“No Country for Old Men” - In Korean

Finished reading “No Country for Old Men” in english a couple of days ago and am now reading it in Korean.

First, I noticed how similar the film was during the first half to the book, then how it verged later on.  Pretty fascinating why the Coens made their choices and I could see why in most cases.  Once again, I was struck by how cinematic McCarthy’s writing is and how it naturally lends itself to adaptation - in fact inistently calls for it in the reading.

Now on reading the Korean translation, I’ve come across some basic questions about the process of translating text.  I suppose there must be some school of thought about this.  But here I’ve already found sentences omitted, dialogue replaced and even and example or two of just incoreect translation of sentences because of the souther slang the characters use. 

I understand that the meaning of the text is probably most important, but because of the caliber of McCarthy’s writing I felt it was wrong to have made those editorial changes.

There’s also the question of translating regional tone.  There is a certain quality of Texan speech which evokes a matter of fact, yet to me plaintive quality of communicating which I don’t think has been brought out in the translation.  That could be my own ignorance, I admit of the subletied of the Korean language which I was basically severed from when I immigrated here at age four.

Nevertheless, I’ve retained an ear for the language as well as a certain sensibility of some of the tones which can be communicated through it.

It takes me hours to get through a page because of all the looking up I have to do in the dictionary, but it’s been so far a great learning experience and one I should’ve taken up years ago.

I think once I get through this I’ll have Cormac McCarthy to thank for inspiring me to pick up my native langauge once again.