Poet Kim Hye-soon on creative power of translating literature

Korea Herald

04-07-2025

Award-winning poet discusses 'What Is Korean Literature to the International Reader?' at the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum
Translated literature is a gift to the language it arrives in, acclaimed poet Kim Hye-soon said, describing it as the Korean language offering a present — 'like tossing a new pebble into the well of another language.'
'I think translating Korean literature isn't about elevating Korea's literary status. Rather, it's about expanding the boundaries of the target language. Translation is a reciprocal relationship, not a one-way transaction,' Kim said.
'We already know how much the boundaries of Korean have broadened through translations of foreign works — how our ways of thinking have deepened and diversified. I believe the same holds true in reverse.'
Kim spoke at the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum during a wide-ranging onstage conversation with Jeffrey Yang, editor-at-large at New Directions, on the topic 'What Is Korean Literature to the International Reader?' New Directions has published two of Kim's recent English collections: 'Autobiography of Death' and 'Phantom Pain Wings,' both translated by Choi Don Mee.
Fresh from a monthlong European book tour through Germany, Austria and the UK, Kim said conversations with international audiences had energized her in unexpected ways.
'Through these exchanges, I feel as though we're expanding the 'territory of poetry.' Maybe that's why we call out to poets from afar,' she said.
Kim also reflected on the contrast between how literature is discussed at home and abroad.
'In Korea, I'm often asked about 'Korean literature' — where it should be heading, what its defining characteristics are — but honestly, I don't even know where 'my own literature' is headed.'
'Outside the country, however, I've always had the impression that people focus more on individual works rather than national categories. I can't recall being asked a question framed around nationality, and we don't approach their writers that way either.'
While she's happy to recommend Korean poets when asked abroad and welcomes growing international interest in Korean literature, Kim noted that she has never thought of herself as writing 'Korean literature.'
'I've always just seen myself as doing 'literature,'' she said, adding that she hopes policymakers will move beyond broad national labels and show greater respect for each writer's individuality.
'Translation is creative act'
Kim has been steadily gaining international recognition, winning numerous accolades worldwide. In 2019, she became the first Asian woman to win Canada's prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize.
More recently, she was named an International Writer by the Royal Society of Literature in England in 2022, elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April, and shortlisted for Germany's international prize for literature this year.
Despite these honors, Kim remains candid about her uncertainty over why her work resonates with readers abroad.
'That's the part I really don't understand. Whether in Korea or elsewhere, I don't know exactly why I have readers. Some may be drawn to the way the translation offers a familiar way of speaking, while others might be intrigued by its unfamiliarity. I think I fall into the latter group.'
What has moved her most, however, is not the prizes but what happens to her translators.
'The most striking moments for me are when those who translated my poems later debuted as poets themselves. Some began writing poems while translating my work, opened up their own poetic worlds, published collections and went on to win major awards. That has been the most memorable part.'
She cited Choi, her longtime English translator, who often says that translating Kim's poems sparked her own writing practice.
'Just as I discover my poems in the sound drifting through this world, I think there's a similar kind of discovery at work in poetry translation. Translation is not just word-by-word interpretation; it is a creative act.'
Kim shared her views on the art of poetry translation itself.
'I believe that translating poetry begins with translating its form and rhythm,' she said. 'When translators ask me what I want most from them, I always tell them: 'Translate the rhythm.''
She also acknowledged the inevitable challenges and occasional mistranslations in the process.
'Sometimes a homonym might be misunderstood, for example, the word for 'tribe' was translated as 'lack,' or 'starting a pilgrimage' was rendered as 'ending a pilgrimage,'' she said.
But she emphasized that translation is not about nitpicking such errors.
'I think of translation as translating the house the poet built,' she said. 'The mistakes I mention are more like a cup placed slightly askew on a shelf in that house, a small detail, but the house itself remains intact.'