My thoughts about Literature translation

When I read any of the articles or novels in English, I still prefer to referring to Korean translated version of the text. It is simply because I am too lazy to translate the language that I am less comfortable with to the language that I use fluently- and I also pay more attention and read carefully when it is written in my language. I would say I prefer texts written in my language even though I can speak both of the languages evenly fluent. 

Sometimes I read texts that were written in English and was translated to Korean or the opposite way around. However, like myself as a bi-lingual, it is quite impossible to fully translate the whole text from one language to another; if the historical background of the text differs, should the translator add the additional information explaining about the typical culture to help the reader? But in that case, can we still say the new text as a “translated version” or “a very new text”? Or it could be the other way around; if the translator doesn’t add the explanation and it was delivered to another side of the planet, it won’t deliver as much as feelings and mood that the original text could have in the original country. 

In Korean, there is way more variety of expressing adjectives compared to other languages, and it is based on its sound; mostly, when the sound is harsh and aggressive, it is more often to express harder, deeper, or more sensitive even though it is telling the exact same situation. From your view of my speaking, you won’t understand what am I talking about, because the translation doesn’t provide an appropriate amount of understanding to the context. There’s a lack of diversity that the text could deliver to the viewers throughout the translation.

Of course, the translation could be improved in various ways; like improved language skills of the translator, or by additional information supply(such as how we use appendix?). However it is always difficult to fully translate the original text to other language and I think that is the challenge of the current study of literature translation.