Issues in Translating Korean Vernacular Poetry: Based on Translating the Namhun t’aep’yŏng-ga Anthology into Russian

Abstract

This article aims at examining some issues to consider while working on Korean vernacular poetry translation in relation to the 110-year tradition of Korean studies in Russia. Examples will be taken from the Namhun t’aep’yŏng-ga 南薰太平歌 (Songs of the Great Peace at South Wind) poetry anthology (1863) by an unknown compiler. I. 1). Borrowed Classical Chinese Images: Korean vernacular poetry is full of images borrowed from classical Chinese literature, some of them being phrases organized according to the grammatical rules of classical Chinese. They play an important role in a text as symbols of literary expression requiring a number of specific textual features to be transmitted in a translation. This presents a difficult task in the case of a language, which is not related to the Chinese literary tradition directly (e.g. a western language such as Russian). The issues are: a) The dual-language character of the text: Korean and classical Chinese; and b) metric features as a result of laconic Chinese expressions. 2. Compositional and literary modes: a) inversion; b) parallelism etc. Most of the modes are based on Korean syntax which differs from that of western languages, therefore, a way of conveying these modes is suggested. 3. The necessity for commentary: There are numerous methods for showing the beauty and particular compositional quality of the original in translation, but in many cases extra comments are necessary: a) symbols; b) allusions; c) traditional images; d) geographical and historical names or terms etc. II. Some of the features to be considered when translating vernacular poetry correlate with those of contemporary Korean poetry. For instance: a) borrowed Western images; and b) compositional and literary modes. This will be shown through the example of poems by Chŏng Hyŏn-jong. A conclusion is drawn concerning the similarity of issues to consider when translating poetry from both periods, especially a similar tendency in the functioning of borrowed images which occurs in both classical and contemporary poetry. The former was based on the Chinese literary tradition as a source to enrich the poem’s expressive world and to participate in this tradition, the latter appeals to the western and the world cultural tradition in order to become a part of it as well as to enhance its expressiveness. Similar compositional and literary modes which need to be reflected in translation may be found in classical and contemporary poetical texts, but their purposes may differ, and they increase in variety in the case of contemporary poems.