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Even after reading it, I don't know what I read

Joyce Korean style

Joyce spoke as many as 17 languages which is absolutely amazing but how incredible was each and every translated version. How hard was it to translate Ulysses into another language?


Here you can see a Korean description about Ulysses, sorry 율리시스 where bagjongha7037 an account on Instagram has described how people buy 율리시스 but never read it.


My favourite description is,


"Even after reading it, I don't know what I read."

 

Lets take a look at 율리시스 Korean style.


율리시스


김영하북클럽 12월의 책은 '사놓고 안 읽은 책'이다.

제임스 조이스의 <율리시스>가 그런 책이다.

사실 <율리시스 Ulysses>는 사놓고 안 읽은 책이라기보다는 읽었어도 안 읽은 것이나 마찬가지인 책이다. '율리시스'라는 고약한 이름만 듣고도 읽기를 포기하게 만드는 책이다.

읽고나서도 무엇을 읽었는지 모르겠다. 내용은 기억에 없고 독서의 고통과 두툼한 종이뭉치만 남았다.

그래도 잠시나마 풍자와 해학, 현란한 언어의 유희를 맛본 것으로 위안을 삼는다.


<율리시스>는 아일랜드 더블린을 무대로 1904년 6월 16일 아침 8시부터 그 다음날 오전 2시까지 하루 18시간 동안 일어난 일을 그린 것인데, 등장인물들이 경험하는 시간의 과정을 '의식의 흐름' 기법으로 묘사했다. 하나의 줄거리 없이 한 인물의 행동이나 대화 바로 뒤에 그의 독백이 이어진다.


<율리시스>는 1920년대 초 출간 후 10여 년간 내용이 외설스럽다는 이유로 판금 조치를 당하기도 했다. 읽다보니 그럴 수도 있었겠다 싶다.


You can thank Google Translate for writing the following description.

I'm not sure what "sheet metal measures" means in this translation but we can imagine it has something to do with strict censorship and being banned.


Fair play to anyone who buys this book in a different language and respect to anyone who can try and read it, never mind finishing it as 율리시스 isn't exactly an easy read in English.


Kim Young-ha Book Club's December book is 'a book I bought and didn't read'.

James Joyce's Ulysses is such a book.
In fact, <Ulysses> is not a book that you bought and didn't read, but rather a book that you read and didn't read. This is a book that makes you give up reading just hearing the nasty name 'Ulysses'.
Even after reading it, I don't know what I read. I can't remember the contents, only the pain of reading and thick rolls of paper remain.
Still, it is comforting to have tasted satire, humor, and dazzling play of language for a while.

<Ulysses> is set in Dublin, Ireland, and depicts what happened for 18 hours a day from 8:00 am on June 16, 1904 to 2:00 am the next day. described as Without a single storyline, a character's actions or dialogues are followed immediately by his monologue.

<Ulysses> was published in the early 1920s, and for about 10 years, it was subjected to sheet metal measures for being obscene. After reading it, I think it could have been.   
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