Jee Leong Koh: Core of Translation

Jee Leong Koh’s "Snow at 5 pm" impressively merges the concept of translation into cross-cultural literary creativity. Writing Haiku is a challenging task, especially when attempting to adhere to its form while using English; the language barrier itself calls for transcreation. "Snow at 5 pm" is so powerful in this transcreation process that it grasps the essence of translation without committing to it directly. To translate, as Koh (or Sam) puts it, “is to trace the path that the first body walked, while two persons share the same soul.”


Koh begins his lecture by embodying his persona, Sam Fujimoto Mayer, the narrator in "Snow at 5 pm". I admire his concept of the “translation of life.” Sam’s intersectional identities, as a Jewish Japanese American who also happens to be queer, have led him to engage in the practice of translation throughout his life, overcoming various barriers to his identity.


I have always enjoyed reading Haiku (translations of Haikus), but it was hard to explain why I liked them so much. Koh explained that every haiku contains a park, a space that leads people to wonder. That really resonated with me because it is the perfect word I was searching for. Haiku offers an abundance of space to reflect and imagine. He continued to talk about the comparison of the star and the leaf. It is phenomenal as I had never connected them before. Both their movements serve as navigation guides, as the former can be seen across nighttime and the latter can be felt under our feet throughout the seasons. However, stars sometimes cannot be reliable guides, especially when they appear on country flags. Leaves are different. Nature is always moving, calling for a borderless world rather than borders. This process of comparing these two symbols is powerful and deeply related to Sam’s intersectionality and immigration experience.


As astonishing as "Snow at 5 pm" is, the creation process was even more difficult. Publishing haikus is tough, as most publishers rejected Koh’s work. Luckily, Koh didn’t give up but changed his approach. He identified the conflict in aesthetics and combined poetry with critique. It works so well together because neither overshadows the other, but both contribute to a powerful unity.


--Kerry

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