spacestationtrustfund's review
2.0
『밀레나 밀레나 황홀한』: "Milena, Milena, Ecstatic" by Bae Suah (배수아). Translation by Deborah Smith.
aghowes's review
"I would be ecstatic." Precisely the weird and familiar wanting I want right now.
kamila79's review
4.0
There is something about Bae Suah that really appeals to me. She has a talent to create an atmosphere I feel at home with.
“Milena, Milena, Ecstatic” is a short story about Hom Yun, a film director, very particular about his coffee drinking and reading habits, who gets an unexpected grant to make a 10-hour long semi-documentary about a girl searching for the mother who abandoned her as a child, set around the graves of the Scythians of the mountainous High Altai region. I felt the plot largely inconsequential, but that’s not a weakness. It’s the evocative ambiance of a café, in which the protagonist sits and thinks, his thoughts and impressions, or the certain association between “Letters to Milena” by Kafka that he reads and the grant foundation’s young assistant, begging him to take her with him on a journey to make his film that are of significance. The references to other works of art, be it plays by Beckett or the film “Hiroshima, Mon Amour” by Resnais, are inextricably related to the story and the way reality is perceived by Hom Yun. I found myself in the story as I often see people who remind me of characters in the books I have read or hear fragments of conversations or see situations that seem to be as if taken straight from certain films I have watched. They are part of life, part of reality.
I read the story in one sitting and then immediately read it again. It’s a perfect book to read in a café, pausing at times to embrace everything around you and invite people you see to be part of the world created by Hom Yun created by Bae Suah’s. “Milena, Milena, Ecstatic” reminded me of the question Justine from Lawrence Durrell’s “The Alexandria Quartet” once asked: “Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?”. The final experience of time and sounds by Hom Yun are particularly telling, though inconclusive.
This beautiful story reads like a dream, from which one wakes up with a sense of melancholia, wanting to immediately get back to it.
“Milena, Milena, Ecstatic” is a short story about Hom Yun, a film director, very particular about his coffee drinking and reading habits, who gets an unexpected grant to make a 10-hour long semi-documentary about a girl searching for the mother who abandoned her as a child, set around the graves of the Scythians of the mountainous High Altai region. I felt the plot largely inconsequential, but that’s not a weakness. It’s the evocative ambiance of a café, in which the protagonist sits and thinks, his thoughts and impressions, or the certain association between “Letters to Milena” by Kafka that he reads and the grant foundation’s young assistant, begging him to take her with him on a journey to make his film that are of significance. The references to other works of art, be it plays by Beckett or the film “Hiroshima, Mon Amour” by Resnais, are inextricably related to the story and the way reality is perceived by Hom Yun. I found myself in the story as I often see people who remind me of characters in the books I have read or hear fragments of conversations or see situations that seem to be as if taken straight from certain films I have watched. They are part of life, part of reality.
I read the story in one sitting and then immediately read it again. It’s a perfect book to read in a café, pausing at times to embrace everything around you and invite people you see to be part of the world created by Hom Yun created by Bae Suah’s. “Milena, Milena, Ecstatic” reminded me of the question Justine from Lawrence Durrell’s “The Alexandria Quartet” once asked: “Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?”. The final experience of time and sounds by Hom Yun are particularly telling, though inconclusive.
This beautiful story reads like a dream, from which one wakes up with a sense of melancholia, wanting to immediately get back to it.
causticcovercritic's review
3.0
Oddly inconclusive and inconsequential short work about a film-maker haunted by Kafka's love letters and a would-be assistant; not as bracingly wintry as Suah's usual work.
arirang's review
5.0
Milena, Milena, Ecstatic is one of the Yeoyu (여유) series from Strangers Press, eight chapbooks, each with a short story of around 30 pages.
Strangers Press's self introduction is that the press:
The 8 (7 female, 1 male) authors chosen represent a range of the best writing from the current generation of Korean authors (although there are many exciting writers e.g. Kim Ae-rae and Kim Sagwa excluded due to lack of space - see https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2481547174 for a similar collection including these authors). The 8 here range from the relevative superstars Han Kang and Bae Suah to authors with little work available in English (Cheon Heerahn and Kang Hwagil are I think previously untranslated altogether, and some others have one another short story available in Asia Publisher’s hard-to-find bilingual collection).
The 6 translators (5 female), with two doing double service, range from the MBI winning Deborah Smith, and well-known Sora Kim-Russell, to a Korean language debutant, and include both native Korean speakers, those who learned the language, and also translators who work in both directions, and all do an excellent job.
The complete list of books with links to Goodreads:
1. 다섯 게의 프렐류드, 그리고 푸가 by 천희란 (Cheon Heerahn) translated as [b:Five Preludes & a Fugue|46377705|Five Preludes & a Fugue (Yeoyu, #1)|Cheon Heerahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561129986s/46377705.jpg|71409851] by Emily Yae Won (이 예원)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866461328
2. 퇴역 레스러 by 전성태 (Jeon Sungtae) translated as [b:Old Wrestler|46377739|Old Wrestler (Yeoyu, #2)|Jeon Sungtae|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561130398s/46377739.jpg|71409898] by Sora Kim-Russell
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866467388
3. 에우로파 by 한강 (Han Kang) translated as [b:Europa|46216112|Europa (Yeoyu, #3)|Han Kang|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561123782s/46216112.jpg|71186146] by Deborah Smith (phonetically: 데보라 스미스)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2862365253
4. 이혼 by 김숨 (Kim Soom) translated as [b:Divorce|46377760|Divorce (Yeoyu, #4)|Kim Soom|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561130763s/46377760.jpg|71409948] by Emily Yae Won (이 예원)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866476974
5. 양의 미래 by 황정은 (Hwang Jungeun) translated as [b:Kong's Garden|46216168|Kong's Garden (Yeoyu, #5)|Hwang Jungeun|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561123736s/46216168.jpg|45798458] by Jeon Seung-Hee (전승희)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2862365292
6. 밀레나 밀레나 황홀한 by 배수아 (Bae Suah) translated as [b:Milena, Milena, Ecstatic|46216145|Milena, Milena, Ecstatic (Yeoyu, #6)|Bae Suah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561123823s/46216145.jpg|71186201] by Deborah Smith (phonetically: 데보라 스미스)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2862365043
7. 손 by 강 화길 (Kang Hwagil) translated as [b:Demons|46377653|Demons (Yeoyu, #7)|Kang Hwagil|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561129461s/46377653.jpg|71430502] by Mattho Mandersloot
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866452443
8. 왼쪽의오른쪽오른쪽의왼쪽 by 한유주 (Han Yujoo) translated as [b:Left's Right, Right's Left|46375589|Left's Right, Right's Left (Yeoyu, #8)|Han Yujoo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561123587s/46375589.jpg|71407786] by Janet Hong (자넷 홍)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866207412
All of the translations with one exception are new - Kong’s Garden by Hwang Jungeun tr. Jean Seung-Hee was previously featured in the Asia Publishers series, and only lightly revised here. I was pleased to see (pet peeve avoided) that the titles stick closely to the originals, Kong's Garden the exception (the original is called Yang's Future), but that was the previous publisher's call and Strangers Press sensibly avoided confusion by not renaming it.
The physical books are stunningly designed, with, I was delighted to see, significant incorporation of Korean script (한글) including the original title and the original name of the author and often the Korean/Romanised translator’s name.
And as for the Yeoyu name, the press defines it as: meaning something like 'scope' and/or 'relaxed' in English; scope to be yourself, to follow your own interests. In some ways it means the opposite of being constrained by convention, more to be unbounded in such a way. In a sense, it means to be oneself but with enough 'left over' -- for others, maybe. There is a great illustration I found on Reddit: When usain bolt had the luxury to loom back at his competitors during that 100m run, he had 여유. When I have time leftover during an exam and double/triple check my answers, I have 여유.
Overall it's a fabulous series - the 5 stars reflects my view of both the series and this, perhaps the strongest of the individual titles.
As noted Milena, Milena Ecstatic has been translated by Deborah Smith from 밀레나 밀레나 황홀한 by 배수아 (Bae Suah), the 5th of the author's books I have read (and the 6th by the translator).
It takes its title from Kafka’s [b:Letters to Milena|88340|Letters to Milena|Franz Kafka|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1519679516s/88340.jpg|656289] (Bae Suah has herself translated Kafka into Korean) which, in this story, a coffee-drinking bachelor and avid reader, with a highly ordered life, discovers, to his surprise, in the shelf of books above his bath:
There has to be a book within reach in any part of the house ... reading Dante in the bathtub, a detective novel or history book in the bedroom; on the sofa, one or two pages at a time of an encyclopedia of ancient alchemy which he opens at random, and on the subway a poetry collection by Whitman or Eliot. When sitting in a cafe, he generally reads plays. Shakespeare, Pinter, Ionesco and Beckett.
This almost Murakamiesque set-up then morphs into a rather darker, tale when his ambitious proposal for a film project, to be filmed over two years, set around Scythian graves in the High Altai mountains unexpectedly wins a grant from a cultural foundation, and the secretary of the foundation begs him to take her on the trip as his assistant.
Bae Suah is in many respects I think stronger in the shorter form (albeit perhaps novellas are her forte - [b:Nowhere to Be Found|24961511|Nowhere to Be Found|Bae Suah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424233959s/24961511.jpg|43282611] perhaps her best) - she has said “The most suitable way to not say something ... that’s what I think of as the aesthetic of my short fiction." and this is an excellent introduction to a great author, and I look forward to the next novella from this author/translator combination, Untold Night and Day, due in 2020.
Strangers Press's self introduction is that the press:
is focused on publishing literary translations and international writing in innovative or creative ways. We’re particularly interested in the idea of translation as a form of cultural exchange – that cultures might learn things about each other, in multiple ways, through the process – and seek to publish in a way that celebrates or foregrounds that, in collaboration with the British Centre for Literary Translation, University of East Anglia, and The National Centre for Writing.Following their earlier Keshiki series, focused on Japanese literature, the Yeoyu series presents the best of modern Korean writing.
We take our name from The Strangers of the 16th century: a group of economic migrants from the Spanish Netherlands invited to help boost the nation's textile industry. Our logo references a Flemish gable - in connection with their legacy - and suggests transition from one state to another.
We also see our philosophy as running counter to an encroaching parochialism in British society, post-referendum, and in this way it is political — the name obliquely references a speech from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More that rails against an atmosphere of hostility towards ‘Strangers’
The 8 (7 female, 1 male) authors chosen represent a range of the best writing from the current generation of Korean authors (although there are many exciting writers e.g. Kim Ae-rae and Kim Sagwa excluded due to lack of space - see https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2481547174 for a similar collection including these authors). The 8 here range from the relevative superstars Han Kang and Bae Suah to authors with little work available in English (Cheon Heerahn and Kang Hwagil are I think previously untranslated altogether, and some others have one another short story available in Asia Publisher’s hard-to-find bilingual collection).
The 6 translators (5 female), with two doing double service, range from the MBI winning Deborah Smith, and well-known Sora Kim-Russell, to a Korean language debutant, and include both native Korean speakers, those who learned the language, and also translators who work in both directions, and all do an excellent job.
The complete list of books with links to Goodreads:
1. 다섯 게의 프렐류드, 그리고 푸가 by 천희란 (Cheon Heerahn) translated as [b:Five Preludes & a Fugue|46377705|Five Preludes & a Fugue (Yeoyu, #1)|Cheon Heerahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561129986s/46377705.jpg|71409851] by Emily Yae Won (이 예원)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866461328
2. 퇴역 레스러 by 전성태 (Jeon Sungtae) translated as [b:Old Wrestler|46377739|Old Wrestler (Yeoyu, #2)|Jeon Sungtae|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561130398s/46377739.jpg|71409898] by Sora Kim-Russell
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866467388
3. 에우로파 by 한강 (Han Kang) translated as [b:Europa|46216112|Europa (Yeoyu, #3)|Han Kang|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561123782s/46216112.jpg|71186146] by Deborah Smith (phonetically: 데보라 스미스)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2862365253
4. 이혼 by 김숨 (Kim Soom) translated as [b:Divorce|46377760|Divorce (Yeoyu, #4)|Kim Soom|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561130763s/46377760.jpg|71409948] by Emily Yae Won (이 예원)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866476974
5. 양의 미래 by 황정은 (Hwang Jungeun) translated as [b:Kong's Garden|46216168|Kong's Garden (Yeoyu, #5)|Hwang Jungeun|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561123736s/46216168.jpg|45798458] by Jeon Seung-Hee (전승희)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2862365292
6. 밀레나 밀레나 황홀한 by 배수아 (Bae Suah) translated as [b:Milena, Milena, Ecstatic|46216145|Milena, Milena, Ecstatic (Yeoyu, #6)|Bae Suah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561123823s/46216145.jpg|71186201] by Deborah Smith (phonetically: 데보라 스미스)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2862365043
7. 손 by 강 화길 (Kang Hwagil) translated as [b:Demons|46377653|Demons (Yeoyu, #7)|Kang Hwagil|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561129461s/46377653.jpg|71430502] by Mattho Mandersloot
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866452443
8. 왼쪽의오른쪽오른쪽의왼쪽 by 한유주 (Han Yujoo) translated as [b:Left's Right, Right's Left|46375589|Left's Right, Right's Left (Yeoyu, #8)|Han Yujoo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1561123587s/46375589.jpg|71407786] by Janet Hong (자넷 홍)
my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2866207412
All of the translations with one exception are new - Kong’s Garden by Hwang Jungeun tr. Jean Seung-Hee was previously featured in the Asia Publishers series, and only lightly revised here. I was pleased to see (pet peeve avoided) that the titles stick closely to the originals, Kong's Garden the exception (the original is called Yang's Future), but that was the previous publisher's call and Strangers Press sensibly avoided confusion by not renaming it.
The physical books are stunningly designed, with, I was delighted to see, significant incorporation of Korean script (한글) including the original title and the original name of the author and often the Korean/Romanised translator’s name.
And as for the Yeoyu name, the press defines it as: meaning something like 'scope' and/or 'relaxed' in English; scope to be yourself, to follow your own interests. In some ways it means the opposite of being constrained by convention, more to be unbounded in such a way. In a sense, it means to be oneself but with enough 'left over' -- for others, maybe. There is a great illustration I found on Reddit: When usain bolt had the luxury to loom back at his competitors during that 100m run, he had 여유. When I have time leftover during an exam and double/triple check my answers, I have 여유.
Overall it's a fabulous series - the 5 stars reflects my view of both the series and this, perhaps the strongest of the individual titles.
As noted Milena, Milena Ecstatic has been translated by Deborah Smith from 밀레나 밀레나 황홀한 by 배수아 (Bae Suah), the 5th of the author's books I have read (and the 6th by the translator).
It takes its title from Kafka’s [b:Letters to Milena|88340|Letters to Milena|Franz Kafka|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1519679516s/88340.jpg|656289] (Bae Suah has herself translated Kafka into Korean) which, in this story, a coffee-drinking bachelor and avid reader, with a highly ordered life, discovers, to his surprise, in the shelf of books above his bath:
There has to be a book within reach in any part of the house ... reading Dante in the bathtub, a detective novel or history book in the bedroom; on the sofa, one or two pages at a time of an encyclopedia of ancient alchemy which he opens at random, and on the subway a poetry collection by Whitman or Eliot. When sitting in a cafe, he generally reads plays. Shakespeare, Pinter, Ionesco and Beckett.
This almost Murakamiesque set-up then morphs into a rather darker, tale when his ambitious proposal for a film project, to be filmed over two years, set around Scythian graves in the High Altai mountains unexpectedly wins a grant from a cultural foundation, and the secretary of the foundation begs him to take her on the trip as his assistant.
Bae Suah is in many respects I think stronger in the shorter form (albeit perhaps novellas are her forte - [b:Nowhere to Be Found|24961511|Nowhere to Be Found|Bae Suah|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424233959s/24961511.jpg|43282611] perhaps her best) - she has said “The most suitable way to not say something ... that’s what I think of as the aesthetic of my short fiction." and this is an excellent introduction to a great author, and I look forward to the next novella from this author/translator combination, Untold Night and Day, due in 2020.
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