[51st Korea Times Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award winner Hedgie Choi

Poetry Commendation Award winner Hedgie Choi

Hedgie Choi was born in Gwangju and grew up in the U.S. from ages seven to 17 before returning to her hometown. She received an undergraduate degree at Yonsei University and is pursuing a master's degree in creative writing at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas.

Choi got into translating literature when she took a poetry class in English at Yonsei back in 2014 and has since translated a variety of literary works of fiction and essays as well as poetry.

She picked a selection of poems from the "Pillar of Books" by Moon Bo-young to enter the competition for this award.

"I like the playful quality of Moon Bo-young's poems. They're imaginative and humorous, but not in an avoidant or defensive way," Choi said.

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She recently sent the manuscript to the publisher and the translated version is scheduled to be published by Black Ocean in 2021.

Some of Choi's other bigger projects are also poetry translations. They are easier to manage as translating is not her full-time job.

"[This is] because you can work on a few poems at a time over a long span of time," she said. "I don't think that would be feasible with a novel, for instance, where it takes a long time to find and sink into the right voice."

The year 2020 has been a big year for Choi, who she won the National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association and the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize for her co-translation of "Hysteria" by Kim Yi-deum with Jake Levine and Seo So-eun.

"At the moment, the most difficult thing about translating poetry is receiving attention for it," she said. "I'm grateful and amazed by this award, the National Translation Award and the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize. But it all feels so sudden, and it's made it more difficult for me to think of translation as a little personal side-project that nobody will read or pay attention to.

"'Nobody cares, nobody will read this' was a useful defense mechanism that allowed me to get the work done, but it's time for something more robust to take its place."

Choi translated "Hysteria" as a team, while translating "Pillar of Books" by herself.

"For 'Hysteria' we would write out several English versions when we came upon a translation challenge and discuss what was gained and lost with each," she said. "Translating alone for Pillar of Books, I tried to do the same thing at first, but I stopped because it was wildly inefficient. I almost never strayed from the version that I intuitively thought was the best to begin with.

"In other words, I couldn't have three brains' worth of ideas all by myself in one sitting. Instead, what simulates that kind of teamwork is just going back to poems again and again, but letting weeks or months pass before you do. By then you're a new person, and you can be in a kind of collaboration with your past self."

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