They actually announced the Winners of 44th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards several weeks ago, but only now does The Korean Times follow up with The Judges' Report (2013) -- which notes both disappointment that: " only 23 entries had been received for the 2013 Korea Times Translation Awards competition" and about the general quality, as for example:
Although we received many poetry translations this year, almost without exception they had clearly been submitted by Korean translators whose knowledge of English was too limited; in many cases the English grammar was poor.And:
As in many recent years, we soon decided that no poetry award could be given.
In general, the fiction translations were competent but there were not many we read with real pleasure. This was in part the fault of the translator who had failed to create a convincing English style and in part the fault of the author whose work did not lend itself to translation. Where the translation itself was reasonably accurate, often the English text failed to find a compelling rhythm and flow.This may all seem pretty harsh, but it's probably good that they're honest about the generally lacking standards. Korean literature seems poised to reach a larger international audience -- but translation-standards must be upheld for that to work out over anything but the short-term.