{"id":517,"date":"2018-12-05T14:01:15","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T14:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/?p=517"},"modified":"2018-12-05T14:01:15","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T14:01:15","slug":"hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/","title":{"rendered":"A profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Translated from the Korean by Emily Yae Won (Tilted Axis Press, 2018)<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ll Go On <\/em><\/a>was the final 2018 release in my Tilted Axis subscription, and I\u2019d been eagerly awaiting it all year. It is the story of sisters Sora and Nana and their family bonds: with their damaged mother, Aeja, who was once brimming with love but has now given herself over to grief, with the enigmatic yet tender boy next door, Naghi Oraboni, and with Naghi\u2019s mother, who fed and sustained Sora and Nana through their childhood. The original title, Soranananaghi<\/em>, binds the three main protagnists\u2019 names together in an incantation, also incorporating the word \u2018sonagi\u2019 (meaning \u2018downpour\u2019), and both of these meanings are echoed one drunken evening in three drops of water that Naghi names as Sora, Nana and Naghi, and that join together to make one single body of water. The English title is brilliantly chosen, as it is a phrase repeated like a refrain throughout the book: \u201cI\u2019ll go on\u201d is the epitome of the characters\u2019 determination to live out their lives, resigned to not feeling happy. This is far from being the only example of Emily Yae Won\u2019s deftness in the translation: there are many references to the characters that make up the Korean names, and her incorporation of these never feels heavy-handed or \u201ctextbook-like\u201d. I always find it hard to imagine the translation process from a language I know nothing of and a culture I know little about, but this translation seemed to me to keep all the cultural importance of the original, and some of the linguistic features, while still ensuring it was a smooth read in English.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image from tiltedaxispress.com<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ll Go On\u00a0<\/i>is narrated in four parts: Sora, Nana and Naghi all take their turns narrating, and then Nana takes over again for the short final section. I have come to greatly enjoy stories with multiple narrators, and one of the things I like about this technique is exemplified brilliantly in I\u2019ll Go On<\/em>: viewing the same event from different perspectives. The meeting of Sora, Nana and Naghi as children is recounted by both Sora and Naghi, likewise the revelation that \u201csingle-member tribes do exist in the world, you know\u201d; an incident when Naghi strikes Nana to remind her that \u201cforgetting, that\u2019s how people turn monstruous. It\u2019s how you become oblivious to other people\u2019s pain\u201d is remembered by both Nana and Naghi, and tense conversations between Sora and Nana are related by both sisters.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the story is Nana\u2019s pregnancy: Sora, the older sister, has always looked after Nana, and now feels that Nana has betrayed her, bringing another life into their family unit. Sora resents the pregnancy but tries to be kind; Nana resents Sora for trying to be kind. Sora\u2019s only concept of motherhood is painful: she addresses Nana in her internal monologue with the musing:<\/p>\n

\u201cHas Nana set her heart on becoming a replica of Aeja?
\nIs that it, Nana.
\nYou want to be another Aeja?
\nFall in love like she did, and make a baby, and then have the baby, all so you can turn into an overbearing mother?\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Nana herself, she struggles with her (lack of) emotions towards the baby growing in her womb: she likes the father well enough, but does not want to marry him, and does not want to form an attachment to her child:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to love, that seems about the right amount of emotional involvement: to be able to soon get back on your feet no matter what occurs. Where whether by mutual agreement of by one-sided betrayal or because one of you vanishes into thin air overnight, the other can manage to say, in due time: I\u2019m fine. That seems about right. Even once the baby is here, Nana has decided that that will be the extent of her love for the child and for Moseh ssi.
\nPouring all your heart into love as Aeja had done \u2013 that level of devotion is what Nana wants to guard against.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love is an emotion that can turn sour, that can become overwhelming grief, that can leave you a husk, and neither Sora nor Nana want this kind of love to befall them. They prefer recognisable parameters: companionship, shared memories, walls around the heart. And yet, it is in her attitude towards her unborn child that Nana realises with horror how like her own grief-hardened mother she is becoming: \u201cIt dawned on her that having been so intent on her own pain, it hadn\u2019t occurred to her to consider the unequivocal anguish now presented before her. And that this made hers the closest likeness to that heart which Nana wholly detested, namely, Aeja\u2019s heart.\u201d The selfishness of Aeja\u2019s pain, the way in which it closed her off to the pain of others, including her own children, is replicated in Nana \u2013 and yet this is not portrayed in some moralistic, daughter-understanding-the-mother way, but rather to show the terror of a child whose mother would prefer to leave the world than care for her, on realising that she too has allowed herself to become so consumed by pain that she cannot see the pain she is inflicting on others. And so we see a cycle: of life, love, resentment, and of the ways in which all three main characters are trapped in a past they cannot set free. This is reflected in Aeja\u2019s repeated questioning of Nana about her pregnancy: Aeja chants \u201cAre you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy?\u201d without waiting for an answer, and Nana listens to \u201cthe question that\u2019s being repeated over and over like a curse.\u201d Aeja\u2019s lack of happiness in her own life did not prevent her from wanting happiness for her children, but she fails to see that it is her own behaviour that has wrung out all possibility for happiness from them.<\/p>\n

The main emotional connection the three narrators share comes through food: they were all nourished through childhood on the food prepared by Naghi\u2019s mother, Ajumoni, a hardworking widow whose only desire in life is to have a grandchild. Just as it was Ajumoni who fed Sora and Nana through their childhood (\u201cThey were the plainest of lunchboxes. Plain and commonplace. And yet to have contained so much in such a compact form is nothing short of immense\u201d), so it was also Ajumoni who gave Sora and Nana the maternal love they lacked in their own home, and it is her food that sustains them even as adults, when they gather together to make dumplings, setting their differences aside as they work together to prepare a feast, the taste of which embodies for Nana \u201cThe longing, the delight, the tenderness, the fear, the loneliness, the regret, the joy \u2013 all muddled, all at once.\u00a0All one big mess.\u201d Ajumoni’s food defines both childhood and home for Sora and Nana, to the extent that \u201cno matter what delectable and fine food they may come across now, anything that\u2019s not of this home is simply \u2013 for Sora and Nana both \u2013 other, the taste of not-home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hwang is adept at crafting profound philosophical reflections in the quietest of ways: the fleeting nature of human life within the vastness of history is made evident in the assertion that \u201cthe world\u2019s end will only befall us gradually, and this will give Nana time to think properly about things\u201d; the overwhelming nature of pain is given shape in Naghi\u2019s description of Aeja\u2019s widowhood, when he acknowledges that \u201cover a lengthy stretch of time, she has steadily, inaudibly, fulfilled her pain and become whole. She has hauled her pain over herself, covering herself entirely with it, like a carapace\u201d; the physical depth of love is evident in Naghi\u2019s claim that \u201cThis sensory memory is a yearning, and will never be erased. If it is to be rubbed out, it will be the last memory to go, It will leave me only in my final moment\u201d, and perhaps Hwang\u2019s characters are best defined by Nana\u2019s conclusion about human life: \u201cPeople are <\/em>trifling, their lives meagre and fleeting. But this, Nana thinks, is also what makes them loveable\u201d. These are some of my favourite lines from the novel, and show the lyrical beauty to be found within it. What could be a fairly depressing story is raised to a thing of crystalline incandescence because of the sensitivity and humanity with which both author and translator craft this work.<\/p>\n

The line that most struck me and lingered on in my memory is one that I wish I could shout out to everyone I pass, to those who are close to me and those who are not, to friends and foes, to world leaders, the people who vote for them, and the people who oppose them. And I\u2019m going to leave this line as the last word, in the spirit of the #WiTWisdom pledge that I mentioned last week<\/a>: \u201cDon\u2019t erase things from the world just because you are incapable of imagining them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Translated from the Korean by Emily Yae Won (Tilted Axis Press, 2018) I\u2019ll Go On was the final 2018 release in my Tilted Axis subscription, and I\u2019d been eagerly awaiting it all year. It is the story of sisters Sora and Nana and their family bonds: with their damaged mother, Aeja, who was once brimming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[313,425,429,525,1055],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On - Translating Women<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On - Translating Women\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Translated from the Korean by Emily Yae Won (Tilted Axis Press, 2018) I\u2019ll Go On was the final 2018 release in my Tilted Axis subscription, and I\u2019d been eagerly awaiting it all year. It is the story of sisters Sora and Nana and their family bonds: with their damaged mother, Aeja, who was once brimming […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Translating Women\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-05T14:01:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/files\/2018\/12\/Ill-Go-On.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Helen Vassallo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Helen Vassallo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/\",\"name\":\"A profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On - Translating Women\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2018\/12\/Ill-Go-On.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-05T14:01:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-05T14:01:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/f6b5a23680f8533c3894aef4e6018f68\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2018\/12\/Ill-Go-On.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2018\/12\/Ill-Go-On.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":453},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/\",\"name\":\"Translating Women\",\"description\":\"INTERNATIONAL | INTERSECTIONAL | ACTIVIST | FEMINIST\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/f6b5a23680f8533c3894aef4e6018f68\",\"name\":\"Helen Vassallo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c32871912708eb310775deb9561113ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c32871912708eb310775deb9561113ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Helen Vassallo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/author\/hmv201\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On - Translating Women","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On - Translating Women","og_description":"Translated from the Korean by Emily Yae Won (Tilted Axis Press, 2018) I\u2019ll Go On was the final 2018 release in my Tilted Axis subscription, and I\u2019d been eagerly awaiting it all year. It is the story of sisters Sora and Nana and their family bonds: with their damaged mother, Aeja, who was once brimming […]","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/","og_site_name":"Translating Women","article_published_time":"2018-12-05T14:01:15+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/files\/2018\/12\/Ill-Go-On.jpg"}],"author":"Helen Vassallo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Helen Vassallo","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/","name":"A profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On - Translating Women","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2018\/12\/Ill-Go-On.jpg","datePublished":"2018-12-05T14:01:15+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-05T14:01:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/f6b5a23680f8533c3894aef4e6018f68"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2018\/12\/Ill-Go-On.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2018\/12\/Ill-Go-On.jpg","width":300,"height":453},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2018\/12\/05\/hwang-jungeun-ill-go-on\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A profound, lyrical incantation: Hwang Jungeun, I\u2019ll Go On"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/","name":"Translating Women","description":"INTERNATIONAL | INTERSECTIONAL | ACTIVIST | FEMINIST","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/f6b5a23680f8533c3894aef4e6018f68","name":"Helen Vassallo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c32871912708eb310775deb9561113ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c32871912708eb310775deb9561113ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Helen Vassallo"},"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/author\/hmv201\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}