A collection of anti-North Korean stories written inside the reclusive state has recently won a translation award from by a UK-based literary group.
“The Accusation,” by North Korea-based author Bandi, was among 10 PEN Translates’ Autumn 2016 winners. It was translated by Deborah Smith, who won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 for her translation of “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang.
The PEN Translates award is given by the English PEN, the founding center of worldwide writers’ association PEN International. The award was launched in 2012 with support of Arts Council England to encourage UK publishers to acquire more books from other languages, according to PEN English.
Other recipients of the award include Muhsin al-Ramli’s “The President’s Gardens,” translated by Luke Leafgren; Ismail Kadare’s “The Traitor’s Niche,” translated by John Hodgson; and Alain Mabanckou’s “Black Moses,” translated by Helen Stevenson.
“The Accusation,” a collection of short stories, is said to be the first writing by a living North Korean writer to be smuggled out of the country. There has been controversy over the authenticity of the writing since its release in South Korea in 2010, given the extremely repressive nature of the regime and its animosity toward anyone who speaks against it.
According to the Monthly Chosun, the South Korean magazine which first acquired the stories, Bandi’s works made it out of North Korea via his cousin, who had earlier defected to the South.
Born in Hamkyeong Province and having experienced the Korean War in his youth, Bandi’s works depict the contradictory and irrational nature of “North Korean communism” through critical satire of the mostly Kim Il-sung era. The last of the seven stories is dated December 1995, indicating the writer continued his work into the Kim Jong-il era as well.
The Korean edition of “The Accusation” also featured a collection of 50 poems by Bandi, titled “Songs from Hell,” summing up what he thinks of the self-proclaimed “heaven on earth.”
By Yoon Min-sik
(
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)
