Joseon-Soviet Culture (Jo Sso Munhwa) and Baek Seok’s translation

ABSTRACT

Baek Seok, who returned to his hometown Jeongju via Manchuria after 1940, is a poet who experienced liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule (1945) and the Korean War (1950) in North Korea. During this period, he worked on translation rather than creating poetry. For this reason, researchers who attempt to examine Baek’s activities during his time in North Korea have focused on discovering and studying his translation works. As this article will elaborate, during the mid-twentieth century after his return home, Baek Seok also published a large number of translated poems in Joseon-Soviet Culture (Jo Sso Munhwa), the journal of the Joseon-Soviet Culture Association. Joseon-Soviet Culture, which was published from 1946 to 1963, is a major channel for investigating how North Korea’s so-called “official” literature was established through the influence of the Soviet Union. Baek Seok’s translation works have been largely understood as “indirect writing” during the period when creation was directly and indirectly banned. It is expected that, by reviewing various translations by Baek in Joseon-Soviet Culture, Baek’s literary activities in North Korea before writing freely was banned, can be confirmed more empirically. In this article, I will show how Baek Seok’s literary longing during this period can be traced through the analysis of his translated poem I want to say to you “You are my wife!”  … by Konstantin Simonov. I argue that this poem shares an atmosphere similar to Baek’s existing creative poetry and translation practices are linked to reading practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Baek Seok
• Joseon-Soviet Culture (Jo Sso Munhwa)
• translation
• North Korean literature

Acknowledgements

This article is based on Baek Seok’s translated poetry published in Joseon-Soviet Culture, which was provided by Han Sang-eon Film Institute. I would like to thank CEO Han Sang-eon for providing valuable data.

Notes

1 See Lee Sang-suk 2020, Chapter 7 “Baek Seok’s Translated Novels.” In this work, Sang-suk Lee introduced and analyzed Baek Seok’s translation of Alexander Yakovlev’s novel “Boast,” published in the 6th edition of Joseon-Soviet Culture, and Elena Verman’s “Hide and Seek” published in the Literature Newspaper on 25 April 1957.

2 According to Park Tae-il’s study reviewing the related aspects of Joseon-Soviet Friendship and Lim Hwa, Lim Hwa wrote his position as the “former vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Joseon-Soviet Culture Association” in the sentencing of his purge for espionage in North Korea in 1953 (compiled by Kim Nam-sik. ed. 1974. “Nam Ro Dang Research Collection,” Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University. p. 471.) Later, through Kim Jae-yong’s research, it was revealed that Lim Hwa was also the main writer of Joseon-Soviet Culture. In this regard, refer to Park Tae-il. 2014a. “Activities of Lim Hwa and Joseon-Soviet Friendship during the War.” International Language Literature 30: 255.

3 The title or entire text was introduced in Song Jun’s book, Poet Baek Seok 3: Let’s go to the mountain village, with the world on our shoulders (White Donkey 2012), Song Jun’s Complete Works of Baek Seok’s Translated Poetry (2012), and Jeong Sun-tae’s Selected Works of Baek Seok’s Translated Poetry (2012), which mainly focus on translated poems published as books. In addition, the list of Baek Seok’s translated poems published in media such as Literature Newspaper can be confirmed in Lee Sang-suk’s work (Lee Sang-suk. op. cit. pp. 27–31). A new list that fully covers Baek Seok’s translation works should be created by adding the translated poems published in Joseon-Soviet Culture.

4 “Writer’s Alliance—The election of allied agencies of various levels and appointment of members of each department,” 1956. Joseon Literature 111 (11): 202–204; Kim Sung-soo and Ko Ja-yun. 2017. “The Specifity of Art and Principles of Party Literature—Rereading the 1950s North Korean Literature.” Journal of Korean Literary History 65: 259–260.

5 Although Joseon Literature or Literature Newspaper followed the practice of immediately commenting on published poems at the time, whether positive or problematic, there was no criticism of Baek Seok’s poetry. Lee Sang-suk. op. cit. p. 102.

6 The study conducted by Kim Sung-soo and Ko Ja-yun summarizes the overall changing trend of the North Korean literary world before and after the Second Writer’s Competition as “ideology (literature line), subject (organization), media (literature paper), aesthetics (creation methodology), and theory of the writer’s work (evaluation debate). “ As of 1956, various works were written during this period owing to the active “criticism of schematism” of socialist realism. However, “criticism of schematism” encountered opposition after Kim Il-sung’s instructions in 1958, and right-wing writers disappeared from literary circles. This study evaluates that the North Korean literary circles lost the opportunity to mature in literature. Kim Sung-soo and Ko Ja-yun. op. cit. pp. 286–287.

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Yeonjung Cho

Yeonjung Cho is a lecturer at the Department of Liberal Education at Seoul National University since 2008. She graduated from Seoul National University while majoring in Korean Language and Literature, and obtained a PhD in 2008. She has previously lectured at other universities, including Konkuk University, Dankook University, Duksung Women’s University, Myongji University, and Hongik University. She made her debut as a critic by winning the New Year’s Literary Competition hosted by Seoul Shinmun Daily in 2006 and has been consistently publishing works of literary criticism in numerous literary magazines since. She has been an editorial board member of the quarterly magazine Literature and Society since 2013. She has also written multiple articles on contemporary Korean poetry and modern Korean criticism. Her books include 만짐의 시간 (2013) and 여성 시학, 1980–1990 (2021). Her research book 장전된 시간 is scheduled to be published within the year.