Translating Smells in Kim Ki-Taek's “Gum”

Abstract

The object of this article is Gum, book of poems by Kim Kitaek, originally released in Korea in 2009 and published in Brazil by 7Letras publishing house in 2018. The first Korean contemporary poet introduced to Brazilian readers is a representative of an up-to-date Korean urban poetry, revealing a non-humane quality of a megalopolitan life and transiting through common themes to the international civilization. Despite its approach to common themes to big cities of the contemporary world, the difficulties in translating such immensely different languages are always challenging. In this article, it was selected expressions referring to smells, for these constitute a very important element in Kim Ki-taek’s poetry and also bring about complex issues involving translation of cultural and semantic aspects between the two languages. By analyzing each selected word and its translation, and comparing it with the translation into Spanish as well, it turned out to be clear the search for diverse translation procedures to reach for an adequate poetic equivalent.

Keywords

• poesia coreana
• tradução poética
• tradução cultural