‘Eros, Sweet and Bitter’
By Anne Carson | Translated by Hwang Yu-won | Nanda | 320 pages | 22,000 Korean won
‘The Autobiography of Red’
By Anne Carson | Translated by Min Seung-nam | Hanbit Media | 256 pages | 15,000 Korean won
‘Nox’
By Anne Carson | Translated by Yoon Kyung-hee | Bomnal’s Books | 192 pages | 55,000 Korean won
This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature surge has begun. Even authors renowned for being difficult to understand sell like hotcakes on bookstore shelves during this time. Canadian author Anne Carson is also meeting new readers this year following her award. Carson’s domestically published works total nine titles. According to Kyobo Bookstore on October 9, sales of Carson’s books increased 138-fold compared to before the award announcement. While books typically sold in the tens per day, sales increased to the hundreds per day following the Nobel Prize announcement.
The publisher with the most Carson books is Nanda (4 titles), which includes her early works. The essay ‘Eros, Sweet and Bitter’ (1986, original English edition), adapted from her 1981 doctoral dissertation, foreshadows Carson’s literary world. It is worth revisiting at this moment when she has received the Nobel Prize. Carson overlays ‘Eros’ and ‘Knowledge,’ writing, “I want to understand why falling in love and arriving at knowledge make me feel truly alive.”
Carson’s second poetry collection, ‘Glass, Irony, and God’ (1995), breaks down genres by traversing essays, prose poetry, criticism, translation, plays, diaries, and reworkings of classics. Particular praise is heaped on the long poem ‘The Glass Essay’ included in this collection. It is a “poem-novel” that intertwines the poetic voice with the life of Emily Brontë to explore loss and solitude. She has also published her first poetry collection, ‘Short Talks’ (1992), and ‘Plainwater’ (1995), which encompasses poetry, prose, travel writing, and fictional interviews.
Nanda representative and poet Kim Min-jung recounted the story from June 2017 when she decided to publish. She boarded a flight to the UK with poet Hwang Yu-won for a poetry reading. Kim handed Hwang two English originals, ‘Short Talks’ and ‘Glass, Irony, and God,’ saying, “Give this a read.” After landing, Hwang’s reaction was, “This is really interesting,” to which Kim replied, “Then you should translate it.” This is how Hwang came to take on the translation.
Translator Hwang, a poet, said, “Carson’s intellectual and sharp sentences are not easy to translate,” and added, “When translating a book with many quotations, like ‘Eros, Sweet and Bitter,’ there were always more than ten books piled up next to my desk.” He emphasized, “Anne Carson is an author who has never been confined by the fence of genre.” “Anne Carson herself is a genre. I think every artist should become their own genre, and Carson has shown us the precedent.”
Carson’s monumental work, the verse novel ‘The Autobiography of Red’ (1998), was first introduced in Korea in 2016. As her representative work, it currently holds the top spot on real-time bestseller lists at Kyobo, Yes24, and Aladin. It features Geryon, the red monster shot dead by Hercules in Greek mythology, as the protagonist. The myth is retold as a love story between Hercules and the lonely boy Geryon with red wings.
‘Nox’ (2010), an experimental book in both content and form with a 192-page text that unfolds like an accordion, was published by Bomnal’s Books in 2022. The left side of each spread details the process of translating the poetry of ancient Roman poet Catullus, while the right side contains the sister’s reflections commemorating her brother Michael, who died abroad in Denmark. It is a unique elegy that pieces together traces left by her brother, such as photographs and letters, as if retracing each word of the poem.
Bomnal’s Books representative Park Ji-hong confessed, “I secretly rejected translator Yoon Kyung-hee’s proposal several times before mustering the courage.” This was because, as a one-person publishing house collaborating with three designers, it required a significant resolve. Park said, “The process required manual folding and gluing, so production took about two months.” This is a task that would take just a week with machine-based perfect binding.
Although production took significantly more time and money, they promoted the book vigorously with recommendations from 22 authors, including Han Kang. The first print run of 1,500 copies sold out, leading to a reprint. Capitalizing on this success, they published Carson’s experimental collection ‘Float’ (2016) in 2023. ‘Noma’s Strange’ (2024), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, is also set to be released through Bomnal’s Books as early as November.
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