Photo on the left courtesy of Soje
“A lot of people have their angsty poetry phase—maybe I just never grew out of that.”
Hosted by summer interns Hamilton Smith and Sydney Smith, episode 27 of NER Out Loud features Soje reading their translations of Song Seung Eon’s “To Dig in the Forest” and “Twisted Landscape Inside a Kind Heart,” followed by a brief conversation.
Soje’s reading of the poems, in both Korean and English, is met with a deep inquiry of translation’s potential to effect radical change. Soje’s translations appear in NER 45.2‘s special folio on Korean poetry, titled “Where on Earth Did You Come From?—Seven South Korean Poets and Their Translators,” which they also guest edited.
Listen to episode 27 of NER Out Loud on Soundcloud, and subscribe to our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Sydney Smith ‘24.5 is an English major and art history minor at Middlebury College, and Hamilton Smith ’25 is a neuroscience major. Spending their summer afternoons in the cozy and charming NER office with relish, Sydney and Hamilton have taken full advantage of the opportunity to develop their editorial and production skills. This pair also collaborated on episode 29 of NER Out Loud, with Jehanne Dubrow, which will be posted in December 2024.
Sydney Smith (left) and Hamilton Smith (right)