The Great Storyteller

Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

“I believe that Mr. Sanders is one of the finest translators out there.”

“I agree, but translations will always be translations. They’ll always be different from the original in some way. I presumed that you’d know this better than anyone else.” Adam had said firmly, and Juho had remained quiet for a brief moment. Juho had seen the Sun shine into the office through the large window. When he’d looked away from it, the senior editor had said, “Your English-speaking readers are waiting for you, Mr. Woo.”

As Juho had chuckled quietly, Adam had added softly, “That isn’t to say that you have to give me an answer right this moment, of course.”

“Have you been reading my stories?”

“I sure have. Though, I’ve only read the translated versions.”

Although the senior editor knew the young author quite well, he had come to know Yun Woo only through the English versions of his books, which had happened out of necessity.

“Translations are a process. At the end of the process is the result, which inevitably changes the product. The difference will be apparent to speakers of the original language. Yes, Taylor’s been doing a fantastic job in that regard, and I have nothing to complain about his work, but I wanna experience your writing from an even closer proximity, Mr. Woo,” Adam had said. Then, with sophisticated hand gestures, he had asked, “Have you ever felt that way? That you wanna get closer to as many people possible?” There had been nothing about the senior editor that had given off an insincere impression, and it had made his demeanor stand out even more. Juho had stared at Adam’s fingertips as they had moved about busily.

“If you have, then you might not find a better opportunity than this one,” Adam had said.

“But I have no intention of writing a book in every language that exists on Earth just for that reason.”

“English is a unique language,” Adam had said in English.

“Let’s forget about structure, history, and efficiency for a minute. Yes, it is one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world, and I personally prefer French over English. BUT, I have to admit that it carries power.”

Juho had remained silent, and Adam had added, “You don’t have to focus solely on English. If I were Italian, then I would’ve raved about what made Italian so great. My objective here is actually quite simple. Besides, you’re more than capable of writing in another language, Mr. Woo.”

“I can,” Juho had replied, adding honestly, “… though, it’s not necessarily something I prefer doing.”

The language acquisition in his head was functioning.

To that, Adam had made an enticing offer in a gentle tone of voice, “We could probably release it in the States and Korea on the same day. From what I’ve heard, you’re an adventurous soul. In which case, I think this is right up your alley. What do you think? Doesn’t it sound fun?”

When Juho had thought about possible reasons to turn down the offer, he had realized that there weren’t any. Frankly, he had been more willing to give it a shot. Writing a novel in English was something he had never done before. After a brief pause, Juho had said, “I’ll think about it.”

The next day, Juho had sent Adam an affirmative email.

“Mr. Woo?”

Hearing Adam’s voice coming from the receiver of his phone, Juho locked eyes with Nabi and answered it.

“So, I’m calling you because…”

Then, the senior editor got right to the point and gave Juho a detailed update on the progress. Juho listened carefully.

“I’ve been swarmed with work lately, so I was wondering if you could find a translator that you can trust? Your story is way too interesting for it to be ruined by a bad translation.”

As Adam hung up the phone shortly after, Nabi, who had been listening in on the conversation, said, “So, the new book is getting translated into Korean, huh?”

In Korea, Zelkova was preparing to release the book. Nabi stared intently at the young author. Juho knew exactly what she wanted to know.

“Are you not going to do the translation yourself?”

At that, Juho shook his head.

“As far as I know, Fernand’s made several offers on that point.”

“I agreed not to get involved in translating it directly. I’ll be cooperating with them, though,” Juho said, sitting up. Then, he added, “So… There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Yes?” Nabi replied with a serious look on her face.

“It’s about the translation.”

“Uh-huh…”

“Would it be OK if I made a suggestion to the publisher?”

“What exactly are you looking for?”

“So…”

Juho brought up an idea that he had had in mind since he had first been asked by Adam to write a novel in English.

—

“We decided to hold a translation contest,” Nam Kyung said, looking at Juho, who was sitting across from him and was listening to the editor serenely. Remembering the young author’s unexpected suggestion, Nam Kyung added, “In respect to your opinion.”

Unfazed, Juho replied, “Seems like we both want a skilled translator.”

At that, Nam Kyung burst into hearty laughter and said, “At first, we were going to pick somebody from the World Literature Compilation team since it has a lot of the seasoned translators. A lot of them are actually translating for other really famous authors.”

Then, the editor asked light-heartedly, “Were you not satisfied with any of them?”

“Oh, no. If that had been the case, I would’ve translated it myself,” Juho replied.

“That would’ve been ideal. We had hoped that you would’ve taken over the translation.”

“Yes, about that. From what I heard from Nabi…”

“Yes?”

“… I was told that a lot of people will want to translate my book.”

“… She’s probably right. We’re preparing ourselves.”

“You don’t think that I’m giving the experienced translators special treatment, do you?” Juho asked, looking at the editor and adding, “I say we base our decisions solely on skill.”

“We’ll have to, whether we want to or not,” Nam Kyung replied. Then, moving his eyes, he added, “Well, it doesn’t make the company look bad in any way. Besides, it’s bound to draw some attention, which means it’ll practically promote itself. Should we come across a hidden talent, then that’s always preferable. We’re the ones making the decisions, so we could always prepare for the unexpected. Translations have always been a popular topic among people within the company, and there were actually those who were against us holding the contest.”

Until recently, the decision to hold a contest had been getting pushed back. Then, leaning back on his chair’s backrest, the editor said, “You’ve pulled the trigger at just the right time, Mr. Woo.”

When it came to starting something big, there was nothing more efficient than using the name Yun Woo.

“All there is left to do is wait and hope that we’ll find some talented people.”

“I’m sure we will. One way or another,” Juho said with mysterious confidence.

—

“One billion, though?”

“He lives alone, so I guess it’s not entirely impossible.”

“What would you do with one billion dollars in your hands?”

Seo Kwang looked away from his book and in the direction of the voices. Two of his classmates were preoccupied with chatting with each other. Then, as the two walked past Seo Kwang, he heard one of them say, “I wanna be like Yun Woo.”

As the two walked past him, Seo Kwang turned around and stared in their direction. At that moment, a younger classmate called to him. Redirecting his attention to the book in his hand, Seo Kwang followed the younger classmate, whose hands were filled with books.

“Seo Kwang, you’re a genius!” the underclassman said out of nowhere.

“What do you mean?”

“I said you’re a genius. Whatever book I bring up, you always say that you’ve read it.”

Chuckling, Seo Kwang flipped to the next page on his book.

“What does that have to do with being a genius? It just means that the person likes to read.”

“No, no, you don’t understand. I’ve never met anybody like you,” the underclassman said, looking at Seo Kwang almost as if disgusted. “You put yourself through this crazy challenge when the semester ended, didn’t you? Reading eight books a day for three months? That’s seven hundred and twenty books, give or take! I remember seeing pictures on social media when you were doing that. We used to place bets on it among ourselves too.”

“I took it easy once I threw up, though.”

Although it hadn’t been an advisable reading method, Seo Kwang had had only one thing in mind: to come across as many sentences as possible.

“I mean, I’ve seen somebody challenge themselves to drink eight bottles of soju, but you’re the first to try to do that with books.”

“Eight bottles!? Jeez! Was he trying to kill himself!?”

“From what I heard, you did it!”

“Where did you hear that nonsense?!” Seo Kwang asked, reminiscing to the time in question and shaking his head in disapproval.

“I think three books per day is just right for me. More sustainable down the line.”

“I think I’d be grateful if I could read three pages a day.”

“It’s not always a good thing to read a lot. If you’re interested, I can lend you a book on how to maximize your reading.”

“No, thanks,” the underclassman said, adding exaggeratedly, “I’m telling ya, you’re a specimen!”

Looking at the underclassmen taking their books to the library Seo Kwang said, “You’re saying that because you haven’t met a real specimen.”

“But, I’m looking at one right now.”

At that, Seo Kwang shook his head emphatically. The friend with whom he had spent his entire high school career was the epitome of a specimen.

“I doubt I’ll ever meet anybody like him.”

“Who?”

“There’s this friend of mine who wants to be great.”

Then, narrowing their eyes, the underclassman asked, “They wanna be great? That’s a lofty goal.”

“It’s true, though,” Seo Kwang replied. The friend he was referring to was actually about halfway to achieving that goal. There were truly all sorts of people in the world.

“It’s almost as if he’s got a flu shot for himself.”

“A flu shot?”

“Let’s just say that nothing fazes him, and he’s practically immune to every situation that comes his way. He’s the type who wants to fix humanity all the while pursuing greatness.”

Then, snorting, he added, “He’s not the arrogant type, though.”

Taking the book he had been reading, Seo Kwang placed it on top of the stack of books in the underclassman’s hands.

“Are you done with that one already?”

“Yep. I read what I wanted to. Tell ’em I said thanks.”

“Wow. I didn’t think you’d actually make me do all the work,” the underclassman said, opening the door and going into the library. Seo Kwang went back the way he came.

“Wonder how he’s doing.”

When Seo Kwang called his friend, the friend answered the phone quickly. Lately, the friend had been quick to answer his phone, almost as if he had finished a big project.

“Yeah?”

Yun Woo’s voice came from the receiver of Seo Kwang’s phone. Although it sounded calmer than usual, Seo Kwang ignored that and said, “Ah! The Great Storyteller himself!”

“O… kay?” with a chuckle, Yun Woo replied with a serene tone of voice. Then, he added, “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t contribute to false rumors like that.”

“Well, it doesn’t mention your name anywhere.”

A sigh came from the receiver of Seo Kwang’s phone. Noticing that his friend was hesitating, Seo Kwang asked, “Do you have something you want to tell me?”

“No.”

“Then, what is it?” Seo Kwang asked. However, the friend became silent yet again.

“It’s just dawning on me that the news hasn’t spread as quickly as I thought.”

“What news? Did you win some award? Oh, did you make another billion-dollar donation?”

“It’s nothing like that.”

“Then?”

“I thought you called because you had heard the news.”

At that point, Seo Kwang stopped in his tracks and asked, “Well, spill it! What is it?”

The air sank back into silence. Following a series of clattering noises, Juho said, “I’m sure you’ll be able to find out on your own, without me telling you.”

“Or, you could just tell me direc… Hello? Ugh!”

After glaring into his phone, Seo Kwang moved his hands. At that moment, before he had even finished typing the name Yun Woo on the search bar, another search word appeared on his screen, and it read: “Yun Woo Translation?”

Seo Kwang read the details within the article.

‘Fernand Publishing. Yun Woo. English. Translation Contest. Qualification: Anyone who makes a submission.”

“You could’ve just told me,” Seo Kwang said and bolted away.