As Han Kang’s translators, what do you think is the significance of this Nobel Prize win? 

Kyungran Choi Compared to the Nobel Prizes in Literature awarded in previous years, the reaction from French readers to Han Kang’s win has been quite enthusiastic. Even before the Nobel announcement, Impossibles Adieux (We Do Not Part) had already sold more than 13,000 copies and had garnered a lot of attention here, but I heard that immediately following Han’s win, the 8,000 copies available in print were sold out. French media reported on the news, and there were several consecutive days of coverage in the daily newspaper Le Monde from October 10 through 12. The national radio station France Culture invited me and Pierre Bisiou as the translators of Impossibles Adieux on the air for an hourlong conversation about Korean literature and translation. Looking back at the international attention that Korean literature began to receive after Han Kang won the Booker Prize in 2016, it seemed inevitable that a Nobel Prize in Literature would someday follow. The fact that Han Kang was named the winner—as a translator, a literary citizen, and a reader, it was hard to hide my joy. 

Paige Aniyah Morris This seems like a moment of long-awaited recognition for Korean literature. It’s a shame that for so long, despite such a rich literary history, literature from Korea hadn’t received much international attention. I hope that this win will revitalize the Korean literary translation and publishing industries and encourage overseas publishers to break away from the popular trends and acquire more diverse Korean literary works. 

Mariko Saito In 2024, a year of never-ending war and genocide, shouldn’t the fact that there is a writer who hasn’t forgotten those who’ve suffered and died unjust deaths be a source of hope in itself? Through movements such as the Gwangju and Jeju uprisings, Han Kang shows us how human dignity endures even in times of crisis. I think it’s especially meaningful that this message has expanded beyond the national bounds of Korea and entered into the realm of the human experience.

Was there a particular means by which you came to translate Han Kang’s work?

Sunme Yoon In 2011, as I was searching for new works to translate, I came across an article about famous young Korean authors, which prompted me to start reading the first book I ever read by Han Kang, La vegetariana. Before I’d even read the whole first chapter, I decided to translate the book, and the following year my translation La vegetariana was published in Buenos Aires, Argentina, becoming the first translation of that novel into a Western language. This was how I came to translate Actos humanos (Human Acts), Blanco (The White Book), La clase de griego (Greek Lessons), and Imposible decir adiós (We Do Not Part) as well.

Ok-kyoung Park I met Han Kang on a literary tour organized by LTI Korea in 2013.1 I loved the books that we all read and discussed while traveling around Gwangju and Damyang so much that I knew I had to translate them. When I was asked by the Swedish publisher Natur & Kultur to translate Han’s work, I naturally agreed to take on the task.

Could you share what the international reaction has been like to Han Kang’s works in translation?

SY It’s no exaggeration to say that international readers were the first to discover Han Kang’s true worth. Argentine readers responded very enthusiastically to La vegetariana. In 2013, with the support of LTI Korea, Han participated in the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, and I heard there wasn’t an empty seat in that lecture hall—tons of people who’d read the novel came prepared with lots of questions. And, of course, three years later, The Vegetarian won the International Booker Prize.

OP Both Den vita boken (The White Book) and Jag tar inte farväl (We Do Not Part) have received lots of attention and acclaim since being published, with positive reviews appearing in more than ten renowned newspapers and magazines, including Sweden’s largest daily newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. More than a thousand readers attended the book talks Han Kang held in Stockholm and Umeå in 2024, and the events were so successful that there was a more than hour-long wait to receive the author’s autograph afterwards.

If you had to briefly explain why international readers should read Han Kang, what would you say?

OP Not only does Han’s work deal with universal issues that anyone, regardless of nationality, can relate to; it delves into violence, conflict, societal oppression, trauma, and more while still offering readers a sense of warmth and an emotional resonance rooted in its distinctly lyrical and beautiful style. 

SY These days, many overseas interviewers have been asking me to recommend the books that make for a good introduction to Han’s work, and I always suggest starting with La vegetariana or Actos humanos. No matter how prominent Korean society and Korean history are as the backdrops, I think that all of Han’s works evoke universal empathy because they are all ultimately reflections on being human.

PAM If you are a reader who wants to be completely transformed by a book, I recommend reading the works of Han Kang. We Do Not Part especially is an excellent novel for increasing readers’ awareness about Korean society, history, and intergenerational trauma.

What do you usually pay the most attention to when translating Korean literature into your target language? Furthermore, what did you concentrate the most on when translating Han Kang?

PAM I try to bring out the emotions of the source text in my translations, and I value not only the accuracy of the translation but the writing style, the rhythm, the lyricism. When translating this Han Kang work in particular, I remember creating a glossary for translating “snow,” “crystals,” “spirits”—words that formed the distinctive universe and language of We Do Not Part. I was happiest when I read passages from e. yaewon’s and my English translation and felt as moved as I did when I’d read them in the source. 

OP I’m the type to try not to leave out a single word of the source in the translation. At the same time, because it’s important to me that it doesn’t read like a translation to Swedish readers, I think I have to strike a good balance. When I was deciding on the title for Jag tar inte farväl (We Do Not Part), I thought hard about choosing a Swedish word that could convey the feeling of the Korean word jakbyeol, or “farewell.” And because Swedish sentences must have a subject unlike Korean ones, I decided after a discussion with the author to add Jag, meaning I, to the title of the Swedish translation. 

SM When it comes to Han Kang, there is always “poetry” at the center of her prose. It is important to translate in such a way that you don’t crush the margins that harbor that poetry. The historicity is also key. In the case of Wakare wo tsugenai (We Do Not Part), I referenced Okinawan, a language with a similar history to the Jeju language. At the same time, instead of completely translating the Jeju language into Okinawan, I felt that I needed to create a new language just for this novel.

Please describe the process of publishing Han Kang’s work in translation. What kinds of support did you receive, and did you face any difficulties in signing the publishing contracts? Could you share any tips for successfully publishing a translated work of Korean literature?

SY For La vegetariana, Actos humanos, and Blanco, I received support from LTI Korea, and for La clase de griego and Imposible decir adiós, I received support from the Daesan Cultural Foundation. Of these works, La vegetariana was one that I chose myself and translated. If this is your first time trying to publish a translation, I advise you to write a publication proposal introducing the author and the work and to send that proposal to publishers who might be interested. Rather than analyzing the book in your proposal, it’s helpful to summarize its content, highlight its strengths, anticipate its prospects and the response from readers in the target market, and include a sample translation. In other words, the translator also has to play the part of an agent. 

OP In my case, I was approached by the publisher to translate Han’s work, so I didn’t encounter any particular difficulties. For more than ten years now, renowned Swedish publishers have been interested not only in midcareer Korean authors but in emerging writers as well. In the late 1990s, when Korean literary translation was in its infancy, there was a sense of reluctance from publishers regarding translated literature even when translators submitted full manuscripts, but now, publishers often ask for summaries of works by Korean writers or, as is true in the case of Han Kang, they buy the rights first and then commission the translations. From a translator’s perspective, this is an encouraging development.

PAM Thanks to support from LTI Korea and the fact that Han’s previous translators into English had already developed good working relationships with the publishers in the US and the UK, I think the publication process for We Do Not Part went much more smoothly than I’d expected. It was definitely quite a difference from the dead ends and high barriers to entry that I’ve faced in some of my other translation and publishing experiences. For emerging translators who want to translate the works of Korean writers who are not yet well known in the target region, I highly recommend seeking support from organizations such as LTI Korea and the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea.

LTI Korea is engaged in many projects, such as our translation and publication grant programs, meant to promote Korean literature overseas. What are your hopes going forward?

OP I have a long history with LTI Korea—from Yi Munyol’s Ett Ungdomsporträtt (A Portrait of Youthful Days) in 1999 all the way through to 2017, I’ve translated a total of six books with LTI’s support. I’ve also participated in the residency program twice and had great experiences meeting several writers over the years. I hope that there will be steady support for publishing translations in Sweden going forward. I would also love to see mid-career translators have the opportunity to participate in the residency. The experience of discussing literature with the authors and meeting various writers through the literary tour is such a huge asset for a translator. 

SY My relationship with LTI Korea is a very special one. Not only have I received several translation grants from LTI, but I’ve been teaching literary translation at the Translation Academy for the past fourteen years. Through teaching, I think I’ve come to reflect more deeply on my own translations and have become a better, more refined translator as a result. The Sample Translation Grant Program was done away with a year ago, but I hope that this program, which reflects the discernment and literary knowledge of translators, can be revived even if it is reduced in scale. I think that if translators are able to take the lead in selecting works to translate and liaising with publishers, more diverse writers and literary works can be introduced around the world.

[1]  Editor’s note: This literary tour was conducted as part of LTI Korea’s Residency Program for Translation Research in Korean Literature, which invited translators to join a writer in exploring the region where the writer’s works are set in order to broaden translators’ understandings of these works. In 2013, Han Kang took part in the tour with translators from seven languages: German, Spanish, Arabic, Swedish, Vietnamese, Italian, and Chinese.

Translated by Paige Aniyah Morris

Kyungran Choi lives and works in Paris as a translator and employee at the Korean Cultural Center in France. With Pierre Bisiou, she is the co-translator of Impossibles Adieux (We Do Not Part). 

Paige Aniyah Morris is a writer, translator, and educator from New Jersey, USA, who now lives in Seoul. With e. yaewon, she is the co- translator of Han Kang’s We Do Not Part into English. 

Ok-kyoung Park graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, received her master’s degree in Sweden, and now works as a translator. Since the late 1990s, She and Anders Karlsson, a professor at the University of London, have co-translated many works of Korean literature into Swedish. Of Han Kang’s works, they have translated Den vita boken (The White Book) and Jag tar inte farväl (We Do Not Part). 

Saito Mariko is a translator from Niigata, Japan, who now lives in Tokyo. She has translated Han Kang’s Girishago no jikan (Greek Lessons), Subete no, shiroi mono-tachi no (The White Book), Kaifuku suru ningen (Fire Salamander), Wakare wo tsugenai (We Do Not Part), and with Kim Hun-a, Hikidashi ni yuugata o shimatte oita (I Put the Evening in the Drawer) into Japanese. 

Sunme Yoon is an instructor in the Spanish language track at LTI Korea’s Translation Academy and a translator into Spanish. She has translated many of Han Kang’s works as well as Chung Serang’s La única en la tierra (The Only Hana on Earth), Won-Pyung Sohn’s Almendra (Almond), Cheon Un-young’s El hombre del Desván (The Catcher in the Loft), and Yun Ko-eun’s La turista (The Disaster Tourist).