(Interview) Translator Sean Lin Harbert talks about his journey in learning and teaching Korean translation
2024-09-30The photo shows the translator Sean Lin Harbert when he won the LTI translation award in 2018, and when he handed an LTI award to the aspiring translator Nicole Lin as a teacher in 2024. (2018 photo from Korea Times site, 2024 photo from Korea Net “Honorary reporters” site by “Nicole Lin”)
Literature helped me the most to understand Korean culture, and I would not have been able to read those wonderful works without the efforts of the translators who worked very hard to remove the barriers between the different cultures.
Among the translators who inspired me is Sean Lin Harbert. He is an American translator who translates from Korean to English. He started learning Korean as a hobby besides his main major and gained the Fiction Commendation Award from LTI in 2018. Now he lives in Korea and works as a full-time translator. Also, he currently teaches translation at the LTI.
Among his works is his translation of the novels The Cabinet by Kim Un-Su and The Black Orb by Kim Ewhan
The photo shows the covers of the books (Photos from Goodreads site)
I had the opportunity to interview him via Zoom on September 11th.
- His background:
Q: How did you manage to study Korean along with physics and why did you study it?
A: I studied Korean as a hobby and it wasn't until my last year of college that I had enough classes to double major in physics and Korean.
I'm interested in all the East Asian languages. I’m half Taiwanese and I went to a Chinese school.
Then in college, I also wanted to learn Japanese and then, my Korean American friends encouraged me to learn Korean as well.
Q: When did you start translating?
A: I started practicing translating in 2015 and between 2015 and 2018, I finished my masters in Korean literature.
In 2018 I entered the LTI competition and won an award. That was my debut translation work.
Q: Can you tell us more about your teaching experience at LTI?
A: It's interesting and difficult. I taught physics at a high school for a while and it was easy to organize but translation is different because there's no set curriculum like physics. I just give my students pieces to translate, and then we discuss them together, you can't really guide someone to be a good translator it is different for everyone.
The photo shows the translator while he teaches at LTI (Photos from LTI official account)
Q: Do you think the literature translator should study creative writing?
A: I think that the biggest requirement for good translation is to be a good writer. And you can't be good at the beginning, it takes effort and time to learn or teach writing.
Q: Why did you decide to become a full-time translator?
A: I have done two internships in physics but I didn’t enjoy working in science. I was only surrounded by machines and didn’t have many friends so I preferred translating.
I like the vibe with the people in literature and I felt they were more empathetic and friendly.
Q: When did you move to Korea, and did you face any difficulties coping with life there?
A: I have been living in Korea on and off. I first came here 10 years ago then I went back and finished my degree then returned to Korea to get my master. In general, I think life in Korea is better for me now.
And I didn’t face many difficulties but there weren’t many foreigners around so I used to get a lot of attention. Also, the language formality system and the pronunciation were confusing for me since they are very different from English.
- His works:
Q: Your last two works were science fiction. Do you prefer this genre and how do you pick your works?
A: It just happened and I didn’t plan for it. I'm more interested in literary fiction but Korean literature science fiction is a little bit more literary than science fiction in English so I like it too.
I do a little passionate work, most of the time I work through publishing agencies.
Q: Have you tried translation from English to Korean
A: I translated academic articles from English to Korean but not literature.
Q: Do you ask translators for help If you struggle to know what they exactly mean?
A: I never ask a writer about anything during the translation process. I think that limits the translator's imagination but If I struggled with something I would ask my wife or a friend.
Q: Can you give us an example of a sentence or word you struggled to translate and how you figured out the suitable translation?
A: We were working on a poem in the translation class last week. Its title literal meaning is Blue Trumpet. In Korean, this is pronounced as Paran Naptar so “blue trumpet” doesn’t represent the anagram.
I had to find a similar one in English like “color and carol” for example to keep the rhythm. Sometimes you have to choose to keep the rhythm or the meaning, which makes the poetry translation challenging and I don’t prefer to translate it professionally.
Q: Do you have a role model translator or someone you just prefer?
A: Yes, I like Jay Rubin. He translates from Japanese to English. He is the main translator for Haruki Murakami's works. His translation feels too natural and this is very hard when you translate from a different and difficult language like Japanese.
Q: Do you have any upcoming work?
Yes, my translation for the novels Counter Attacks at 30 by Won-Pyung Sohn and Perfect Happiness by Jeong You-Jeong will be published next year.
The photo shows the covers of the English version of Counter Attacks at 30 and the Korean version of Perfect Happiness (Photos from Goodreads site, Hanbooks site)
The photo shows a screenshot from the interview (Photos from Eman Ahmed)
Keywords:
Sean Lin Harbert
Translation
LTI
Korean literature
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