Korean poetry takes center stage at Edinburgh book festival
A Korean poet and his English translator met with readers in Edinburgh this week to explore what can be lost and be newly found when a poem crosses a language barrier. Poet Lee Seong-bok and translator Anton Hur discussed the former's poetry collection “That Summer’s End” at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Thursday, part of a second consecutive year of partnership between the…
Korean poet Lee Seong-bok and his English translator Anton Hur joined readers at the Edinburgh International Book Festival to discuss the nuances of translating poetry across language barriers. Their conversation, chaired by poet Andrew McMillan, focused on Lee's collection "That Summer’s End" and the themes of love, loss, pain and beauty found within.
Hur emphasized his efforts to maintain the rhythm, ambiguity, imagery and emotional depth of the original Korean poems while making them accessible to English-speaking audiences. The festival highlights Lee's status as one of Korea's most influential poets, with eight poetry collections to his name.
Hur has also translated other Korean works such as Bora Chung's "Cursed Bunny" and Sang Young Park's "Love in th." This marks the second consecutive year the festival has partnered with the Korean Cultural Centre UK for such literary exchanges.
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