Dennis Wuerthner

 Armaan Arif

02/18/2024

Professor Vincent


     Professor Dennis Wuerthner translates Pa'han Chip from Korean into English, capturing both its essence and its intricacy. He prioritizes the essence of the poem over its rhyme scheme by choosing not to translate Korean rhymes into English rhymes when he does not have to. During his lecture, he used the example of translating a poem with the words "king" and "fragrance." His final choice is what he felt was best for the authenticity of the poem. This approach allows him to fully embrace the poem's core meaning. In this situation, where translation can distort the meaning of the source material, the discussion of cannibal translation becomes relevant. Throughout the week, I did see similarities between Wuerthner's style of translating Pa'han Chip and cannibal translation. Wuerthner's approach is similar as he carefully aims to preserve the substance of the source text even if it means sacrificing some of its formal qualities. This practice is instrumental in safeguarding the poem's integrity, ensuring its resonance with an audience beyond its linguistic origin.  In his talk, Wuerthner draws a parallel to a literary mosaic, Wuerthner explains how "Pa'han Chip"  pieces together a complex network of ideas and imagery to create a coherent whole. Each word and line in the poem is essential to conveying its overall meaning, much like the individual collections in a mosaic. This analogy highlights the translator's responsibility for carefully maintaining every aspect of the source text in the translated version.

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