When translating, you can’t put too much energy into it (you’ll burn out) or too little (you’ll be unengaged and bored). Your energy level has to maintain a flight of Daedalus: not too high for the sun to melt the wax holding the feathers of the wings, not too low to get the wings drenched by the spray of the waves. If you want to … Continue reading A Flight of Daedalus
Finding something you don’t like in a manuscript is always super interesting. Instead of deleting it, interrogate it. “Why do I hate this part so much?” It may lead you down a path where you discover something about the manuscript and, ultimately, yourself. And because I need to name everything, I call it the Miuccia Prada Rule. Prada always includes a texture she absolutely hates … Continue reading The Miuccia Prada Rule
* The following is the first draft of a presentation I’d been planning to give, with two other translators, at the 2020 American Literary Translators’ Association conference on the topic of “translating the Korean diaspora.” While the conference itself was moved online instead of being canceled, my fellow panelists and I, in a haze of COVID–19 despair, decided not to go ahead with this particular … Continue reading Draft Drawer: “Translating the Korean Diaspora”
The trickiest part of adopting a work routine was learning to stop for the day. I would always want to do some extra pages while I had “momentum.” But I learned to resist this urge. I learned from some wise friends that chasing these feelings of “productivity” and “virtue” was foolish, especially when these feelings, which are just twisted forms of anxiety, had nothing to … Continue reading I Adopt a Work Routine
*My high school English teacher asked me to put together a reading list of mostly contemporary Korean literature. This is what I gave him: 1. <100도씨> 100 Degrees Celsius by Choi Kyu-seok Genre: Graphic novel (historic fiction) Every list on contemporary Korean literature should start with this work, which describes the events leading up to the June Democracy Movement of 1987. Readers are given both … Continue reading Korean Literature 101: A Reading List
* A student asked me about how to critique other people’s writing. The following is an excerpt from my answer. It begins with you. You have to have a “reading” of the work. Something within you will tell you that something is bothering you about the work, or really engaging your attention. Try to enter a mental space where only you and the work exist and … Continue reading The Art of the Critic
*Disclaimer: I am not responsible for what happens to your skin. Have good genes. If you don’t, rest assured there’s only so much you can do anyway, so don’t waste too much time and money on skin care. You can’t really “make skin look younger.” You can only hold on to young skin for as long as possible. In short: sunscreen. Always wear sunscreen during … Continue reading Korean Skin Care Secrets
The following is the translation of a speech I gave this December, representing the graduating LTI Korea Academy Ateliers of 2017. It was originally delivered in Korean. First, I would like to thank the tireless people at the LTI Korea Academy who do so much work on our behalf, from coordinating the demands of all of the graduates you see here to staying up at … Continue reading Annus Mirabilis
The translator of a certain bestselling science-fiction novel once said that he did not aim to normalize his work into English, that he wanted his translation to read a little weird, that he felt he was contributing to the English language by introducing Chinese translationese. This translator, an award-winning writer in his own right, is Chinese-American. An important point. He grew up in America, lives in … Continue reading Language Imperialism
A vastness of mind is set to heart Of narratives placed in distant stars The space of space, a door ajar A noun a portal into art. Giants teased from micro parts Dinosaurs bloom from drops of tar A species in a single scar A universe’s end writ in its start. The alpha and omega in a line Each line decides the ending yet to … Continue reading SFF Sonnet
