The Korea Literature Translation Institute held an award ceremony for the winners of its annual translation competition at the Press Center in downtown Seoul yesterday.

The top prize for the 9th Korean Literature Translation Contest went to Vincenza D'Urso, who has chosen to translate Hwang Suk-yong's novel "Mugi-ui geuneul" into Italian.

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A Hangeul copy of an ancient Chinese book that contains the notes of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) scholar Kim Si-seup has been discovered.

The book was originally written by a Buddhist master from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and dates back to the 16th century.

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...[I]n the past few years, partly due to good work of the Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI), the number and range of Korean translations has increased dramatically. Until recently, most translated novels focused on the brutal realities of occupation, war and division. Given Korea's modern history, this made sense, but it sometimes made for rather grim reading for English speakers who were looking for a diversion, rather than a harsh history lesson. Many books still focus on these issues, and many of these are extraordinary, but more recent translations extend the scope of translated Korean literature. There has never been a better time to begin "reading Korean" if only in English.

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It is not easy to find a foreigner who hasn’t let his passion for Korea and its culture wane even slightly after a long period of living in this country.

Kevin O’Rourke, a 70-year-old Irish priest from the Missionary Society of Saint Columban in Seongbuk, northern Seoul, however, is noted as the first foreigner to earn a doctoral degree in Korean literature and for his English-language translations of Korean literary works, and his passion shows no sign of cooling.

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Ever wondered how the Chinese language is perceived in Korea and Japan, two countries located right next to China with languages that are originally unrelated but strongly influenced by Chinese characters? Well, here's how.

(For the purposes of this post, Chinese = Mandarin. There are many other types of "Chinese" in existence of course)

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...Bradbury edits Full Tilt (fulltilt.ncu.edu.tw), an online journal devoted to promoting contemporary East Asian poetry, translation and art forms such as painting, film and graphic novels. More than anything else, however, the journal’s mission is to expose East Asian poets to an international audience through translations that are faithful not just to the meaning of the poem but their sound and feel in the pleasure of the reading moment.

The journal has published interviews about process of translation with translation bigwigs such as Howard Goldblatt (Chinese), John Nathan (Japanese) and Michael Berry (Korean), and some of Asia’s finest contemporary poets such as Taiwan’s Hsia Yu, China’s Yu Jian, and South Korea’s Kim Hyesoon — the latter two of which will read at this year’s Taipei Poetry festival (go to www.taipeipoetry.org for details in English and Chinese).

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Rare photos and illustrations depicting Korea in the 19th century by British weeklies have been published in a book.

The Korea Literature Translation Institute has released the book as part of the Korean Heritage Books series in cooperation with LG-Yeonam.

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Thirteen Korean historical, religious, and philosophical classics will be introduced to English readers under a translation project coordinated by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies.

A GROUP OF ESSAYS on literature and culture written during the Japanese occupation (1910–45), a 13th-century compilation of history and folklore, a learned, early 13th-century handbook for Buddhist students, and 10 other Korean works written between the sixth and 20th centuries will be made available in English, under a portion of a Korean government–backed translation project that is being coordinated by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies. The 13 books, each of which in its way represents "the quintessence of Korean classical culture," will go to press in the 2009–10 academic year, according to Center Director Robert Buswell.

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07-24-2008

The Korea Times will hold the 39th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards.

This annual competition accepts translated works of Korean literature in two categories: fiction and poetry.

Applicants can choose from any works of a Korean novel of any length and the same goes for poetry.

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May.13,2008

Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan on Monday apologized for a mistranslation of the U.S. Federal Register which, amid widespread panic over beef imports from the U.S., has been read in some quarters as deliberate muddying of waters. "We regret that we have caused unnecessary misunderstanding and concern," Lee said after Seoul wrongly translated cattle feed rules in the bilateral beef deal as carried in the official gazette so they looked more stringent than they actually are.

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May 9, 2008
By Chung Ah-young

``Riding the Bullet'' written by Stephen King made its debut on the Internet in 2000, available for download free-of-charge. It stunned the publishing industry, as the demand for the story was so high that it rendered the server totally inaccessible.

Many publishers thought the digital era would eventually bring an end to the publishing industry within five years or so, as electronic books and Internet-based materials might replace paper.

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, is urging the federal government to offer Asian language translation videos to international tourists arriving at Honolulu International Airport.

...Akaka noted that more than 1.3 million Japanese tourists flew to Hawaii in 2007. More than 100,000 came from China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

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By Park Si-soo

A group of professional interpreters and translators launched Thursday the nation's first association to help upgrade interpretation and translation work and services.

The Korean Association of Translation and Interpretation (KATI) held an inaugural ceremony at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul with the 100 selected members present. KATI is the first officially recognized organization in the field.

``I have frequently received complaints from the government and foreign clients about poor interpretation and translation services. It is because they used less skilled and unqualified interpreters and translators. In other words, there was no institute offering information about competent, high-experienced and qualified language experts,'' Kim Ji-myung, chief director of KATI, told The Korea Times.

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By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, October 12th, 2006 09:08 AM (PDT)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States on Thursday introduced a new draft resolution in the Security Council to punish North Korea for its reported nuclear test and said it wants a vote on Friday.

Russia urged the United States not to rush the vote, saying Moscow still had differences and the U.S. should wait for the results of a flurry of high-level diplomacy. China backed Russia's call, saying Beijing would welcome more talks so the Security Council can send a united and forceful message to Pyongyang condemning the test.

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Policy of engagement comes under scrutiny as a poll finds that 65 percent of Koreans now support a nuclear program.

By Donald Kirk | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
SEOUL – On a sparkling morning in a villa high above the broad Han River in Seoul, Hyundai Automotive Vice Chairman Kim Dong Jin marvels over his company's new luxury utility vehicle - and weighs the possible impact of North Korea's nuclear blast on sales.

"Do you notice any scare?" he asks. "Koreans are very calm. They regard this situation as they did past North Korean scare tactics."

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