Translation Principles for A Dictionary of Galactic Extinction

A. The Korean original is the source text

For every translation of A Dictionary of Galactic Extinction, the Korean original is the definitive source text.

• The English, French, and Japanese editions are each translated directly from the Korean original.
• No translated edition is used as the source text for another language.
• An existing translation may be consulted for reference, but the Korean text remains the final authority in matters of meaning and expression.
• Whenever a translation conflicts with the original, the Korean text takes precedence.

The different language editions are therefore not translations of one another. They are separate translations branching from the same Korean original.

B. The nature of the work must be preserved

A Dictionary of Galactic Extinction is not written in the style of a conventional science-fiction novel.

It is closer to a literary archive composed of dictionary entries, reports, documents, research records, historical accounts, and terminology.

The translations therefore follow several principles:

• The prose is not artificially accelerated to resemble conventional SF.
• Explanations are not expanded merely to make them easier for the reader.
• Additional guidance is not inserted simply to lead the reader more comfortably through the text.
• Unfamiliar concepts are not automatically converted into familiar ones.
• Explanatory commentary that does not exist in the original is not added.
• The work is not rewritten into a more polished form of contemporary science-fiction prose.

Two qualities are particularly important to the atmosphere of the work:

• the mixture of administrative documents, research records, historical writing, and dictionary-like entries;
• a growing sense of cosmic unease contained within dry, restrained prose.

The translation seeks to preserve both.

C. Principles of style

The translations follow these stylistic principles:

1. Preserve the dry tone of the original.
2. Do not explain emotions that the original itself does not explain.
3. Do not make the prose more literary or ornamental than the original.
4. Preserve the cold narration and its strangely serious manner.
5. The aim is not to make the translation read like polished, conventional science fiction originally written in the target language.
6. A certain degree of unfamiliarity is acceptable when it is necessary to preserve meaning, nuance, emotional movement, and voice.
7. Do not alter the logical structure of a passage merely to make it more fluid.
8. When the original repeats itself deliberately, preserve the repetition unless there is a substantive reason not to.
9. Expository and declarative passages should remain short and firm where the original is short and firm.
10. Cosmic ideas should not become sentimental in translation.

Natural prose matters, but naturalness is not the ultimate goal of this translation.

D. Paragraphs and structure are preserved

In A Dictionary of Galactic Extinction, form is part of the content.

For that reason:

• The paragraph structure of the original is preserved as closely as possible.
• Paragraphs are not combined or divided merely for convenience.
• Entry titles, subheadings, biographical entries, dates, definitions, and quotations retain their structural roles.
• Because the dictionary form itself is part of the narrative, a structural alteration may also constitute a change in meaning.
• Numbering systems and chapter structures follow the Korean original.

Where the work distinguishes levels such as:

• Part
• Chapter
• Entry
• Condition
• History
• Person
• Term
• Record

those distinctions are not flattened into a single uniform structure.

E. Terminology remains consistent

Key terminology is not casually changed once a translation has been established.

Concepts such as the following are treated within a consistent terminological system throughout the work:

• photon / light
• passage
• storage
• recovery
• wormhole
• temporal fold
• energy accounting
• extinction condition
• record
• observer
• archive

Stylistic variation from chapter to chapter is less important than maintaining the conceptual architecture of the book.

Terminological precision is not sacrificed merely for literary variety.

F. Scientific concepts are not rewritten during translation

A Dictionary of Galactic Extinction contains both real scientific ideas and fictional scientific mechanisms.

In translation:

• Scientific hypotheses and fictional mechanisms are not altered simply to make them appear more scientific.
• Scientific verification and literary translation are treated as separate tasks.
• Where the Korean text is deliberately ambiguous, the translation remains ambiguous.
• New sentences are not added to explain physical concepts.
• Parenthetical explanations or commentary are not inserted merely because a concept may be difficult for the reader.

The translator's task is not to redesign the science of the book, but to carry the science—and its uncertainties—into another language.

G. Key sentences preserve both meaning and rhythm

Some sentences in the work do more than convey information.

For such sentences, the translation considers all of the following:

• meaning
• rhythm
• symmetry
• repetition
• sentence length

One central sentence is:

빛은 시간을 거슬러 가지 않았다. 시간이 빛 앞에서 접혔다.

Its established translations are:

English

Light did not travel backward through time. Time folded before the light.

日本語

光は時間を遡らなかった。時間が光の前で折り畳まれた。

Français

La lumière ne remonta pas le temps. Le temps se plia devant la lumière.

Once a central line of this kind has been established, it is not repeatedly rewritten merely because another formulation may seem stylistically attractive.

H. Proper names, personal names, and place names

Names are part of the fictional world.

Accordingly:

• Proper names are not unnecessarily localized.
• A name that feels unfamiliar in Korean is not automatically made familiar in translation.
• Scholars, researchers, institutions, civilizations, and projects that recur throughout the work retain consistent forms.
• In the French edition, foreign names are not unnecessarily reshaped into French forms.
• In the Japanese edition, names may be rendered in katakana where appropriate for pronunciation, but no new meaning is imposed on them.

Strangeness in a name is not necessarily a problem to be corrected. It may belong to the world of the book.

I. Priorities of translation quality

The priorities of the translation are:

1. Meaning
2. Logical relationships
3. The restraint and voice of the prose
4. Patterns of repetition
5. Terminological consistency
6. Rhythm
7. Naturalness

Naturalness matters, but it comes last.

The translation does not alter meaning, simplify logical structures, remove repetition, or replace the unfamiliar voice of the work with a more conventional style merely to make the text read more smoothly to a native speaker.

A translation that preserves the thought and voice of the original is preferred to one that is perfectly smooth but has become a different work.

J. Principles of review

Review is not a process of endlessly making every sentence more elegant.

It concentrates primarily on:

• distortion of meaning;
• omissions;
• over-translation or meanings introduced without support from the original;
• inconsistent terminology;
• unnecessary changes to paragraph or structural organization;
• stylistic embellishment that makes the translation more literary than the original.

Minor differences of taste are distinguished from actual errors.

An already accurate translation is not changed solely because:

• “this expression sounds more sophisticated”;
• “this word feels more literary”;
• “a native speaker might be more likely to phrase it this way.”

A change is made only when it materially improves meaning, voice, rhythm, or structural fidelity.

K. Finalized translations are respected

Once a chapter or entry has gone through sufficient comparison and review and has been finalized, it is not reopened merely because a slightly more polished expression can be imagined.

• A finalized edition in another language may be consulted later, but the Korean original remains the source for every new translation.
• Each translation passes through multiple stages of comparison and review before it is finalized.
• After finalization, revisions are made only for substantive reasons, such as an error of meaning, an omission, or a clear inconsistency in terminology.

A translation can be revised indefinitely.

Beyond a certain point, however, further revision no longer produces a more accurate translation. It simply produces a different translation.

The translation of A Dictionary of Galactic Extinction attempts to recognize that boundary.