Editor's Note
- Editor's Note
AZALEA is about Korean literature and literary culture, and therefore about writing, publishing, translating, and reading. The writing has already happened, the translation too, but now for the reading! We have looked at original works, wondering who might best translate a gem. Or we have discovered a strong translation and asked, "Can we publish it?" And how might artwork of various kinds, or perhaps photographs of Korea contemporaneous with the literary works, be added to the mix? The occasional hortatory note, such as my own in this issue about the 1953 short story "Cranes" by Hwang Sunwŏn, may add another edge, perhaps, to the reader's framing and reframing of the piece.
We hope that our readers will write to us with suggestions of works, translations, and translators, and especially with ideas about other ways to read Korean literature. Watch, in that connection, for our issue in the not-too-distant future with a CD inside for examples of yet another way to read Korean literature-out loud! [End Page 7]
David R. McCann is Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Literature at Harvard University. He has translated the work of many Korean poets-including Kim Chiha, Sŏ Chŏngju, Ko Un, and Kim Namjo-and is the author or editor of many books, including The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry and The Way I Wait for You, a collection of his own poems.
