so containing the word unni in the title this 

evidences the popularization of feminism as well  

155

00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:25,600

as less mainstream lesbian narratives because only 

simultaneously reveals the speaker and addressee  

156

00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:31,600

to be female it's a powerful word for suffix 

and straight women seeking sisterhood alike  

157

00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:38,160

it's politically powerful and also convenient 

marketing wise to be able to signal in just one  

158

00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:45,920

word that it's quote made by women for women 

and living in korea i've been noticing cases  

159

00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:51,840

of localization which is the process of 

adapting certain products for the target culture  

160

00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:58,000

involving on me as well i wrote about my 

sister the serial killer being translated  

161

00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:04,480

as annie i killed a man in my essay and sort 

of the incongruence of the title and content  

162

00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:11,920

but what a title right and the next screenshot 

i have is about ocean's eight because the korean  

163

00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:18,640

media really rendered the cast of ocean's eight on 

nice to make them more familiar and approachable  

164

00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:24,000

to the korean female audience these are some of 

the reviews and articles written on that movie  

165

00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:30,720

and one usage of ani even comes from warner 

brothers korea and it's about some hat giveaway um  

166

00:23:31,360 --> 00:23:37,520

so maybe you get my sort of jadedness over this 

word but nonetheless i hope that it's clear  

167

00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:47,360

why it's become such a go-to word for feminist 

culture and now after ani we have oppa who in the  

168

00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:54,400

landscape of k-pop and k-dramas is a much more 

familiar figure but you haven't seen oppa like  

169

00:23:54,400 --> 00:24:01,840

this unless you've been gas-lit by a korean man 

which i dearly hope you have not been the unnamed  

170

00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:07,760

male speaker of oppa likes that type of girl is 

indeed referring to himself in the third person  

171

00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:14,480

which is cringy as hell regardless of how you feel 

about oppa in general but i wanted to highlight  

172

00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:21,360

this poem because one i appreciate the way izoho's 

night his words take up less space in her poetry  

173

00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:28,160

and two i might have used variations of sister in 

my translation had it not been for this oppa poem  

174

00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:33,680

because this oppa doesn't translate to 

older brother in the biological sense i  

175

00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:45,840

decided to bring both oppa and ani into my english 

translation again i will cover my camera for this

176

00:24:49,130 --> 00:24:55,641

[in foreign language]

177

00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:07,040

what are you trying to say if you're feeling 

sick go cook yourself porridge why call me i'm  

178

00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:13,440

sick of you you want to cuss me out huh go ahead 

what are you afraid of i gave you everything  

179

00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:20,320

but nothing satisfies you this is why i don't like 

depressed girls hey stop whining and talk straight  

180

00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:27,200

and think it over before you talk have i been 

dating a stupid girl that's not it you're smart  

181

00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:33,120

i can have a conversation with you so don't act 

like you know something i don't oppa will explain  

182

00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:40,720

everything to you one by one i'm doing this all 

for you hey you don't believe me i'm just kidding  

183

00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:45,600

why are you glaring like that i've told you 

before but it's because you're stubborn and  

184

00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:51,680

sensitive that our romance turned sour any other 

man would have dumped you already i'm letting you  

185

00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:58,400

off the hook again don't do this again if you're 

having such a hard time drink yourself to sleep  

186

00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:04,480

you're good at that you're gonna shake it off 

anyway can't we just hang up happy now i couldn't  

187

00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:10,320

stand to look at your outfit earlier buy yourself 

some clothes when you get paid not from an outlet  

188

00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:16,480

mall but something brand name so you won't [ __ 

] embarrass me hey only i'm telling you this you  

189

00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:22,240

can't find another man like me anywhere it's 

not that oppa changed you changed you used to  

190

00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:28,480

at least pretend to get dolled up but i guess 

you don't even try these days anyway i'm busy  

191

00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:35,680

can't you understand that if you don't have a job 

why don't you get a hobby watch tv stop watching  

192

00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:43,040

me i like a woman who's productive what are you 

going to do with what i did today stop asking me  

193

00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:49,280

do you not trust me you're so obsessed i feel like 

i'm going to lose my mind every time you do this  

194

00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:55,920

this is why all those guys dumped you only i'd 

stay with you all this time don't take this the  

195

00:28:55,920 --> 00:29:01,600

wrong way you think lovers can't say stuff like 

this to each other i'm closer to you than anyone  

196

00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:11,840

else in the world i'm the only one who thinks 

of you don't forget it so be nice to your oppa

197

00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:17,920

thank you

198

00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:29,520

i can see judy laughing um if you couldn't tell 

that was 100 me reading with my voice pitch down  

199

00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:38,240

in garageband um i my plan was to sort of do 

a drag performance where i'm like lip syncing  

200

00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:43,760

but i i sort of ran out of energy this week 

um so unfortunately i couldn't wow you with  

201

00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:50,080

um some drag makeup and whatnot but maybe 

maybe at a future reading i can accomplish  

202

00:29:51,200 --> 00:30:02,480

that plan um i have one more poem to 

read i want to check the chat okay

203

00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,840

[in foreign language]

204

00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:47,600

a musical variation for the fighting spirit 

you would grab because you're grabbing you will  

205

00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:56,000

probably grab would you have grabbed will you grab 

i'm not sure you grab i heard to grab you grab ya  

206

00:31:56,000 --> 00:32:02,720

though you grabbed you would have grabbed or 

if you had grub even when you grabbed you grab  

207

00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:08,800

if you were to have grab you must have grabbed 

you're grabbing huh you're garb and you will  

208

00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:15,440

grab butt you grab in yet you must have grab you 

must have grabbed yeah oh you must have grabbed  

209

00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:21,760

if you had grab while you would totally grab 

while you're grabbing not even grabbing you  

210

00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:27,520

who'd grabbed you're totally gonna grab you 

might have grabbed after all even if you'd grab  

211

00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:33,760

if you were to grab you had to have grabbed 

your grab but then again sir you grabbed me  

212

00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:41,040

grab me i know you had grab even if you grab 

even while grabbing you must have grabbed but  

213

00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:48,240

should you grab you must have grabbed plus in 

order to grab you grab i see would you have grab  

214

00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:55,680

must have grabbed ya you're grabbing butt you'll 

grab huh if you grab if you were to grab you grab  

215

00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:04,240

duh because you grab me you grab if you had grab 

even if you had grab you grabbed i'm telling you  

216

00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:11,280

you had to grab you either grab or you grab 

and you grabbed her too the more you grab  

217

00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:18,320

because you grab you grab me because you 

grab yeah you'd grab you grab butt you grab  

218

00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:29,200

or even if you were to grab yeah you'd grab you 

do grab you did grab you who grabs thank you um

219

00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:40,160

i read this as another visual representation of 

the disorientation following a traumatic event  

220

00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:47,120

um first i know that the korean verb is to 

touch bandita i accepted my editor anastasia's  

221

00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:54,480

suggestion to change it to grab because a it's 

somehow more violent but also in the it also  

222

00:33:54,480 --> 00:34:01,440

innocuous in the context of like grabbing lunch 

grabbing drinks um b i felt like touch could carry  

223

00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:08,000

sort of a positive connotation and and these 

covet times and see i was translating when  

224

00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:14,720

grabbing by the was still very much part of 

the national conversation and so that verb  

225

00:34:14,720 --> 00:34:22,560

was unfortunately resonant for me and korean 

has a bunch of conjugations based on tense mood  

226

00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:28,160

and honorifics without specifying the subject or 

object so you can imagine that there's no gender  

227

00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:34,240

specified here either it's entirely up to the 

reader whether it's a he or she or they or you  

228

00:34:34,240 --> 00:34:41,680

grabbing me you him her or them and understanding 

the heteronormative context easel was writing from  

229

00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:47,840

i seriously considered him grabbing her 

or more seriously mixing all pronouns but  

230

00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:54,960

since i read it as a singular traumatic incident 

i also like how the second person makes it more  

231

00:34:54,960 --> 00:35:00,560

confrontational and implicates even the 

reader in the violent act i added these  

232

00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:06,720

extra words like yeah or da because i needed 

to somehow come up with 72 discreet phrases  

233

00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:11,920

and i wanted to differentiate them in tones 

similar to the way the honorifics do but sort  

234

00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:18,880

of in the opposite direction in korean there's 

the formal high banja nita informal high manja  

235

00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:26,400

informal low manja and plain form mandata 

and that's all without changing the tense  

236

00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:35,920

that's just the levels of formality speaking 

of honorifics they is the formal yes which  

237

00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:42,640

is why i rendered it as yes mom in relation 

to the title i did consider yes mom and dad  

238

00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:50,160

but it became very difficult to fit in one page so 

sometimes translation choices really do come down  

239

00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:56,560

to pragmatism in that way and each book you 

know presents a different set of challenges  

240

00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:02,400

and thrills for the translator and catcalling was 

certainly a roller coaster to translate last year  

241

00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:08,640

i wish i could have read the chat while screen 

sharing but i hope that you got a sense of all  

242

00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:15,040

the twists and turns from my experience and now 

i'm very excited to speak with professor han hello

243

00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:26,080

um hi i'm i i i think part of me is wondering 

if i if i'm even allowed to laugh um  

244

00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:33,280

add some of these uh the both the poems in the 

original and the translations but thank you  

245

00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:40,000

thank you so much this has been such an amazing 

experience in immersing uh in the reading  

246

00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:47,680

and now uh talking with you i'm i you know i 

i'm just so fascinated by your discussion of ani  

247

00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:54,320

um and the language of queer kinship uh so i 

actually really want to start there because  

248

00:36:55,680 --> 00:37:00,560

i don't really care about no just anything 

else um no that's not true but you know the  

249

00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:06,240

gender pronouns in translation um like 

in such this had head to a patriarchal  

250

00:37:06,240 --> 00:37:12,000

you know binary gender context of of 

korea and korean culture cultural customs  

251

00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:19,760

and the phenomenal interest in feminism uh in 

recent years and of course the backlash there  

252

00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:28,160

is so much in both the politics and and poetics 

of gender and sexuality and the the names we  

253

00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:33,200

call each other um this is such an interesting 

topic for korean studies and translational  

254

00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:40,720

studies i think there's a lot we can do in queer 

theory um to think through some of these issues  

255

00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:47,360

in translation um but i wanted to actually 

ask you to say a little bit more about ani as  

256

00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:53,600

a sexualized term um i know this is something 

that you wrote about a little bit in the essay  

257

00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:59,600

that you mentioned but it also comes up in this 

discussion too in the idolizing of the only  

258

00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:05,920

figures in some of the ways that you've shown 

there's also the idolizing and desiring um the

259

00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,520

i don't know if it's necessarily an 

older woman but it's it is an older  

260

00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:20,240

yeah it's a it's both incestuous and 

uh you know sapphic lesbian nick and  

261

00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:26,240

also something other than that it's there's 

something very korean about this kind of same  

262

00:38:26,240 --> 00:38:32,720

gender you know identification slash desire 

in familial terms um can you say a little  

263

00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:38,560

bit more about this because there's a lot 

of this in the poems too yeah for sure um  

264

00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:47,040

in this context of cat calling it is the only 

figure is limited to the familial right xi jin and  

265

00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:53,360

counting our biological sisters but then there's 

also there's like sexualized violence happening  

266

00:38:53,360 --> 00:39:00,720

between the mother and daughter between the 

sisters so it's sort of this complicated

267

00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:09,840

uh relationship that i don't know if easel 

whole um intended us to read necessarily in  

268

00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:17,040

a queer context but she i think wanted to sort of 

heighten every form of violence possible between  

269

00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:25,520

two human beings for sure um as for ani as a 

figure of desire what's funny is that every time  

270

00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,840

i talk about this in an interview 

it gets cut out for some reason  

271

00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:37,200

really no no no like what i'm about to say 

which is the personal anecdote that i've  

272

00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:44,560

never dated an older korean person i see and 

i find this very relevant to my perspective  

273

00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:51,280

right like i even before i you know identified 

as non-binary um i never really had the chance  

274

00:39:52,240 --> 00:40:02,480

of anyone older to me you know a woman older to me 

on me and i wonder if that limits my sort of own  

275

00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:09,520

propensity to see and on me as a sexualized term 

so when i should bring up the afraid of that thing  

276

00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:17,840

like somehow it always gets edited out in post um 

but i i have um talked to different friends who  

277

00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:26,240

are you know who do i identify as cis lesbian or 

cis bisexual and they do call their partners on me  

278

00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:33,920

and because they're in a romantic and 

sexual relationship that term also becomes  

279

00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:40,480

sort of heightened erotically right and which 

i've always i mean you have your you know  

280

00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:47,440

i mean i think i also find that to be very uh 

jarring uh to imagine a romantic relationship  

281

00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:54,080

where there would be someone calling the other ani 

but of course happens you know of course happens  

282

00:40:54,080 --> 00:41:00,480

daddy happens i mean of course right right yeah 

but i think but i think ani has held up especially  

283

00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:06,880

in a kind of a global sisterhood feminist context 

where there is this isn't supposed to be about  

284

00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:13,360

romantic alliances or romantic relationships 

but but really much more about uh shared um  

285

00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:20,480

you know rage against patriarchy so there's 

a there's something so subversive in in  

286

00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:28,800

opening that possibility with just even that 

use of the term in queer context yeah and the  

287

00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:36,240

most prominent sort of um i don't know if 

they would use this term necessarily but um  

288

00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:41,680

lesbian and queer women inclusive 

organization in korea is called  

289

00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:51,280

a new network yeah you know yeah so it's 

definitely used in both assist political  

290

00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:56,240

sisterhood context as well as like we we call 

each other on the in bed kind of thing right  

291

00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:03,520

yes i'm gonna have nightmares about this 

again i'm and of course among gay men too  

292

00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:10,560

yeah so yeah i mean there's and the the thing 

the interesting thing about oni too um and the  

293

00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:16,640

way that you're engaging in in translation 

uh with this with this work is also that  

294

00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:26,560

only is is the naming of of relations within a 

family hierarchy um it's naming of one's location  

295

00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:33,120

um simply by just like in the uh the examples 

that you've shown just by calling someone udni  

296

00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:40,720

you're also locating yourself um in the hierarchy 

so in many ways it speaks to the heart of what's  

297

00:42:40,720 --> 00:42:46,080

conventionally often you know the biggest 

question in translating korean to english  

298

00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:54,560

the the subject the i um all kinds of ways that 

ani actually helps name and locate the speaker um  

299

00:42:54,560 --> 00:43:01,040

i mean so all the it's all the different ways that 

you translated that location whether through using  

300

00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:08,560

the word on knee capitalized or big sister little 

sister you i mean can you walk us through some  

301

00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:17,440

of some of that dilemma it's i mean it must have 

been such a myriad like possibilities before you  

302

00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:28,480

yeah um i guess when i made the executive decision 

to introduce these korean terms into the text  

303

00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:35,600

um i then had many options as you just 

pointed out i had older sister big sis  

304

00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:41,040

omni sort of these three things and then 

we i also had the name kyongjin so um  

305

00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:49,120

once i opened up myself to those possibilities 

then i sort of had all these tools um to  

306

00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:57,520

experiment with rhythm like i would see oh like 

in this line or in this poem it's better if i  

307

00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:04,720

say big sis you know or you know i try to think 

about um how the word is presented in relation  

308

00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:11,600

to the sentence so if there's another sort of 

set of korean words you know um place names  

309

00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:17,840

then maybe i would use sister instead of on 

me to sort of lessen the ratio of korean words  

310

00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:24,960

in a line right so yeah yeah in an english context 

i could also see that yeah that makes sense um the  

311

00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:34,800

other way um that i think the these hierarchies 

and um gender politics and pronouns come into play  

312

00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:43,200

is in the use of you um in the cohabitation in 

the poem that you read too just when the younger  

313

00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:49,680

sister says i won't call you andy anymore you 

don't you don't deserve that um clearly that it's  

314

00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:56,480

the kind of dynamic where any is also seen as uh 

you know a qualification that actually one could  

315

00:44:56,480 --> 00:45:03,920

be dispossessed of um as well so so in places 

where like um i think it's actually probably most  

316

00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:14,000

clear in i'm looking at my notes in cohabitation 

but in other places too where i lost my place

317

00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:26,080

yeah um when u is uh when u is used when u is 

used as the the object uh do you think that  

318

00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:34,160

uh takes away from any nuance or ambiguity 

that exists in korean where the you remains  

319

00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:43,680

unnamed in the case of cohabitation because 

you just put it so beautifully like it is a  

320

00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:51,120

dispossessing of a title or sort of a ranking 

in relation right to the younger sister i wanted  

321

00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,160

to capture that in the tone of the sentence  

322

00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:00,800

right like i'm not going to call like you 

don't deserve that you know to sort of um

323

00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:12,160

uh i'm blanking on the word i want to use but uh 

yeah sort of use that tonally to show that this u  

324

00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:17,200

is not just a simple you that it is in english 

right and just because we don't use honorifics  

325

00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:25,040

in english doesn't mean that we don't have all 

these hidden hierarchies and like yeah disparaging  

326

00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:29,840

tones against each other yeah i mean except 

you know in conversation we usually have a  

327

00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:36,000

chance to explain these things right i mean i 

i remember immigrating to um to the states when  

328

00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:40,720

when i was 12 and i remember the first day of my 

younger brother and sister because i'm the oldest  

329

00:46:40,720 --> 00:46:47,520

sister and the it's yeah um when my younger 

siblings used an english sentence and said and  

330

00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:54,160

used the word you in like it was it was something 

like probably like why did you do that and then it  

331

00:46:54,160 --> 00:47:00,800

was like you did did you just call me you i mean 

it's it's this confrontation that um that that  

332

00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:08,240

is so everyday in the english language and yet in 

the korean context when when the words are like no

333

00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:14,000

it's it's a it's not just you 

how do you i mean how do you  

334

00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:20,000

what are some of yeah we have tang 

which is the formal extremely um  

335

00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:27,920

respectful version of that so anything lower 

than tungsten becomes immediately sort of  

336

00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:32,640

it could be insulting but also it could be a 

very familiar kind of thing like oh we're really  

337

00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:39,840

good friends so i can call you you right so so 

going back to the they pronoun the gender pronoun  

338

00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:48,800

um i know that you had referred to they in korean 

um yeah right so do you think that could also  

339

00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:54,480

border that sort of you know both pejorative you 

know condescending but also intimate and familiar  

340

00:47:55,200 --> 00:48:00,320

yeah i actually i want to pull up my you 

had a slide right yeah a slide on that um  

341

00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:06,080

my presentation got closed out 

and i'm i'm trying to find it like  

342

00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:11,680

so forgive me i love the infographic so i knew 

about infographic i'm going to have to steal  

343

00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:20,480

it for every korean lecture oh yeah feel free i 

mean it's it's like janky emoji i love it um but  

344

00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:28,960

i'm glad you enjoyed it i am pulling it up heater 

is being slow but um yeah i actually have another  

345

00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:38,240

thing that i wanted to talk about with day um i 

what i find hilarious and heartwarming is that um  

346

00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:46,880

if i just explain the singular day to koreans as 

a grammatical concept they love it they're like  

347

00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:54,000

so down with it because the singular they 

just exist you know as a concept in korean  

348

00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:59,120

so that's sort of the approach that i take 

nowadays like in in relation to my own gender  

349

00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:05,440

identity if i'm just like oh you know we have coup 

in korean they're like oh yeah it's kind of like  

350

00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:12,320

yeah it's sort of i mean it is like a survival 

tactic for me right to sort of introduce myself  

351

00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:20,560

in that roundabout way but i found that people are 

quite excited to learn that english you know we we  

352

00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:27,120

have another option beyond he and she and that 

this is a discussion and there's room for change  

353

00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:33,600

yeah yeah for sure um and ivan jihad the korean 

performance artist that i mentioned in my aniase  

354

00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:38,560

at the end um she has another essay i just 

remembered it this morning where she's like  

355

00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:46,400

you know um i'm wildly paraphrasing her but 

she's like i can't believe i was colonized by  

356

00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:55,520

the english language into dividing everyone into 

he and she and like now all my queer korean friend  

357

00:49:55,520 --> 00:50:00,480

career korean american friends are looking down on 

me for like not catching up with the times like i  

358

00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:07,360

can't believe you guys colonized me and then like 

left into liberation all by yourselves so there's  

359

00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:16,240

like sort of this i guess sort of delay um in 

how queer language is transmuted um so it's been  

360

00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:21,760

an interesting conversation in korea yeah yeah i 

would imagine and so i mean it's it's clear to me  

361

00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:28,320

that you're in conversation with not just this 

particular book of poetry but with uh feminist  

362

00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:36,560

poetry with uh feminist discussions you know a 

popular discourse um broader like can you can  

363

00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:43,600

you share a little bit about how you came across 

this particular poet this book this project when  

364

00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:48,640

i mean you can't possibly translate everything 

you find interesting so when when does it become  

365

00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:59,840

the next year of your life um i wish it was a year 

i played it just so quickly i had like oh really  

366

00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:07,840

tight deadlines i translated this in about two and 

a half months oh wow yeah um and then i promptly  

367

00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:14,800

fell ill i do not recommend it um 

but like i said in the beginning um  

368

00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:22,000

you know i read a lot of interesting things 

but some some things really stand out in  

369

00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:30,480

in the sort of pile of books that i have and i 

think about like what would be most interesting  

370

00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:39,360

to read in a slightly different context right 

and cat calling definitely was that for me  

371

00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:47,840

um not only the visuality of these poems but it's 

so korean in this way uh usual herself like one  

372

00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:53,040

of the first times i met her she's like you know 

i'm so korean i'm like from the chosen dynasty  

373

00:51:56,160 --> 00:52:03,600

what does she mean by that you think um well 

it's it's definitely sort of a millennial korean  

374

00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:09,280

thing to be self-deprecating like oh like i'm so 

behind and like backwards that i'm from the chosen  

375

00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:16,560

dynasty so it's like very korean humor um but you 

know if you read through this collection there are  

376

00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:25,120

a lot of very specific korean references 

to tata to specific place places in seoul  

377

00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:32,640

across korea in a way that my first poetry 

collection unexpected vanilla like it's completely  

378

00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:40,960

not in that way so i i like finding projects that 

even contradict each other and what they're trying  

379

00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:46,880

to say about korean-ness because you know korean 

poets aren't trying to represent korea in in the  

380

00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:55,680

way that dysport poets often feel the need to 

um but i like how sort of my own body of works  

381

00:52:56,720 --> 00:53:04,880

become a very complex tapestry of korean-ness so i 

i like how i got to sort of share that aspect yeah  

382

00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:09,680

i i'm i think i've i remember seeing 

somewhere that you're you identify as 1.5  

383

00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:14,240

are you you're korean-american in the background 

background right did you grow up in the states  

384

00:53:14,240 --> 00:53:19,920

i i immigrated when i was seven so a little 

bit younger than you when i moved over but  

385

00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:26,160

yes my citizenship is um the us that's i 

wasn't asking about your citizenship status  

386

00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:36,080

of you know of uh just looking to korea 

for korean-ness or korean like passport  

387

00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:41,840

koreans looking for signs of things that represent 

korean-ness um i think that's also an interesting  

388

00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:50,240

um comment in this context because especially 

because this this work is always so irreverent  

389

00:53:50,960 --> 00:54:00,480

it's like it is just so um just graphic 

um and uh perverse and uh and violent  

390

00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:07,920

um and uh despite what she might say about 

herself also just fundam like just deeply  

391

00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:14,640

and intrinsically in some ways anti-traditional 

um yeah there's there's something just unruly  

392

00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:22,800

uh just unkempt about her whole way of uh 

narrating and ex and describing her experiences  

393

00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:28,640

and her relationships uh do you did you 

struggle with any any of that like was  

394

00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:33,760

it did did at any point during those months 

that you spent time intimate time with with  

395

00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:39,680

the poor with the poems did you think this 

is just too much i i mean i lost my mind

396

00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:49,680

without mincing words i mean because maybe 

because it was such an intense translating  

397

00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:56,480

um period like i was really just living 

and breathing this collection right and  

398

00:54:57,120 --> 00:55:02,720

it did get very overwhelming but i think that 

level of intensity also helped me because i  

399

00:55:02,720 --> 00:55:09,200

was so in it that i was sort of like you know i 

have to sort of process all this violent language  

400

00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:20,320

through my own body and make it convincing so it 

was overwhelming um but i'm glad i'm glad it's out  

401

00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:27,600

yeah and do you think um you struggled with maybe 

striking a balance between what is graphic in one  

402

00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:34,720

language with the the same level of graphicness or 

impact in the other language that i mean i can't  

403

00:55:34,720 --> 00:55:39,600

imagine i i mean probably later on i'm gonna have 

to ask you why are you translating poetry like  

404

00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:45,280

for someone who doesn't translate poetry i cannot 

imagine a more difficult task this is incredible  

405

00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:53,840

to me that you even do this but that's that's for 

later um my own masochism to me questions yeah i  

406

00:55:53,840 --> 00:55:59,440

don't i don't know there's something incredibly 

creative about about this process but yeah but  

407

00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:04,560

what about that balance between what is you 

know what remains uh ambivalent what remains  

408

00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:13,760

graphic on the one hand how do you translate 

that into the other well you read korean also  

409

00:56:13,760 --> 00:56:20,240

so i i kind of want to flip the question back to 

you and ask you did you feel that the impact was  

410

00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:27,840

um equal or at least similar in like across 

the two versions i think i think it they vary  

411

00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:33,600

yeah with yeah with some poems i think they were 

more impactful i don't usually use that word but  

412

00:56:34,240 --> 00:56:41,760

um in english um and you know and then sometimes 

it's just so perverse in korean um but in english

413

00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:51,280

like the word you i mean i think for me like i'm 

i'm sort of old school that way you know for like  

414

00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:59,520

the idea that someone for instance would talk to 

their parents and use diga or digabonde or like  

415

00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:05,840

even even the ani was a year older there's 

a there's a transgression that's involved in  

416

00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:13,520

even those small acts of linguistic you know 

confrontation right yeah and now that i know that  

417

00:57:13,520 --> 00:57:20,800

you're the firstborn in your family i'm just like 

extra how dare you yeah yeah yeah oh that's a good  

418

00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:27,440

point yeah hmm i mean so it's not just cuss words 

right and it's not just throwing around words like  

419

00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:32,240

uh [ __ ] and [ __ ] like it's not just about 

that there's there's so much built into the  

420

00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:36,240

the structures of translation yeah so 

how do you how do you do it what are  

421

00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:46,240

well if i sort of provoke the admit response that 

you i feel like maybe i failed judy in some way  

422

00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:50,400

no no no that's not what i mean man isn't the 

difference i thought the difference was like  

423

00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:54,800

sometimes greater than others sometimes they were 

like right on par and then sometimes it's just  

424

00:57:54,800 --> 00:58:01,520

like you know different yeah no i'm just kidding 

but i i think i my my intention is always to  

425

00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:07,840

sort of keep them level um and like you pointed 

out sometimes the cultural context is just too  

426

00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:16,240

big for me to achieve that in just one line and 

of course there are certain you know footnotes  

427

00:58:16,240 --> 00:58:22,240

throughout this collection that sort of um 

contextualizes certain things for the reader but  

428

00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:27,920

with the you i felt like it would be too extra 

for me to like go in there with the footnote and  

429

00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:33,760

say you know this is like that's an insulting 

curve right right no that's yeah definitely  

430

00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:38,560

don't do that i mean and i think and i think the 

reason i keep bringing that up is because i'm  

431

00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:44,560

i'm just confronted with this realization that 

there is no one-to-one replication uh you know  

432

00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:50,560

transference of meaning in translation and i think 

that's what i was so struck by your work with um  

433

00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:59,200

the idea that multiple translators can translate 

the same poem in multiple ways and for that to be  

434

00:59:00,320 --> 00:59:06,320

okay you know what they mean that this wasn't 

about a competition like to win the best  

435

00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:12,160

translation that this wasn't to try to get at the 

most authentic or truthful or faithful meaning  

436

00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:19,840

um i thought that was just so brilliant yeah thank 

you for bringing up choca i had no idea you would  

437

00:59:19,840 --> 00:59:29,840

also look into that um yeah i mean i was in a 

translation program where it was very much of  

438

00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:36,240

the like we must get to the essence of the source 

text but then after a while especially while doing  

439

00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:43,760

poetry you you realize like the korean is written 

ambiguously and it's meant to be read that way  

440

00:59:43,760 --> 00:59:49,200

and there are multiple interpretations even in 

untranslated works you know i think we turn to  

441

00:59:49,200 --> 00:59:57,680

poetry because it is so nuanced and ambiguous 

and mysterious and multivalent and so i  

442

00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:03,040

decided to start this project where we could sort 

of freely pursue all these different directions  

443

01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:10,000

without canceling each other out so yeah thank 

you for bringing that up yeah do you see a lot of  

444

01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:18,160

room growth potential do you see a lot of interest 

in translating poetry i definitely yeah our last  

445

01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:27,680

um issue we had 12 different translations of one 

poem so it's yeah steadily growing yeah as their  

446

01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:32,640

project goes on i mean it's interesting because 

i'm probably more likely to do a translation  

447

01:00:32,640 --> 01:00:38,480

project of declarations and manifestos and you 

know press conference statements which are of  

448

01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:43,600

course in a different genre but in some ways there 

are the kinds of nuances and cultural contexts  

449

01:00:44,160 --> 01:00:52,160

um that one deals with in any genre um i would 

imagine challenges exist across the board and what  

450

01:00:52,160 --> 01:00:59,040

do you think are some of your biggest challenges 

in translating not just poetry but poetry with a  

451

01:00:59,040 --> 01:01:04,640

lot of political teeth a lot of political currency 

and also just kind of under in the spotlight  

452

01:01:05,760 --> 01:01:13,840

yeah i i want to deliver the emotional impact 

that the source did had on me so i sort of want  

453

01:01:13,840 --> 01:01:23,200

to replicate my experience of reading the poem 

and sometimes it involves reorganizing footnotes  

454

01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:30,000

you know changing words from you know um 

no to your name or something like that so  

455

01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:39,920

yeah i i do i also translate non-poetry and 

non-literature i do some technical translation as  

456

01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:45,680

well so i i can sort of contrast that personally 

between the different projects that i do and  

457

01:01:45,680 --> 01:01:53,920

speaking of manifestos and manuals um i saw on 

your calendar for feminist politics you have  

458

01:01:53,920 --> 01:02:02,160

an upcoming event with hijin shim from survive 

and punish then i actually trend this was my  

459

01:02:02,160 --> 01:02:10,080

only project that i've done um from english into 

korean so the opposite way for me and i translated  

460

01:02:11,360 --> 01:02:19,040

uh sort of a manual for queer survivors of 

domestic abuse no way too that the project  

461

01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:25,600

oh you did that yeah oh did you read yeah the yeah 

i've read it and i've i've attended that they're  

462

01:02:25,600 --> 01:02:32,000

yeah with their workshops yeah yeah so when i saw 

that i was like wow what a small world it is a  

463

01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:38,480

small world i i've never met in in person we just 

became twitter friends and then i ended up doing  

464

01:02:38,480 --> 01:02:49,440

this gig for them so even with that project um i 

i definitely use the terminology like sort of the

465

01:02:51,600 --> 01:03:01,840

you know the casual vocab uh slang of the 

career community here um so i i try to  

466

01:03:02,640 --> 01:03:10,720

like in addition to paying close attention to 

the text itself i try to just be mindful and  

467

01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:18,000

curious about things that are happening um right 

now around me right it seems like that's also  

468

01:03:18,000 --> 01:03:25,120

advice you could give to aspiring translators 

that you don't just study translation yeah i read  

469

01:03:25,120 --> 01:03:32,320

i mean now nowadays less so but what back when 

i live in the states actually right now i'm so i  

470

01:03:32,320 --> 01:03:38,320

brought up my citizenship because it's i have this 

sort of dual immigrant status of like i'm a korean  

471

01:03:38,320 --> 01:03:45,120

american back in korea but back when i lived in 

the states attending uc berkeley as an undergrad  

472

01:03:45,120 --> 01:03:50,720

i had um a twitter account where i would just 

follow p i didn't tweet out anything but i just  

473

01:03:50,720 --> 01:03:57,920

followed a bunch of queer korean activists and 

just like people and that's sort of how i picked  

474

01:03:57,920 --> 01:04:06,240

up a lot of um queer terminologies that are being 

used you know outside of academia or you know in  

475

01:04:06,240 --> 01:04:11,760

everyday contexts so that kind of knowledge 

definitely paid off once i got here right and  

476

01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:17,840

even people were talking about yeah no for sure 

and and among feminists too they're the kind of  

477

01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:25,440

um activist jargon or or slang the colloquial 

language that also appears in like throughout  

478

01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:31,120

this portrait collection too um you must have 

to make some decisions on how to match that to  

479

01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:36,640

perhaps what is current in english do you have an 

example of that in in this collection you think  

480

01:04:37,920 --> 01:04:44,480

i don't know i mean because like cat calling 

is not exactly one of those terms but that is  

481

01:04:44,480 --> 01:04:48,880

that is certainly an equivalent in 

both no that's uh that's such a good  

482

01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:52,960

example oh my screen sharing disappeared 

i was going to get to the t chair  

483

01:04:54,400 --> 01:05:00,000

eventually i'm sorry eventually no no no why are 

you please don't apologize um i should have gotten  

484

01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:07,120

through that but uh what were you talking about 

cat calling so uh the korean title is kekkoring  

485

01:05:08,320 --> 01:05:16,800

transliteration of the english into hunger and 

i actually almost changed the title in english  

486

01:05:16,800 --> 01:05:26,960

translation um because quoting is less of um 

like it is the term that's used in korea by  

487

01:05:26,960 --> 01:05:32,640

people who are already aware of the phenomenon 

but catcalling is less a thing in korea as  

488

01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:41,920

a form of you know street harassment um am i gonna 

go into this i mean the sex crimes here are more  

489

01:05:43,360 --> 01:05:49,120

digital based i'm sure you've been reading 

the news yeah all the more moroccan  

490

01:05:50,240 --> 01:05:56,400

cameras in like public restrooms and i don't know 

to what extent i should be explaining this for our  

491

01:05:56,400 --> 01:06:04,000

audience here watching um should i sure i mean 

especially because it's such a such a concern  

492

01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:08,560

yeah and iso actually in her next collection 

that hasn't been published yet she sent me  

493

01:06:09,200 --> 01:06:16,560

um her manuscript and it has because you know she 

engages in visual poetry one of her next poems  

494

01:06:16,560 --> 01:06:25,600

is a picture of a bathroom stall with tiny holes 

drilled into the stall and then she has a footnote  

495

01:06:25,600 --> 01:06:34,240

where she sort of like that's the poem um and so 

to give context to what's happening is um cis men  

496

01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:43,840

are entering women's bathrooms and drilling holes 

tiny tiny holes into the stall to install tiny  

497

01:06:43,840 --> 01:06:50,800

cameras where they either like live stream women 

going to the restroom or like taking pictures  

498

01:06:52,160 --> 01:07:00,480

and it's so perverse but it's so prevalent 

it's like it's become one of the most  

499

01:07:02,240 --> 01:07:12,240

prevalent sex crimes in korea um and it's such 

a violation of women's privacy and also it's  

500

01:07:12,240 --> 01:07:21,040

meant to humiliate you know like the the sort of 

psychology that the psychological reasoning that  

501

01:07:21,040 --> 01:07:30,560

um articles have presented is like oh they they 

feel so disempowered by women's empowerment that  

502

01:07:30,560 --> 01:07:37,360

they have to watch women at their lowest to feel 

better about themselves so it's this whole thing  

503

01:07:37,360 --> 01:07:47,120

and if you go to like a subway like a um a metro 

restroom and you will find these tiny holes  

504

01:07:47,120 --> 01:07:55,040

and it's it's frightening you know like you 

don't know where it's like you don't know which  

505

01:07:55,040 --> 01:08:02,000

which of these holes has been um yeah yeah i've 

i've seen people carry uh little kits with uh  

506

01:08:02,000 --> 01:08:07,600

stickers right right so when you're entering 

this like this whole mark yeah it's i feel so  

507

01:08:09,120 --> 01:08:14,080

frustrated about the world because now there's 

a market for anti-worker you know hidden camera  

508

01:08:14,640 --> 01:08:22,000

technology and so women have to pay money to be 

safe against these cameras but i yeah i went on  

509

01:08:22,000 --> 01:08:28,160

a sort of with tangent so my point is cat quoting 

cat calling as a concept is less familiar in korea  

510

01:08:28,160 --> 01:08:36,080

because the men are less confrontational to 

you oh right sex crimes are hidden and yeah  

511

01:08:36,080 --> 01:08:42,640

um so i i was thinking because cat calling when 

translated literally into english like everyone  

512

01:08:42,640 --> 01:08:48,560

knows what cat calling is in english so i was 

like well you know it's not gonna have that same  

513

01:08:49,120 --> 01:08:55,040

sense of foreignness mm-hmm so i i 

was going um so i was just going to  

514

01:08:56,320 --> 01:09:01,600

uh pick out like some some of my favorite 

phrases from different poems like one of the  

515

01:09:01,600 --> 01:09:08,080

options was playing with scars which is from a 

poem in the fifth section because you know easel  

516

01:09:08,080 --> 01:09:13,200

like what is she doing if not playing with 

her own scars um but ultimately i was vetoed  

517

01:09:13,760 --> 01:09:21,600

by the publisher so we went with cat calling 

um but yeah um that's it's such a that's  

518

01:09:21,600 --> 01:09:26,720

such an um interesting point too because 

catcalling is a kind of violence that puts  

519

01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:32,800

on display in a public context it's it's about 

being subjected to harassment and violence  

520

01:09:33,440 --> 01:09:40,160

um in public where others might be present but 

whether it's about the kind of digital sex crimes  

521

01:09:40,160 --> 01:09:45,440

you're talking about or the kind of intimate 

family violence um and even violence among  

522

01:09:45,440 --> 01:09:54,400

sisters and and obviously with oppa like i mean 

all the the all those kinds of you know forms of  

523

01:09:54,400 --> 01:10:02,320

violence in in in one's proximity um that's that 

yeah that's not covered by a focus on cat calling  

524

01:10:02,320 --> 01:10:11,360

per se yeah and i wanted to mention that herself 

um i asked her um at one point because while i was  

525

01:10:11,360 --> 01:10:17,440

like oh you know like maybe it just doesn't carry 

the same valence so i asked her you know well how  

526

01:10:17,440 --> 01:10:21,840

would you feel about changing the title and she 

was very open she really liked playing with scars  

527

01:10:22,560 --> 01:10:27,760

which was very validating and she told me she 

picked cat calling not because she felt like it  

528

01:10:27,760 --> 01:10:31,920

was the repres because there's a poem called 

cat calling and she picked it as a title not  

529

01:10:31,920 --> 01:10:36,800

because she felt like that poem in particular 

was representative of the whole collection but  

530

01:10:36,800 --> 01:10:44,080

she just felt like it was catchy cat calling as a 

word is catchy because to koreans it's less of a  

531

01:10:44,640 --> 01:10:51,600

violent it carries less of a violent connotation 

they're like sure like it sounds cute that's also  

532

01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:59,280

the critique that we have in english that it's 

such um it doesn't do the you know harassment  

533

01:10:59,280 --> 01:11:08,240

justice in terms of how it sort of neutralizes 

the actual fear that people encounter right  

534

01:11:08,240 --> 01:11:14,800

yeah that's that's such an interesting so you so 

you had the executive decisions along the way to  

535

01:11:15,440 --> 01:11:21,600

make some decisions but not all uh yeah the author 

herself didn't have all the decision-making power  

536

01:11:21,600 --> 01:11:29,600

either it sounds like yeah yeah i mean i tried 

because you know she's alive and very online um  

537

01:11:29,600 --> 01:11:36,160

i i emailed her a lot about um different thoughts 

that i was having you know i i contacted her  

538

01:11:36,160 --> 01:11:40,720

less to be like oh is this the right one but i 

would sort of give her different options like  

539

01:11:40,720 --> 01:11:46,480

you know i floated different you know um titles 

like playing with scars or i don't know what else  

540

01:11:47,200 --> 01:11:51,200

i forget but i had i gave her like five different 

things and i'm like oh this is sort of and then i  

541

01:11:51,200 --> 01:11:58,400

would translate them back into korean to sort of 

convey the meaning and so she would be like oh  

542

01:11:58,400 --> 01:12:08,400

i like this and i would do that with the poems 

themselves too like um he god he who rides and  

543

01:12:09,520 --> 01:12:18,000

every man who has written and written me that poem 

um with getting the sort of the rhyme um yeah i  

544

01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:23,280

gave her like eight different options i was like 

you know these are all the different ways we can  

545

01:12:23,280 --> 01:12:31,120

um sort of recreate the cinder which is 

a homonym right for to write and also to  

546

01:12:31,120 --> 01:12:36,960

use yeah so i would always give her all these 

options and then she would give me her thoughts  

547

01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:42,000

you know she'll be like oh i like this and but 

then sometimes like a lot of the times i would  

548

01:12:43,280 --> 01:12:50,000

be in agreement with her but sometimes i 

would not agree with her you know was was  

549

01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:54,720

there yeah was there any moment in this 

collection that you thought this poem  

550

01:12:54,720 --> 01:13:00,800

meant this and then you talked to her and 

was you were off in your interpretation  

551

01:13:01,680 --> 01:13:09,040

yeah speaking of speakers um when it's not 

specified you know not spelled out in the korean  

552

01:13:09,040 --> 01:13:18,160

i uh i workshop uh some of these poems with uh 

translators who happen to be korean nationals and  

553

01:13:19,040 --> 01:13:21,840

they would disagree with each 

other and then i would like

554

01:13:24,160 --> 01:13:28,880

like one one person would correct me and then i 

would ask another person to make sure and then  

555

01:13:28,880 --> 01:13:35,920

they'll be like no you were right so i'd be like 

oh my god like this is no authority this speaks  

556

01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:41,200

yeah i mean this speaks to the difficulty but 

also it validates you know my my confusion and  

557

01:13:41,200 --> 01:13:47,120

then ultimately i would ask easel whole like i try 

to not ask her about like subject stuff because it  

558

01:13:47,120 --> 01:13:55,200

just seems so basic but but it's so important 

and but it is so completely changed yeah yeah  

559

01:13:55,200 --> 01:14:00,400

and i didn't realize like sometimes i'm like well 

of course it's i and then and then someone will be  

560

01:14:00,400 --> 01:14:04,960

like no it's you and then and then you will 

be like no it's i and i'm like yes i got it  

561

01:14:06,320 --> 01:14:14,080

um so yeah uh there there were maybe two instances 

where like the subject was different from what i  

562

01:14:14,080 --> 01:14:22,880

assumed yeah dummy is back yeah i think i think 

we do have to transition to q a but okay yeah  

563

01:14:22,880 --> 01:14:27,520

there's actually a question that that's sort of 

related to this about translating and the nuances  

564

01:14:27,520 --> 01:14:34,320

um sja i had a question about there are some 

words in korean that has more nuance right like

565

01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:43,680

um and so how when this gets translated into 

crunch crunch or simply knife um from shikar  

566

01:14:43,680 --> 01:14:50,800

to knife um it seems like you know that's the kind 

of nuance um that's that one struggles with it do  

567

01:14:50,800 --> 01:14:58,480

you do you remember struggling or uh or i don't 

know did did you spend any time pouring over this  

568

01:14:58,480 --> 01:15:06,880

war choice knife uh knife i think in terms of 

rhythm i didn't want to go with cooking knife  

569

01:15:08,080 --> 01:15:14,480

because sometimes kitchen knife cleaver 

they're all kinds of yeah sure yeah because  

570

01:15:14,480 --> 01:15:21,840

or like fruit knife because it's a it's a very 

cutting an apple but my my thinking is that  

571

01:15:22,800 --> 01:15:29,360

sometimes translators will get so specific 

to you know get at every nuance of the word  

572

01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:38,240

that it bogs down the poem itself and and then 

you know readers might be like of course it's a  

573

01:15:38,240 --> 01:15:45,760

kitchen knife right you know so i i went with 

knife as for paddock that was definitely something  

574

01:15:45,760 --> 01:15:52,720

that um i poured over because you know korean 

has all this ornamental yeah like it ital that  

575

01:15:53,280 --> 01:16:00,720

don't exist in english or are less developed 

than english so um everyone knows domi choi  

576

01:16:00,720 --> 01:16:08,160

the brilliant poet translator in her translations 

of kimusun she would often double verbs in that  

577

01:16:08,160 --> 01:16:16,000

same way um so i took a page from don mi and 

interesting so that's a strategy yeah yeah  

578

01:16:16,000 --> 01:16:20,320

yeah what other strategies do you have for 

folks who say you know there are just some  

579

01:16:20,320 --> 01:16:28,800

words in korean that just don't exist in english 

even in you know the idea you know it's usually  

580

01:16:28,800 --> 01:16:32,880

things like you know like i'm not let's not 

get into han or chong or things like that

581

01:16:37,120 --> 01:16:42,640

i mean these words that people often bring up as 

uh examples of the kind of korean-ness that we  

582

01:16:42,640 --> 01:16:51,840

mentioned earlier yeah how do you respond to that 

well because it's poetry i also invite people to  

583

01:16:51,840 --> 01:16:56,800

make up their own words you know crunch crunch 

is not a word that you can find in the english  

584

01:16:56,800 --> 01:17:03,360

language so you sort of frankenstein these 

different languages together to find something  

585

01:17:03,360 --> 01:17:10,000

coherent i think yeah that's brilliant nami 

did you should i ask that you ask a question  

586

01:17:11,600 --> 01:17:18,000

i use my executive privilege no actually um the 

conversation was so thought provoking but also  

587

01:17:18,000 --> 01:17:23,520

so much fun that i didn't want to disrupt you 

um i wish we can spend more time just talking  

588

01:17:23,520 --> 01:17:30,080

there are two questions however uh from the 

audience so should we go ahead should i go ahead  

589

01:17:30,080 --> 01:17:35,840

and read those questions sure uh they're actually 

by the same person it looks like yes well actually  

590

01:17:35,840 --> 01:17:41,680

two from ashley kim but let's go ahead with the 

first one i feel that the majority conservative  

591

01:17:41,680 --> 01:17:48,080

korean media constantly gaslights feminists 

do people who are part of the korean feminist  

592

01:17:48,080 --> 01:17:57,840

literature community see translation as an escape 

from that hypersensitive online mob society  

593

01:17:58,560 --> 01:18:05,360

like could the english translation possibly offer 

a way out of this you know kind of a close chamber  

594

01:18:06,400 --> 01:18:09,920

interesting that's interesting i 

haven't thought of it that way i  

595

01:18:09,920 --> 01:18:17,840

i because i'm facing a different audience right 

the korean feminists i mean cat calling is sold  

596

01:18:17,840 --> 01:18:24,880

in korea as well but you know i wrote this with 

people living elsewhere so i i don't know if i  

597

01:18:24,880 --> 01:18:34,000

can offer them an escape but i would love love 

if give him any sort of solace yeah yeah or  

598

01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:42,160

validation from elsewhere that then becomes 

legitimacy when right this sort of poetry is taken  

599

01:18:42,880 --> 01:18:48,240

seriously enough to be published elsewhere yeah i 

i i definitely get that sense from ethel herself  

600

01:18:49,520 --> 01:18:56,080

she she was telling me um i think a lot of 

people would be surprised to find um that she  

601

01:18:56,080 --> 01:19:05,840

lives with her parents no yeah despite all her 

sisters her sister lives in uh australia with her  

602

01:19:05,840 --> 01:19:11,360

boyfriend which is why okay anyway i'm not 

gonna go into that whole thing but she lives  

603

01:19:11,360 --> 01:19:16,560

with her parents and she told me she's like 

thank you for translating this collection  

604

01:19:16,560 --> 01:19:22,080

because now that my book is available 

in the u.s my parents finally respect me

605

01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:30,800

her parents are like oh like she's actually doing 

something with her life that kind of thing she's  

606

01:19:30,800 --> 01:19:38,800

never helped one person you had a hand in yeah 

in holding up this yeah yeah yeah her parents are  

607

01:19:38,800 --> 01:19:45,280

sort of just you know like they didn't expect 

this right when their daughter became a poet  

608

01:19:45,280 --> 01:19:52,320

um um i guess there's another question from 

s lee i'm curious what the experience was of  

609

01:19:52,320 --> 01:19:58,000

being edited by someone who's not familiar with 

korean which i presume was the case though i'm not  

610

01:19:58,000 --> 01:20:02,640

certain was there significant input 

from the publisher aside from design  

611

01:20:03,280 --> 01:20:12,720

aspects yeah um anastasia nicholas at open 

letter books my poetry editor is wonderful she  

612

01:20:14,320 --> 01:20:23,360

she had read a lot of korean feminist poetry and 

translation um by tommy choi emily changmin yoon  

613

01:20:23,360 --> 01:20:28,480

you know all these people who have come 

before me and so anastasia was actually  

614

01:20:28,480 --> 01:20:36,640

quite i i feel like i mean she might deny this 

but i think she was pretty um knowledgeable in  

615

01:20:38,160 --> 01:20:46,240

korean poetry in translation and then so she could 

sort of see how cat calling fit into the existing  

616

01:20:46,240 --> 01:20:53,920

canon i guess in translation um but on like 

a word to word level no she couldn't read the  

617

01:20:53,920 --> 01:21:00,000

korean so it was up to me to explain to her 

you know this is this there's this homonym  

618

01:21:00,640 --> 01:21:04,400

um in korean that i'm struggling to deal 

with so i would sort of spell it out for  

619

01:21:04,400 --> 01:21:09,520

her and then we would have these conversations 

and um she was really really great in terms of  

620

01:21:10,160 --> 01:21:17,760

um like being my sounding board in terms of 

like oh this this cultural context like you  

621

01:21:17,760 --> 01:21:22,800

need to spell this out a little bit more so 

yeah i i found it to be a good experience this  

622

01:21:22,800 --> 01:21:29,520

also confirms that the rumor that translation 

is not an isolated experience that you engage  

623

01:21:29,520 --> 01:21:37,440

certainly with the author the editors yeah 

the world your parents yeah my parents oh god

624

01:21:39,600 --> 01:21:41,840

the test

625

01:21:45,520 --> 01:21:52,240

yeah well and also the i noticed a pattern in a 

lot of the translators of poetry that they are  

626

01:21:52,240 --> 01:22:02,160

poets themselves are you a poet yourself oh i feel 

embarrassed because i haven't really been actively  

627

01:22:03,440 --> 01:22:11,200

publishing them but yeah i i started as a 

writer and yeah hope to pursue my own poetry  

628

01:22:11,200 --> 01:22:16,720

as well excellent i'm really looking forward 

to seeing more work um i feel like we should  

629

01:22:16,720 --> 01:22:23,040

call on victoria who was the mastermind 

behind this amazing conversation right  

630

01:22:23,040 --> 01:22:28,800

let's do that uh but let me just go ahead 

and read one more question from ashley kim  

631

01:22:28,800 --> 01:22:35,360

uh the theme of vengeance has a different register 

in korean culture and therefore korean art forms i  

632

01:22:35,360 --> 01:22:40,960

feel that that's just so perfect for feminist art 

but a different part of me feels that it can also  

633

01:22:40,960 --> 01:22:47,120

be limiting how do you see vengeance playing out 

in the literature you translate and have you ever  

634

01:22:47,120 --> 01:22:53,280

faced difficulties in communicating that intense 

form of anger to the english-speaking reader

635

01:22:58,160 --> 01:23:05,120

yeah now that you sort of position cat 

calling in the over of you know pakton  

636

01:23:06,880 --> 01:23:21,040

you know vengeance trilogy wow hmm yeah i huh let 

me think about this what a great question i think  

637

01:23:21,040 --> 01:23:28,240

it's also vengeance in the form of a certain 

violence or the expression of rage right yeah  

638

01:23:29,280 --> 01:23:36,720

i think it's slightly different because 

we now are receiving it from an entirely  

639

01:23:37,440 --> 01:23:44,240

female feminist perspective you 

know um is male of course he has um  

640

01:23:45,600 --> 01:23:52,240

lady vengeance as well with young 

a um which is great um but to have  

641

01:23:53,120 --> 01:24:04,480

a woman sort of penning all these revenge revenge 

and violence um literary violence yes yeah

642

01:24:08,800 --> 01:24:09,520

victoria

643

01:24:12,640 --> 01:24:18,640

thank you for inviting me to ask questions as 

well yeah i suppose so they touched on this  

644

01:24:18,640 --> 01:24:27,760

earlier in the discussion but um in selecting 

texts to form what essentially will become the  

645

01:24:27,760 --> 01:24:35,040

english canon of soldier the translator what do 

you what do you look what do you think you're  

646

01:24:35,040 --> 01:24:41,200

um potentially looking for in the 

future we have um your collection  

647

01:24:41,920 --> 01:24:52,160

here poems which are uh more queer uh 

romantic poetry perhaps sensual erotic poetry

648

01:24:54,800 --> 01:25:03,280

and uh we have the upcoming uh to the warm 

horizon which is a uh somewhat sci-fi futuristic  

649

01:25:03,280 --> 01:25:10,880

apocalyptic novel lesbians in the apocalypse 

wow exactly this is awesome yeah yeah i mean  

650

01:25:10,880 --> 01:25:16,880

i guess sort of tying back into the previous 

question about vengeance like this is my this is  

651

01:25:16,880 --> 01:25:22,960

the only work that i've translated that deals with 

vengeance or violence like everything else is very  

652

01:25:23,520 --> 01:25:34,160

not this energy um so you won't be typecast that's 

the translator yeah yeah you know i do really  

653

01:25:34,160 --> 01:25:42,960

think about trans translators as sort of actors as 

well um like i've talked about method translating  

654

01:25:44,240 --> 01:25:48,560

before yeah yeah but victoria 

i cut you off did you have like  

655

01:25:48,560 --> 01:25:54,880

a question no no that was the question of just 

what what are you looking forward perhaps to

656

01:25:56,960 --> 01:26:02,960

adding to our english canon of korean literature 

because um it's really with translators such  

657

01:26:02,960 --> 01:26:07,440

as yourself and anton hur and our other 

smoking tiger friends uh sophie bowman so  

658

01:26:08,560 --> 01:26:15,600

just fantastic young generation of translators 

who are broadening what we can see now  

659

01:26:15,600 --> 01:26:25,040

as korean literature in english so what are 

you looking to yeah because the first sort of i  

660

01:26:25,760 --> 01:26:30,080

anton and i have had a discussion 

about this and we sort of disagree  

661

01:26:30,080 --> 01:26:38,080

on how we define the generations of korean 

translators but i i feel like i'm sort of in  

662

01:26:39,840 --> 01:26:46,800

the 3.5 like we you and i are in the 3.5 

like i always feel sort of in between  

663

01:26:48,400 --> 01:26:54,880

third and fourth generations yeah yeah um but 

he he thinks that we're still in the third or  

664

01:26:55,680 --> 01:27:00,640

even second but anyway yeah it's like a 

whole thing maybe we'll he and i will do  

665

01:27:00,640 --> 01:27:06,560

a talk later on this but the first generation 

of korean translators i want everyone to know  

666

01:27:06,560 --> 01:27:12,640

that a lot of these were white men who 

were who came to korea as missionaries or  

667

01:27:13,760 --> 01:27:22,720

like uh un people you know so they were sort 

of approaching korea as outsiders and then  

668

01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:30,480

they went on to become academics so they had 

an interest in um replicating the korean canon  

669

01:27:31,040 --> 01:27:38,880

in translation right um a lot of male authors 

right but then uh whatever generation we're in  

670

01:27:38,880 --> 01:27:44,240

now um everyone is sort of turning like looking 

at different things like we have jack jung who's  

671

01:27:44,240 --> 01:27:50,560

you know doing the very canonical thing but he's 

sort of in the minority now for pursuing colonial  

672

01:27:50,560 --> 01:27:56,960

poets um and then we have a lot of um 

members of smoking tigers doing really really  

673

01:27:57,600 --> 01:28:06,160

cutting edge sci-fi stuff which hasn't been um 

which hadn't been translated that much um previous  

674

01:28:06,160 --> 01:28:16,000

to this decade i would say so it's really exciting 

um interesting because for me because um so  

675

01:28:16,000 --> 01:28:21,680

someone like sophie bowman you know she talked 

about her like growing up with sci-fi and her  

676

01:28:22,320 --> 01:28:29,120

long-long interest in sci-fi like i have no desire 

to compete with a true sci-fi fan you know i think  

677

01:28:29,120 --> 01:28:37,520

it's great that we all have our sort of niches 

and passions so mine mine i guess is like queer  

678

01:28:38,080 --> 01:28:47,440

queer stuff kristoff hopefully i i've i've been 

noticing more non-binary poets as well so that  

679

01:28:47,440 --> 01:28:53,920

would be interesting to translate but right now 

my next um the next project that i've decided on  

680

01:28:54,640 --> 01:29:01,360

i hope i could talk about it i don't see 

why not um is a novel by tongsera sarang  

681

01:29:01,360 --> 01:29:07,920

who is the author of the school nurse files i 

don't know if people have seen the netflix show um

682

01:29:15,280 --> 01:29:21,040

like i like to use the word shimmy she 

shimmies between these uh the literary  

683

01:29:21,040 --> 01:29:28,240

very literary fiction and sort of wacky 

sci-fi world and she has um a novel called  

684

01:29:29,840 --> 01:29:36,720

that was a bestseller last year it was um 

picked as like the number one book of 2020  

685

01:29:36,720 --> 01:29:44,080

and that is about a family who um celebrates their  

686

01:29:45,200 --> 01:29:51,840

mother slash grandmother's chez 10th anniversary 

chez in hawaii so it's about how a family  

687

01:29:53,440 --> 01:30:04,400

subverts the traditional expectations of mourning 

ceremonies you know ancestral rights by going to  

688

01:30:04,400 --> 01:30:14,240

hawaii and sort of um thinking about lineage in 

a new way um there's i'm not doing a great job  

689

01:30:14,240 --> 01:30:21,760

explaining this right now um it is still early 

in the morning for me and now you blame the time  

690

01:30:21,760 --> 01:30:27,680

now i blame the time but um it's like it's 

not just some like empty like oh they go on  

691

01:30:28,640 --> 01:30:35,120

an island vacation like they go to hawaii and then 

realize that they're part of the problem and you  

692

01:30:35,120 --> 01:30:41,680

know how tourism affects the environment is like 

a staunch environmentalist so she thinks about  

693

01:30:41,680 --> 01:30:49,120

how um she thinks about ecologism she thinks 

about indigenous sovereignty like there is like a  

694

01:30:49,120 --> 01:30:56,720

chapter dedicated to like the indigenous people of 

hawaii so yeah it's it's a really interesting book  

695

01:30:56,720 --> 01:31:04,480

in terms of how she uses tachezah as like a 

plot point but then the cesar is like totally  

696

01:31:04,480 --> 01:31:10,160

different from what we expect a korean chesa to 

look like no that's so interesting especially in  

697

01:31:10,160 --> 01:31:16,400

an indigenous indigenous context and the yeah the 

yeah the conjuring of ancestors i i can see this  

698

01:31:16,400 --> 01:31:21,920

being an amazing connection so what i'm hearing 

is that you don't care much about the sort of the  

699

01:31:21,920 --> 01:31:27,280

generational genealogy like in the selection 

process do you feel pressured to like i mean  

700

01:31:27,280 --> 01:31:34,480

does anybody tell you like you can't do this you 

have to do this first oh uh i feel like that was  

701

01:31:34,480 --> 01:31:43,120

more of an issue when i was in school maybe but 

then now i'm a freelancer so i'm so just i mean  

702

01:31:43,120 --> 01:31:51,440

for better or worse i'm so disconnected from those 

people so yeah yeah i have fewer naysayers um  

703

01:31:52,480 --> 01:31:59,920

yeah i guess what i'm what i'm hearing for 

myself is i'd like to translate different  

704

01:31:59,920 --> 01:32:08,320

authors who redefine korean-ness now this is so 

exciting i am just so i i'm yeah i'm going to  

705

01:32:08,320 --> 01:32:15,120

be thinking about this for for a very long time 

it's one of the most eye-opening and enjoyable um  

706

01:32:16,080 --> 01:32:20,400

conversations experiences this whole 

year yeah it was so nice to meet you and  

707

01:32:20,400 --> 01:32:25,840

talk about me and everything 

oh and there's so much more

708

01:32:27,920 --> 01:32:33,680

i can i can only concur with what just judy said 

and we're going to have to have you back sometime  

709

01:32:33,680 --> 01:32:41,680

very soon i would love to personally yes in 

person definitely um and to continue to talk about  

710

01:32:41,680 --> 01:32:49,440

all the just very thought-provoking um 

subjects that we've covered so far um the um  

711

01:32:50,880 --> 01:32:57,760

we are hoping the center for korean studies is 

hoping to continue with this series of kwajang  

712

01:32:58,960 --> 01:33:03,760

and with the obviously the help 

of victoria and all other people

713

01:33:06,240 --> 01:33:15,280

sometime in the fall will be our third event of 

this series uh series um so i'd like to thank you  

714

01:33:16,000 --> 01:33:27,040

um so there judy and victoria all so very much for 

this wonderful event and such a fun event actually  

715

01:33:27,040 --> 01:33:38,000

it's one of the few times it was so fun to be 

part of um yeah yes so thank you so very much once  

716

01:33:38,000 --> 01:33:45,200

again and for those of you whose questions have 

not been answered i am sorry about that uh perhaps  

717

01:33:45,200 --> 01:33:53,120

so they will be open to getting questions uh 

in person sometime yeah uh after the event  

718

01:33:53,120 --> 01:33:58,400

um do you have a website actually there was a 

question about sharing your work yes oh yeah i  

719

01:33:58,400 --> 01:34:04,960

saw that too from julie kim um i haven't posted 

my poetry they live on very private google docs

720

01:34:09,920 --> 01:34:14,240

um but i do have a website 

it's um smokingtigers.com  

721

01:34:15,760 --> 01:34:19,600

i think and then i have uh twitter sojiflux  

722

01:34:21,600 --> 01:34:27,600

so you can probably dm me your questions if 

they're urgent great thank you so much um thank  

723

01:34:27,600 --> 01:34:35,600

you victoria and uh thank you so much once again 

all three of you uh we would probably have to uh  

724

01:34:35,600 --> 01:34:44,800

end our event today uh and for those of you again 

who would like to look up the the website of the  

725

01:34:44,800 --> 01:34:51,520

center for korean studies for future events 

and also possibly donate to our fundraising  

726

01:34:53,120 --> 01:34:59,600

so that we will be able to continue with 

this kind of program in the future please uh  

727

01:34:59,600 --> 01:35:03,920

go take a look at this john duncan fellowship 

in korean studies john duncan is the  

728

01:35:04,720 --> 01:35:07,440

former director of the center for korean studies  

729

01:35:08,240 --> 01:35:18,480

so once again thank you and good night um 

thank you thank you so much everyone bye-bye



koreanstudies@international.ucla.edu


Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies

29 Apr 21
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM

Save the Date

Sharing Tools

Link copied!

Upcoming IEW Events

    There are no upcoming events posted at this time, please sign up to our newsletter to stay updated.