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Tense and Aspect in Korean-English Poetry Translation

  • The Journal of Translation Studies
  • Abbr : JTS
  • 2020, 21(3), pp.263-284
  • DOI : 10.15749/jts.2020.21.3.010
  • Publisher : The Korean Association for Translation Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Interpretation and Translation Studies
  • Received : August 5, 2020
  • Accepted : September 9, 2020
  • Published : September 30, 2020

Han Miae 1

1동국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the translation of tense and aspect from Korean to English, and presents the influence of them on poems as a poetic device. For this, the two translated versions of Shin Kyongnim’s four poems are compared and analyzed. It is because Shin’s poems include the present tense that conveys the feeling of lyric poetry, and the past tense or the present perfect that narrates a story in narrative poetry. As the result of analysis, in the two versions, the method of translating tense and aspect of his one poem is similar in that internal deviation for foregrounding is not preserved. It seems inevitable because of different grammatical systems between Korean and English. However, the methods of translating tense and aspect of his three poems are different in the two versions. What differentiates one version from the other is interpretation of Korean tense morphemes ‘-ass (았), -yeoss (였)’ since the expressions have the meanings of the past tense and the present perfect according to contextual information. Another factor of differentiation is related to linguistic deviation for foregrounding. One version loses lyric emotion, feeling and immediacy by translating the historical present or the timeless present into the past tense. On the other hand, the other preserves the present as a poetic device that has the vivid, immediate, or visionary effect. Therefore, translators should take in consideration effect of the pure present and the past tense/the present perfection on lyric and narrative poetry.

Citation status

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.