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spacestationtrustfund's review
2.0
These two short stories by Im Cheolu (임철우), "With Her Oil Lamp On, That Night" (『그 밤, 호롱불을 밝히고』) and "Sapyong Station" (『사평역』), were translated by Agnita M. Tennant and Ahn Jung-Hyo. The title story—which follows a young political fugitive who returns to his hometown, evacuated by government decree save for the boy's mother, who's returned on the anniversary of her husband's death—was my favourite. The second story, which was apparently inspired by the famous poem "At Sapyong Station" (『사평역에서』) by Gwak Jaegu (곽재구), is just plain depressing.
The translations are unfortunately not that great. Im's prose is beautiful, but the translations of both stories are so shoddy that it's difficult to read, even not having read the originals against which to compare. Some of the errors in translation are blatant enough that they would probably be obvious to a monolingual reader with no knowledge of the process.
The translations are unfortunately not that great. Im's prose is beautiful, but the translations of both stories are so shoddy that it's difficult to read, even not having read the originals against which to compare. Some of the errors in translation are blatant enough that they would probably be obvious to a monolingual reader with no knowledge of the process.
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