Professor publishes complete works of Shakespeare in a book

Marking 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death (1564-1616), Moonji Publishing has published the “Complete Works of Shakespeare,” which collects all his works of 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 6 poems excluding sonnets, into a book of more than 1,800 pages. Almost every page has notes for history, culture, myth and language to help readers better understand the story. This is the achievement by Honorary Professor Lee Sang-seop of English Literature Department at Yonsei University who has been in charge of translation for a decade.

This is the first time that the entire pieces of Shakespeare works were translated even though different companies have so far tried to publish selected collections of the writer. Currently, the 23rd volume of 40 books that poet Kim Jeong-hwan has been working on is in the market while the publication of another entire collection (Minumsa) by honorary professor Choi Jong-cheol, a student of Professor Lee, is under way.

One of the distinctive features of Lee’s collection is that it maintains the rhythm of language in Shakespeare’s books. “Most of his plays are written in five unstressed syllables and five stressed ones, which is the demonstration that his works are written as verses,” said the professor. He means that Shakespeare wrote his works not to be read but to be played as dialogue on the stage, and for that reason, he tried to hold the tune cheerful enough for audience to listen to.

To this end, Professor Lee had mainly focused on making the translation be naturally read by Koreans and easily used as lines for actual performance. Few examples of this efforts include “The lamentable change is from the best; The worst returns to laughter (King Lear),” and “Love's fire heats water, water cools not love (Sonnet).”

Jee-Young Kim kimjy@donga.com