Asian Literature: Lost in Translation

With the Nobel Prize for Han Kang, Western interest in Asian literature, which reflects completely different worlds of thought and expression, grew. But how accurate are the translations?

When translator Ki-Hyang Lee delves into the texts of Korean Nobel Prize winner Han Kang , she discovers a depth that can be conveyed with just a few words. Han Kang's Korean is clear, coherent, in a way matter-of-fact, and yet touching. "It is the contradiction between sober language and emotional intensity that never ceases to amaze me," writes Ki-Hyang Lee via email from Munich. Han Kang describes the feelings of her characters without pathos, and it is precisely this tone that Ki-Hyang Lee maintained when she translated the originals of novels such as " The Vegetarian ," " Human Work, " and most recently " Impossible Farewell " into German. The depth, the lightness, the literary power - it is all there in Ki-Hyang Lee's versions of Han Kang.