Su Cho and E.J. Koh in Conversation
This week, poet, memoirist, and translator E.J. Koh on the untranslatability of Han. “Han is very difficult for me to define,” Su Cho agrees. “The dictionary definition is ‘an internalized feeling of deep grief, regret, anger, and sorrow, which is felt by all Koreans,’ but this is complicated because what does it mean to define an entire country by its trauma? And how can those of us who feel the lingering effects, but didn’t live through its history, write about it?” Koh’s work runs into the fog of what we don’t know—yet. This conversation features excerpts from her memoir, The Magical Language of Others, which includes translated letters written by Koh’s mother, and her poem “American Han” from the October issue of Poetry.
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Show Notes
This week, poet, memoirist, and translator E.J. Koh on the untranslatability of Han. “Han is very difficult for me to define,” Su Cho agrees. “The dictionary definition is ‘an internalized feeling of deep grief, regret, anger, and sorrow, which is felt by all Koreans,’ but this is complicated because what does it mean to define an entire country by its trauma? And how can those of us who feel the lingering effects, but didn’t live through its history, write about it?” Koh’s work runs into the fog of what we don’t know—yet. This conversation features excerpts from her memoir, The Magical Language of Others, which includes translated letters written by Koh’s mother, and her poem “American Han” from the October issue of Poetry.
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