| Fiction Grand Prize winner Youngjae Josephine Bae |
She began translating Korean literature six years ago when she enrolled in a Special Course at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) Translation Academy.
She picked Park Hyoung-su's short story, “The Tall Dwarf,” for The Korea Times' Translation Award.
“I was drawn to the story because it somehow reminded me of a shameful moment in my life, when I playfully called a friend a 'midget' and later realized I had offended her. I was horrified at myself for joking about a person's appearance and for being unaware of how offensive the word can be when I should have known better as someone who translates for a living,” Bae said.
“The more important reason for selecting 'The Tall Dwarf' was that Park Hyoung-su seemed to be a brilliant storyteller and the story made me want to read other works of his,” she added.
She believes the first few lines are crucial to any story, regardless of whether it's a translation or not. That's why she in particular struggled with the first sentence of this story.
“I went through a dozen different versions and seriously debated between two of them until the submission deadline was only twenty minutes away. I don't know if more time would have allowed me to come up with something better, and I can't say I'm completely satisfied yet, but at least I tried,” she said.
Having translated several literary works and winning the Fiction Grand Prize award, Bae said she is still not sure what a good literary translation is. “My answer keeps changing and I haven't settled on one yet,” Bae said.
Currently taking part in the LTI Translation Academy's Atelier Program, she tries to spend more time reading good translations rather than translating to find the answer.