Stella’s Translation Diary #2: Translation is Impossible

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Translation is Impossible

By Stella Kim

Translation is impossible. That’s what I hear in the back of my head every time I sit down in front of my computer. Today I ponder what to do with Korean words, which, when translated into English, contain names of other countries. Take, for instance, the word “패랭이꽃” (paeraengi kkot). It’s a type of wild flower native to China, Korea, Mongolia, and southeastern Russia, according to Wikipedia.

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(A screen shot of Google search of paeraengi kkot)

The flower paeraengi kkot was named so because its shape resembled paeraengi, a type of hat that male merchants used to wear in Joseon Korea (though I can’t really see it).

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(A screen shot from the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture)

In any case, despite the very folksy name it has in Korean, the English term for this flower is “China pink.” Some might not think about this twice, because this is the name of the flower. But I hesitate. I wonder if the insertion of the word “China” in the flower would confuse English readers and have them wonder whether the story is set in Korea or China. That’s probably me being overly concerned. Then I wonder, what if readers think that this is some flower that came from China when it is native to Korea too? What if readers think that even in Korean the flower is called China pink? Is that okay? After thinking about all this, I decide to just call the flower ‘pink’ for the moment.

Then I come across another term: “매화” (maehwa).

Maehwa is the name of the flower of a “매실나무” (maesil namu), commonly known as Chinese plum tree, Japanese plum tree, or Japanese apricot tree.

The fruit, “매실” (maesil), is closer to an apricot than plum, but maehwa is generally translated as “plum blossoms”. Handling this term is a bit easier, because I’ve already thought all I need to on the matter from looking up paeraengi kkot. I decide to go with plum tree and plum blossoms, all the while part of my brain keeps on telling me that maesil is different from the plums that English readers are familiar with.

Flora and fauna native to East Asia have been named in English by people who mostly discovered them from China or Japan, two major superpowers today. So it’s understandable that a tree native to both Korea and China was discovered first in China, what with Korea being closed off to the Western world for a long time. And they would’ve looked at paeraengi kkot and thought, “Hm, that looks like a pink, but we haven’t seen specifically that type of pink. I know! Since this flower is from China, I should call this China pink.” It makes flowers that people haven’t seen more familiar to them, as people would know what a “pink” looked like, yet it also adds a hint of exoticism.

I wonder if similar things happen when an English book is translated into Korean—are words localized? Or are they transliterated? The few I’d consulted mainly seem to transliterate and add footnotes or parenthetical explanations. What about books from different languages translated into English? But then again, what country in the world is similar to Korea, which had been China’s vassal for a long time and even as a sovereign country paid tribute to China in an acknowledgement of China’s strength?

 But I can’t change words or add enormous footnotes to the terms I’d like to explain, so I move on.

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June 2021 Book Club Report: Elena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults

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June 2021 Translated Literature Book Club Meeting

We almost called off this month’s book club meeting because of the two-person dine-in restriction, but one of the ladies had a brilliant idea of meeting at one of the benches at SMU…so there we were at a bench outside Onalu cafe on the last Saturday noon of June, sharing our thoughts about Elena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults over yummylicious egg sandwiches generously prepared by T and her husband, while K joined us over Zoom. 

It seems our general reception of The Lying Life of Adults isn’t overwhelming. No doubt the novel leads us into the inner life of a teenager, allows us to follow her on her emotionally turbulent coming-to-age journey, and prompts questions about the ethics of lying. But we felt Ferrante’s other books, particularly My Brilliant Friend, might be comparably more intriguing and riveting. That said, we’re looking forward to Netflix’s upcoming production based on The Lying Life of Adults.

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Here are some questions we discussed:

  • Why did Giovanna lie to her family and to her best friends?
  • Can lying be exalted as an art form?
  • What are the different styles of lying depicted in the novel?
  • Is literary fiction a lie?
  • How has Giovanna changed between the start and end of the story?

July 2021 Book Club Selection

There are countless translated books out there, but for the convenience of our book club members we will select only books with adequate copies in the NLB. 

For the month of July, we’ll be reading Malay writer Mohamed Latiff Mohamed‘s The Widow, translated by

If you’d like to join us, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more details about our next book club meeting!

*Harriett Press’s Translated Literature Book Club is a monthly book club that meets to discuss a translated book selected for the month. Anyone is welcome to join us!⁠ Find out more about book club meetings by following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!   

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