A review by spacestationtrustfund
The Red Years: Forbidden Poems from Inside North Korea by Bandi

3.0

Is a culture that has lost its humanity still civilized?

『붉은세월』 (붉은 red + 세월 time) by 반디 (firefly). Translation by Heinz Insu Fenkl.

Fascinating how the cadences of Korean (even North Korean, which might as well be an entirely different language at this point) come through even in translation. The structure of Bandi's poems evokes traditional (Korean) folk songs. I wish the original text had been included; there's definitely a lot lost in translation, even for someone who knows a bit of Korean and is aware of things like 천리마운동 (North Korean Stakhanovite movement), for example. The introduction and endnotes were very helpful. I'm pleasantly surprised that the publication of something like this wasn't exploited more by Western media, since they do tend to love fetishising the pain of exploited peoples, but thankfully most commentary I've seen is respectful.

I haven't read the original text of the poems (and it'll probably be a while before I do, since I'm only really on the intermediate level in Korean, to say nothing of North Korean). The original poems would likely have a higher star rating.