VOL.99/2026.10

Image of K-Book

 

From Rendering Words to Conveying Culture

 

 

2026.09

 

 

“What do you think matters most when introducing Korean books to readers abroad?”

 

 

In this survey, the most common response was “translation that preserves the meaning of the original,” at 46.1 percent. “Understanding of Korean culture” came in second, at 26.3 percent.

 

What's interesting is that these two answers aren't as far apart as they might seem. Translating Korean literature into another language involves far more than simply converting Korean sentences into a foreign tongue. Only by understanding the relationships and emotions embedded in a single sentence, along with its mood and the era it springs from, can a translator fully convey the meaning held within the original.

 

 

In that sense, Choi Eun-young's Shoko's Smile is a work that makes us reconsider what translation really means. The work traces, with great delicacy, the relationships between characters who come from different languages and cultural backgrounds, and beneath its restrained, understated prose, it holds emotions that resist easy articulation. For this reason, carrying Shoko's Smile into another language may take more than getting the meaning of each sentence right. The distance and hesitation between characters, and the feelings that accumulate within their relationships, need to come through as well, if the texture of the work is to be felt in full.

 

In the end, good translation may be more than rendering words from one language to another; it may be the work of carrying the life, the sensibility, and the culture behind those words to readers of another language.

 

As K-Books cross borders to meet more and more readers, the question of how to convey the full meaning of a book may matter just as much as what to translate.

 

 

 

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Editor. Hannah Lee (The Contents Factory Co., Ltd. CEO)

Designing 'More' Innovative Communication and Experiences Through Content