The Art of Translation 1: Don Mee Choi

“Translation is a Political Act” When I wrote about Don Mee Choi’s newest book Freely Frayed (Wave Books) last month, I didn’t say much about her role as a translator. But my interest was piqued by what she wrote and I have been going down the proverbial rabbit hole ever since, reading several very recent books on the art of translation. I intend to write about them in the coming months. In the meantime, I want to go back to Choi and the topic of translation. In particular, I was struck by the way she deliberately positions her role as a translator . Choi has translated the poetry of Kim Hyesoon and several other Korean feminist poets for about fifteen years. (Her website shows that she has currently translated all or parts of eleven books.) Translation is mentioned throughout Freely Frayed, but there is little discussion of how she translates, even in the essay “Translator’s Diary (2021),” which turns out to be more of a daily record of events that transpired while she worked on her…