According to officials from Saeumbook, over 400 people have participated via e-mail and social media as of last week, after the company posted an announcement on Facebook last month that applicants who best translated excerpts from Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” would be given an opportunity to work with the publisher. (Image: Kobiz Media)
SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean publisher Saeumbook’s literary translation contest has proven a success, attracting hundreds of talented aspiring translators around the country.
According to officials from Saeumbook, over 400 people have participated via e-mail and social media as of last week, after the company posted an announcement on Facebook last month that applicants who best translated excerpts from Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” would be given an opportunity to work with the publisher.
“Given the 10-day holiday during Chuseok, the number of applicants exceeded our expectations,” an official at Saeumbook said in surprise.
Last week, five of the best translation works were revealed by Saeumbook, along with an example of what ‘ideal’ literary translation should look like, with plans to work with some of the selected translators on literary translation projects in the future.
“We chose translators who managed to respect the writer’s original writing style, as it is rare to find translation work of famous literature that gets everything right, including pronouns, commas, periods, conjunctions and sentence structure,” the publisher said.
Saeumbook says it is planning a similar translation contest for French and German translators as the publisher has previously released books criticizing the inaccurate translation found in classic European literature such as Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Hyunsu Yim (hyunsu@koreabizwire.com)
