The meaning of language and translation for 2 Korean-born poets
“Languages Walking Side by Side,” the title of the Sept. 24 talk session between poets Kim Hye-soon and Don Mee Choi at this year's Seoul International Writers' Festival, couldn't have been more of a fitting descriptor for the literary duo's relationship. Kim made headlines in 2019 as the first Asian woman to be named the winner of the prestigious International Griffin Poetry Prize for her “Autobiography of Death,” the words of which muse on the nature of individual and collective historical traumas, which were masterfully translated into English at the hands of Choi.