#antonhur

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Love in the Big City: Part Four- Regret, Rain, Love, and Loss

Well, it’s official. Love in the Big City, Part Four may have been short but it cemented itself as my favorite portion of the book. I asked @antonhur when he was so graciously answering questions what his favorite scene in the book was, and I can see why he said when they were lying in the rain in Bangkok; Late Rainy Season Vacation indeed. When I first started this book, I was talking with a few mutuals like @bengiyo and @lurkingshan wondering how I would feel about Young by the end of this book, because I was not a huge fan of his character in Part One. But I have very much enjoyed seeing his progress across these parts. I said already in my post about Part One that my biggest struggle with Young and the thing I think primarily contributes to the change in his friendship with Jaehee is that he cannot be serious, he cannot, does not allow himself to feel. And in Part Four, he’s finally admitting to it. 

“I was too late to put things back the way they’d been” “That is how my memories of him are preserved under glass, safe and pristine, forever apart from me” “I’ve no choice but to stand at arm’s length”

Part Four is my favorite part of this novel because Part Four is full of ghosts. Not only the ghost of Gyu-ho, but the ghost of all that came before. The rooftop party with Gyu-ho where he got plastered on whatever alcohol he could, where now he sits and drinks champagne, a ghost of both his relationship and the way he spent his college years. Going through Habibi’s wallet, a ghost of when he snuck a look at Hyung’s secrets all those years before. The text messages Young saw on Habibi’s phone about a family member with cancer, a ghost of his mother’s own diagnosis. Habibi himself, getting unexpectedly deep for only a moment before forcing the conversation away from anything real, a ghost of Young himself, and all the times he just could not bring himself to be open and honest with the people around him. 

Just like learning about the HIV diagnosis recontextualizes everything that came before it (see a wonderful essay about that by @twig-tea here) ending this book with the admission that his only wish a year ago was for Gyu-ho recontextualizes my understanding of how aware Young was about his own modus operandi. I operated under a much different assumption that Young didn’t know what he had until it was gone, that Young was not aware of how far his fears ran, of how distant he had made himself. I assumed Part Four was where Young starts to realize himself the way he’d behaved in the past and how that contributed to the downfall of his relationship to Gyu-ho. But now I think he knew it all along and he just didn’t trust us enough to say it until the end. Because I’m not quite sure even by the end of this book Young trusts us enough to be completely honest. 

I talked in my post for Part Three about HIV treatments and prevention methods, and mentioned Truvada, (generic name: emtricitabine-tenofovir) which is a pre-exposure prophylaxis medication that can be taken to prevent someone without HIV from getting HIV should they have an exposure. I mentioned there that at the time of Young’s relationship with Gyu-ho, Truvada was not available on the market in South Korea. But as it turns out, Teno-Em (tenofovir-emtricitibine), a generic PrEP medication, was available in Bangkok by 2015. In Part Four, Young describes going to a pharmacy and getting a generic medication, and he writes the errand in such a way as to make the whole thing seem shady. And maybe it was. But maybe he was just afraid, and that fear colored his own perceptions of what was going down: 

My expectation had been that the place would be hidden away in some seedy alley, but it was right there on the main street. The interior was almost the same as any other pharmacy. I showed the pharmacist a picture of the generic version of what I needed. The pharmacist, if he really was a pharmacist, took out a bottle of pills and explained to us, in English, how they worked. He said that taking just one a day at a set time was enough to perfectly prevent the disease. He really said the word “perfectly.” How could he be so confident? He added that taking two of the pills before risky intercourse and then a pill every twenty-four hours for two more doses was enough to prevent transmission. 

The facts are these: the pharmacy was on a main street, the pharmacy looked like a pharmacy, the pharmacist was able to explain how the medication worked, and the pill regimen for prevention was accurate to the pill regimen for PrEP. 

Could they have still been shady? Sure. But I think it is far more likely that Young and his historically terrible experiences with medicine have colored his perception of healthcare and placed doubt in his head over the legitimacy of this medication. Which, learning that Young and Gyu-ho have unprotected sex in Bangkok, makes me wonder if Young’s doubts about the pharmacy added another reason for him to let Gyu-ho go to Shanghai alone, if the meds they got in Bangkok weren’t real, if they didn’t work, then he likely gave Gyu-ho HV. 

Young talked about stains in this part, about permanency- the soy sauce on the mattress, the crack in the toilet and he talked about fleeting things- immediately losing the shape of Habibi’s face when he stepped outside the door, the lantern burning up and turning to ash with all the dreams, all the wishes Young had, or just the one. Regret seems to hold a permanent place in Young’s spirit, as does loss. Love is something I think he thought did not exist, or if it did then it was fleeting. He loved Jaehee and lost her, his first boyfriend died, the obsession he had over Hyung could only be described as dickmatized. But when he gave away Gyu-ho’s love, when he let Gyu-ho go to Shanghai alone, it was one of the few times in the entire novel we saw Young grieve. He fully collapsed under the weight of it all, barely leaving bed, not having the energy to maintain his typical routines, trying to root out the memories of Gyu-ho in his head by writing him out, and killing him over and over and over again. 

I find myself stuck, thinking about what is perhaps my favorite line in the book: 

“Sometimes his very existence to me is the existence of love itself”

Gyu-ho’s existence is Young’s idea of love; to kill Gyu-ho, to remove him from existence is to kill Young’s idea of love. “The made-up Gyu-ho in my writing got hurt or died many times, and is always resurrected, as if love saves his life- whereas the real Gyu-ho lives and breathes and keeps moving on.” Young’s regret is a permanency in his life, just as his love for Gyu-ho is a permanency. All he wished for was Gyu-ho, but Young’s inability to be honest, deeply, emotionally honest, all the fear, all the emptiness, all the pain got in the way. I am not a person who minds a melancholy end, regret, remorse, grief, love. These are all a part of life. The only thing I hope is that one day Young can lay down in the pouring rain and feel peace the way Gyu-ho did that day in Bangkok.

[lurkingshan]

Love in the Big City Book Club: Part 4

Hello again book clubbers! I can't believe we're already on our final week. ICYMI, this week we got a very fun visit from @antonhur, the English language translator for LITBC. You can check out the AMA he is generously doing with book clubbers here.

Here are your official discussion questions for Part 4 of Love in the Big City, courtesy of @bengiyo:

On the conclusion of the novel:

What do you take from the narrator's regrets over Gyu-ho?

This story is unlike most BL that squarely fits in successful romance. What do you take from a story like this where the narrator details failed relationships?

Treating the narrator as a queer elder or friend, what do you take from the conclusion of his story as you move on from this book?

On the book as a whole:

What parts of this book do you most want to share with friends and family?

What parts of the book are you most anticipating in the forthcoming adaptations?

As a reminder, you are welcome to use any or all of these as a jumping off point for your own posts, ignore them and post your own thing, or just participate by sharing and commenting on other people's posts, and given this is the end, please feel free to reflect both on Part 4 and on your feelings about the book as a whole. Please create new posts with the questions if you want to use them rather than adding on responses to this post--it will be easier to capture everyone's content if it's all in separate posts in the tag. I will be tracking everything posted in the [#litbc book club] tag and posting the weekly round up--look for that to go up next Sunday. Feel free to also directly tag me to make sure I don't miss your posts!

Happy reading, and I look forward to your thoughts.

Tagging: @alwaysthepessimist @becomingabeing @belladonna-and-the-sweetpeas @blalltheway @brifrischu @colourme-feral @dekaydk @doyou000me @dramacraycray @dylogpenchester @emotionallychargedtowel @fiction-is-queer @hyeoni-comb @infinitelyprecious @littleragondin @literally-a-five-headed-dragon @loveable-sea-lemon @my-rose-tinted-glasses @neuroticbookworm @poetry-protest-pornography @profiterole-reads @serfergs @so-much-yet-to-learn @starryalpacasstuff @stuffnonsenseandotherthings @sunshinechay @thewayofsubtext @troubled-mind @twig-tea @waitmyturtles @wen-kexing-apologist

[peachjagiya]

https://www.tumblr.com/peachjagiya/748277101146374144/httpswwwtumblrcompeachjagiya7482568518226247

https://x.com/antonhur/status/1778451202910650775?s=46&t=NoNSkUCz0AjpyK3SPEWIXA

kinda unrelated but this guy is the one who translated the BTS book released last year into English. i thought the the tweet was interesting especially since Tae is in the "hard" unit

Thank you for that link. Maybe adversity makes you tough and determined.

Tae certainly seems to be making the most of it and excelling. 💜

Side note: I literally just read about Byun Hui-su this morning. What a horribly sad story. Her discharge being ruled unlawful is a vague justice and hopefully stands as an example to transphobes. For a 22 year old to take her life, though, over an injustice done to her is just so incredibly troubling.

[aricastmblr]

nytimesbooks twt 11 de mayo de 2023 The K-pop stars BTS will release a book telling their own story in July. The announcement by their U.S. publisher, Flatiron Books, came after days of frantic speculation by fervent fans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/books/bts-book-beyond-the-story.html?smid=tw-nytbooks&smtyp=cur

-------------------------------------------

BTS lanzará un libro llamado “Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS”, el cual hablará de la historia del grupo.  ('Más allá de la historia: 10 años de récord de BTS')

Se lanzará el libro este  9 de julio, bajo la editorial Flatiron Books.

“Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS”, fue escrito por el periodista Myeongseok Kang y los miembros del grupo, y será publicado en Corea del Sur por Big Hit Music.

La traducción al inglés del libro estuvo a cargo de Anton Hur, en colaboración con Clare Richards y Slin Jung. La edición estadounidense tendrá 544 páginas y contendrá fotografías exclusivas, según Flatiron, y tendrá una primera tirada de un millón de ejemplares.

---------------------------------------------------

AntonHur y clarehannahmary traductores del libro de bts a través de Twitter han expresado su emoción y lo honrado que se sintieron con este proyecto.

AntonHur twt

This project was conducted under so much secrecy that it still feels very odd to be suddenly allowed to share this, and we want to leave the surprises in the book a secret for as long as possible out of respect for ARMY, but yes, Slin, @clarehannahmary and I are its translators. 

I do want to add that as Korean literary translators, our work on this book was conducted with the deepest respect for ARMY and BTS as they have been so supportive of Korean literature in translation over the years. It is truly an honor and a highlight of our careers  💜💜💜🙇‍♀️🙇🙇‍♂️

Este proyecto se llevó a cabo bajo tanto secreto que todavía se siente muy extraño que de repente se nos permita compartir esto, y queremos dejar las sorpresas en el libro en secreto por el mayor tiempo posible por respeto a ARMY, pero sí, Slin, @-clarehannahmary y yo somos sus traductores. Quiero agregar que, como traductores literarios coreanos, nuestro trabajo en este libro se realizó con el más profundo respeto por ARMY y BTS, ya que han apoyado tanto la traducción de la literatura coreana a lo largo de los años. Es realmente un honor y un punto culminante de nuestras carreras 💜💜💜🙇‍♀️🙇🙇‍♂️

clarehannahmary·twt 

What an incredible incredible honour it was to be part of this incredible incredible project!!can’t wait for you all to see this book!!!! Thank you so much most of all to BTS and ARMY and all they’ve done for Korean literature

 ¡Qué increíble, increíble honor fue ser parte de este increíble, increíble proyecto!  ¡No puedo esperar a que todos vean este libro! Muchas gracias sobre todo a BTS y ARMY y todo lo que han hecho por la literatura coreana

[apoandbangpo]

大英博物館が無断使用、翻訳者に支払い合意（CNN 翻訳）

CNN Jessie Yeung 2023年8月9日（水）午前3時7分掲載

大英博物館に無断で作品を使用された翻訳者が今週、同館と和解を成立させ勝利を収めた。K-POP界のスーパースター、BTSのファンの後押しもあり、2カ月にわたる交渉とネット上でのキャンペーンが実った。

同博物館は6月「China's hidden century」展のために、フェミニストで革命家であった秋瑾の19世紀の詩を作家のワン・イーリン氏が翻訳したものを使用したと報道され、非難を浴びた。

同博物館は、バンクーバーを拠点に活動するワン氏に連絡を取っておらず、翻訳に対する報酬の支払いも申し出ていないうえ、展覧会に彼女の名前をクレジットしていなかった。

その後、「不注意で、これらの手順を省略してしまった」ことを認め、謝罪し、翻訳と原詩を展示から取り除いた。このような行為に多くの人々が憤慨し、博物館は来館者に詩を読めなくするのではなく、代わりに翻訳料を支払うよう申し出���べきだったと主張した。

先週金曜日にワン氏と博物館が交わした示談により、詩と翻訳が復活し、適切なクレジットと対価が支払われることになったとワン氏はCNNの電話インタビューで答えた。そして、これは翻訳者のしばしば目に見えない複雑な仕事を認識するための重要な一歩だと語った。

「疲れましたが、ほっとしています」と彼女は言った。「望んでいたことがすべて叶ったので、かなり満足していますが、これだけ時間がかかったことに不満もあります。対処してもらうために、ここまでする必要がなければよかったのですが」

6月にネット上で大炎上した後、ワン氏は博物館の対応に満足せず、弁護費用を捻出するためにオンライン募金を開始した。彼女が属するLGBTQコミュニティーから、学術団体、同業者である翻訳家や作家、さらにはARMY（Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth）として知られるBTSの熱狂的ファンまで、ネット上のさまざまなところから支援の声が殺到した。

BTSの公式本を共同翻訳したことからアントン・ハー、クレア・リチャーズ、チョン・スリンは、BTSコミュニティーでよく知られた存在になった。そのコミュニティーは、BTSに敬意を表して植樹したり「Black Lives Matter」のような運動に寄付したりと、団結して支援活動を行ってきた長い歴史がある。

3人は彼女が募金を募っていることを広めた。そして、ARMYもそれに応えた。ファンたちが「募金キャンペーンを展開し、ソーシャルメディア上で協力して盛り上げてくれました」とワン氏は語った。「本当に翻訳者のことを大切に思ってくれていて、とても感謝しています」

「コミュニティーが一体となって組織に責任を求めるという、集団の力を私に見せてくれました」と彼女は付け加えた。

この募金活動により、彼女は弁護士を雇うことができた。その後すぐに、大英博物館のハートウィグ・フィッシャー館長から連絡があったという。彼女は、フィッシャー館長からのメッセージは謝罪の意を表すものであったと説明し、最終的な示談に至るまで、さらに1ヶ月の交渉が続いたと言う。

CNNは一部が黒塗りにされた示談書のコピーを閲覧したが、それによると博物館は今週末までに、ワン氏の翻訳にクレジットをつけて展示に戻し、対価を支払うという。また、博物館のウェブサイトに秋瑾の詩を取り上げたページを設け、漢詩の翻訳者を支援するためにライセンス料と同額の追加寄付を行う。

そして、おそらく最も重要なことは、年内に翻訳の許可プロセスを設けることに同意したことだ。これまで同博物館にはなかったことだとワン氏は言う。

「これは、他の博物館や同様の施設にも明確なポリシーを設け、翻訳者に適切な報酬を支払い、クレジットするよう促すという点で前向きな一歩です」と彼女は語った。

今週初めのプレスリリースで、大英博物館は「見落とし」だったとしてワン氏に再度謝罪した。

「大英博物館には現在、翻訳の許可に関する特別なポリシーがありません。今後、見直しの一環として、翻訳の許可に関するポリシーを明確にし、翻訳者が適切にクレジットされるようにします」と、同博物館は述べている。

「大英博物館は著作権の許可を重要視しており、翻訳者の役割の重要性とその仕事の価値を認識しています。多くの場合、その仕事は博物館の研究を前進させ、展示を通じて一般へのアクセスを広げる助けになっています」と付け加えた。

ワン氏は、この勝利の意義の一つは、より多くの人々に秋瑾と彼女の詩について知ってもらうことだと話した。

「クィア・フェミニストの詩人である彼女の作品は、翻訳において見過ごされてきました」とワン氏は言う。「彼女の作品はとても時代に合っていると感じ、より多くの人に読んでもらいたいと思い、翻訳し始めました。そして、彼女の作品に値する敬意を持って扱われることを望んでいます」

ワン・イーリンさんのツイート コミュニティーが協力した結果、このような解決に至ったことを話す機会を与えてくれたCNNの@/jessieyeungに感謝します。@/AntonHur、@/clarehannahmary、Slin Jung、そしてARMYからもらった助けについて詳しく書いてくれて嬉しいです。

アントン・ハーさんのツイート 翻訳者として、Yilinの仕事に対する正当な評価を求める戦いに協力してくれたすべての人に感謝します💜 このCNNの記事で大きく取り上げられている#BTSARMYも含めて！なんて素晴らしいファンダムなんだろう！ アイデアを出し、企画してくれたkook00sanに心から感謝します💜

[descalibrary]

IMAGINING BURTON: A POP-UP THOUGHT ON THE VIOLENT PHENOMENA PART 1 Half way reading TVP and I can't help myself but to think about the first pages of this book. There's a name we're familiar with: Sir Richard Francis Burton and connected it to the recent book club meeting I once attended. Burton who's able to speak in 8 different languages has once translated the 1001 Arabian nights and the famous erotic book The Perfumed Garden (TPG) by Sheikh Nefzawi, a Maroccan writer in 1866. Burton translated TPG from the French manuscript printed by Isidore Liseux in the same year. The last chapter of the manuscript was left incomplete. The reason is: the censorship - the materials abt homosexuality and pederasty. With the standard of "morality" at that particular era that chapter will have to be removed. So here: translation isn't only a matter of art (Tiff @tiffanytsao says "it's not a guide book,boo!") but can also be political and ideological (Anton @antonhur once refer it to "you're not white!"-thingies) And here: I joined a book club a while ago in which the translator of the book we're discussing said: "the book is translated from the language X (which this translator doesn't speak nor understand) to English and I translated it into Bahasa Indonesia from English, but there are flaws in the English translated version." I was aghast at this statement as I started thinking "how would one know that there are flaws in the language X to English translated version without even knowing, speaking or understanding the source language?" So, let's imagine Burton while he's translating the Perfumed Garden from Liseux's manuscript in French! I know that Burton speaks very well Arabic and French but imagine if he doesn't speak Arabic - dun understand it nor the culture and only translated TPG from French into English; would he dare saying "there's a huge flaws in Liseux's?" Doesn't it sound too haughty? Des ✨ PS: wearing my rainbow-Pippi-Longstockings pairs of socks while sipping my (herbal) tea. Life ey?! Slide 3: Richard Burton Slide 4-rest:the illustrated TPG (at Sota,PNG) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnu7UXzytal/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[nolitethoughts]

☂️VIOLETS☂️ 

BY KYUNG-SOOK SHIN AND TRANSLATED BY Anton Hur REVIEW

“Violets pulled up some deeply-hidden childhood trauma in me, which now has the chance to heal itself.”

I've managed to master some courage and I have written a quite emotional review.

This was my goal from the beginning because there are way more people who could professionally analyze an author's work than me but it's only me who felt a certain way reading this book so, here I am.

"I had a complicated relationship with my mom. This book brought me closer to her even if I didn’t want to."

When I have seen the title of her other book: Please Look After Mom I had a feeling that she writes about motherhood and mom-daughter relationships and I was scared.

Because I wasn't ready to deal with this emotionally.

In Violets, I had to face a few of my demons but I felt like both the author and Anton were 'holding my hand' through this journey so I felt like I wasn't alone.

Read the whole review here

out by @feministpress (US edition)

and @wnbooks @orionbooks (UK edition)

I highly, highly recommend this book. If you haven't read it yet but you were tempted many times to get it. This is your sign to grab it.

☂️Have a wonderful and peaceful day with loads of books and follow me for more bookish posts ☂️

[bibliobethblog]

Hello everyone and welcome to a new week! This week already feels like it’s going to be super busy 😥 but I’m back doing my daily yoga which is really helping. Time to share three special books that were bought for me by @bookishbananna @allthegenres and @clm.readsx as part of an RAOK day hosted by @abrewandabook_ Spin The Dawn is the first book in The Blood Of Stars series. It follows a girl called Maia who dreams of becoming the best tailor in the land but bring a girl, the most she can hope for is to marry well. Then a royal messenger calls her ailing father to court. Seizing her opportunity, Maia dresses as a man and goes in her father’s place to the Summer Palace to compete for the Emperor’s favour and the coveted position of imperial tailor. Yet nothing could have prepared her for the challenge ahead - to sew three magical gowns for the emperor’s bride to be. One from the laughter of the sun, one from the tears of the moon and one from the blood of the stars. The second book, Love In The Big City is translated fiction from @tiltedaxispress described as a fresh and unique debut novel from the bestselling young star of queer Korean fiction. It is an energetic, moving and joyful novel that depicts both the glittering night time world of Seoul and the bleary eyed morning after. Finally, we have a Jodi Picoult novel, The Book Of Two Ways. I used to be a big fan of this author and I’m hoping to get back into her work. This novel follows Dawn Edelstein whose life changes in a single moment. She’s on a place when a flight attendant makes an announcement to prepare for a crash landing. The man who enters her mind is not her husband but a man she hasn’t seen for 15 years. Dawn survives the crash but so do all her doubts. She must now choose between her life with her husband or a life that she could have lived. I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! Have a great week everyone 🤗😘 #bookstagram #bookworm #bookstagrammer #bookhaul #generousbookworms #spinthedawn #thebloodofstars #elizabethlim #loveinthebigcity #sangyoungpark #translatedfiction #koreanfiction #antonhur #thebookoftwoways #jodipicoult https://www.instagram.com/p/CbYJmIhr9fS/?utm_medium=tumblr

[descaslibrary]

I lost Thomas,a dearest gay friend of mine due to HIV a while ago. Thom is a vivacious and literate person. He read and talked about books. His favourite writers is Marguerite Duras whose life prolly inspired him as he went on excessive drinking habit, flipped around with some different boys (these boys were crazy for this old grumpy Scrooge friend of mine surprisingly - lol). I- on the other hand, was his crisis manager whose jobs was to console his young lovers after their love went sour; telling them, "that's ok. You'll be fine" We both went through all the fuk-ups in life from eating french fries when we both had no pennies to went on drinking bottles of wine at one night- lamenting and crying over our miserable love life. He kept saying, "You're my dragon lady" and mocked me after by saying, "At least my sex life is more colourful with all those young boys than you with your oldie. Why do you only keep a guy in your line? Date more boys, darling!" Both of us had no dream but to remain forever young like Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray. Too bad that he's gone too sooon. Then comes this book! The platonic love between Jaehee and Young in Park's Love in the Big City reminds me of Thomsky. This is what makes the book relatable to me. I love how Park drags me to see Y's queer life. The book consists of 4 stories, portray a segment of Y's life and each of them can stand alone. You will not only see the platonic love between J and Y but with otherd: his dying mother, the man that he found and his professional life that goes on and off like his love life. I love Y simply because he is such a spirited character that always remain so positive even when he's diagnosed with HIV+. I just wish we hear more about the second lead like Jaehee-Y's best friend but goes MIA after the 2nd chapter. Thanking Park that through this book, the readers can see what it is like to become a queer in South Korea. And thanking @antonhur for working his magic,turning each sentence into a whole fluid, witty and real page-turner story we're able to read in English. The book is simply a book worth reading. Give this a go, everyone! Des ✨ (at Ko Samui) https://www.instagram.com/p/CgOR9Bpr-8P/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[outhin]

https://twitter.com/AntonHur/status/1377226116268662784/photo/3 Learn how to form questions, to be clear. 

[elisehu]

Celebrating words at @latimes Festival of Books #latfob @uscedu ... this shirt reminds me of the time @antonhur said of a woman our friend was dating, “I peeked at her bookshelf and her books were so basic.” 🔥😬🔥 (at University of Southern California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwQeTVelG7S/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=bqa68jkvy8pd

[trantwitterfavs]

Favorite tweets

Just how many sex-tourist-turned-Asian-studies-professors are there?

— Anton Hur 🏳️‍🌈🇰🇷 (@AntonHur) April 19, 2020

via http://twitter.com/AntonHur

[descalibrary]

IMAGINING BURTON AND THE WORLD OF TRANSLATION - A REFLECTION ON THE VIOLENT PHENOMENA PART 1 Half way reading TVP and I can't help myself but to think about the first pages of this book. There's a name we're familiar with: Sir Richard Francis Burton and connected it to the recent book club meeting I once attended. Burton who's able to speak in 8 different languages has once translated the 1001 Arabian nights and the famous erotic book The Perfumed Garden (TPG) by Sheikh Nefzawi, a Maroccan writer in 1866. Burton translated TPG from French manuscript printed by Isidore Liseux in the same year. The last chapter of the manuscript was left incomplete. The reason is: the censorship as it contained the materials abt homosexuality and pederasty. With the standard of "morality" in that particular era those, this chapter will have to be removed. So here: translation isn't only a matter of art (Tiff @tiffanytsao says "it's not a guide book) but can also be political and ideological (Anton @antonhur once refer it to "you're not white!"-thingies) And here: I joined a book club a while ago in which the translator of the book we're discussing said: "the book is translated from the language X (which this translator doesn't speak nor understand) to English and I translated it into Bahasa Indonesia from English, but there are flaws in the English translated version." I was aghast at this statement as I started thinking "how would one know that there are flaws in the language X to English translated version without even knowing, speaking or understanding the source language?" So, let's imagine Burton while he's translating the Perfumed Garden from Liseux's manuscript in French! I know that Burton speaks very well Arabic and French but imagine if he doesn't speak Arabic - dun understand it nor the culture and only translated TPG from French into English; would he dare saying "there's a huge flaws in Liseux's?" Doesn't it sound too haughty? Des ✨ PS: I am counting the days to my Papua deployment so I'm wearing my rainbow-Pippi-Longstockings pairs of socks while sipping my (herbal) tea. Life ey?! Slide 3: Richard Burton Slide 4-rest:the illustrated TPG (at Bangkok, Thailand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CndtsHsAf7F/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[nolitethoughts]

🌞Violets (Original title: 바이올렛) by Kyung-Sook Shin and Translated by Anton Hur 🌞

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my current read at the moment and probably one of the other favourite books I have read this year so far.🌞

Definitely my all-time most loved Anton Hur translation. Beautifully done I just love every line of it. 

Plot (from the publisher); "San is twenty-two and alone when she happens upon a job at a flower shop in Seoul’s bustling city center. Haunted by childhood rejection, she stumbles through life—painfully vulnerable, stifled, and unsure. She barely registers to others, especially by the ruthless standards of 1990s South Korea. 

Over the course of one hazy, volatile summer, San meets a curious cast of characters: the nonspeaking shop owner, a brash coworker, kind farmers, and aggressive customers. Fueled by a quiet desperation to jump-start her life, she plunges headfirst into obsession with a passing magazine photographer.

In Violets, best-selling author Kyung-Sook Shin explores misogyny, erasure, and repressed desire, as San desperately searches for both autonomy and attachment in the unforgiving reality of contemporary Korean society."

You might know her by her other novel that won the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 "Please Look After Mom' 

🌞I'm already halfway through with it, and just to be a total nerd; I love the font they used for her novel so much, and the paper is such an exquisite quality that I just want to hold the book all day long.🌞

Giving me serious nostalgia on multiple levels. From the desire of writing, to do this near the window beside the city on top of a fridge. My heart really ached bittersweetly at that part. Because it reminded me of the time when I lived in Japan with my best friend @h_a_n_a_aa when we were 18. 

out by @feministpress (US edition)

and @wnbooks @orionbooks (UK edition)

🌞Have a wonderful day with loads of books and follow me for more bookish posts.🌞

[nolitethoughts]

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🔥 The Longlist of The 2022 International Booker Prize is here and it looks so awesome that it gave me an idea🔥 I'm getting closer to launching my website (nolitethotughts.co.uk) and I thought there is no better way to kick it off than to read the 13 candidates on this list. - said the girl enthusiastically then looked at the thicc Tomb of Sand and The Books of Jacob 😅 Jokes aside the main reason for this is because 4 out of 13 books are coming from my favourite indie presses @tiltedaxispress and @honford_star and I can't help myself. Oh, and also there is @kawakami_mieko with Heaven one of my favourite authors of all time. Keep your eyes peeled for updates and have a look at the nominees at @thebookerprizes 👏 Note: The picture belongs to the Booker Prize #cursedbunny @antonhur #borachung @lollieditions #AfterTheSun #JonasEika #sherilynnicolettehellberg #anewname #jonfosse @fitzcarraldoeditions #MoreThanILoveMyLife @vintagebooks #TheBookOfMother @violainehuisman @viragopress #Heaven #bookerprize #reading #bookstagram #heaven #loveinthebigcity #happystoriesmostly #tombofsand #thebooksofjacob #phenotypes #paradais #elenaknows

[nolitethoughts]

☀︎🌞What Should I Read Next?🌞☀︎

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Help me choose my next read:

Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin and translated by @antonhur "We join San in 1970s rural South Korea, a young girl ostracised from her community. She meets a girl called Namae, and they become friends until one afternoon changes everything. Following a moment of physical intimacy in a minari field, Namae violently rejects San, setting her on a troubling path of quashed desire and isolation. 

We next meet San, aged twenty-two, as she starts a job in a flower shop. There, we are introduced to a colourful cast of characters, including the shop's mute owner and the other florist Su-ae. The customers include a sexually aggressive business person and a photographer, with whom San develops an obsession. Throughout, San's moment with Namae lingers in her mind.

A story of desire and violence about a young woman who everyone forgot, VIOLETS is a captivating and sensual read, full of tragedy and beauty."

out by @orionpublishinghouse@orionbooks

OR...

The Vegetarian by Han Kang and translated by Deborah Smith “Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether.”

Let me know which one would you read first!

Pop in and cast your vote on my website and read my latest book reviews and short stories 

Have a lovely and peaceful day with loads of books and follow me for more bookish posts.

out by @grantabooks