Deborah Smith, the English-language translator of South Korean novelist Han Kang’s award-winning novel “The Vegetarian,” is seen in this 2016 file photo. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — British literary translator Deborah Smith, best known for translating 2024 Nobel laureate Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian,” said the author’s win of the prestigious award shows that the global literary world is moving toward greater equity.
Han’s victory, as the first Asian woman to win in the prize’s 121-year history, “offers the hope that we are finally moving toward a more equitable literary world, in which identity no longer overshadows merit,” Smith wrote in a contributed article for Yonhap News Agency, citing the fact that the Nobel literature prize has largely been awarded to white men.
The wide global reach of Han’s works, which have been translated into over a dozen languages over the past decade — from Norwegian and Dutch to Spanish and Italian — is a testament to the yearslong efforts of more than 50 translators worldwide, Smith noted.
English is “just one among many world languages,” she emphasized, pointing to “We Do Not Part,” Han’s latest novel, which has already been translated into several languages, including Swedish and Dutch, even before the English version, an example that “English is not the center of the world.”
In 2016, Smith won the International Booker Prize for translating “The Vegetarian.”
After winning the award, she said translating a work of literature equals “creatively rewriting it in another language, a process that involves varying degrees of interpretation and editorial decision.” She noted the task needs both “literary sensibility” and “linguistic competency.”
In her contributed article, she reiterated the vital role translators played in introducing Han’s novel and other Korean literature to international readers.
“It is lovely to have our contribution recognized, but only when it’s down accurately and without hyperbole,” she wrote.
Smith has been working at the forefront of introducing Korean literature to a wider global audience through Tilted Axis Press, which she co-founded in 2015.
She recounted receiving a message in 2016 from a “well-respected poet” who lauded Han’s “Human Acts” in English as “a major book” and “a landmark.”
“So for those of us who have long been following Han’s career, the Nobel is confirmation of what we already knew.”
(Yonhap)
