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El Ciudadano

Original article: «El llanto de la lombriz»: La voz descarnada de Park Wansuh sobre la fractura moral de la Corea de posguerra llega a Chile con traducción de Cammy Cho

«The Cry of the Earthworm»: Park Wansuh’s Unflinching Voice on the Moral Fracture of Post-War Korea Arrives in Chile, Translated by Cammy Cho

In «The Cry of the Earthworm,» the acclaimed South Korean author Park Wansuh (1931-2011) presents a moral cartography that illuminates the silent consequences of the Korean War on everyday life.

Through a series of narratives that navigate between the domestic and the historical, the work explores how the war continues to act as an invisible force, distorting lives and turning survival into a burden long after the guns have fallen silent.

The narrative is crafted with sober, precise, and sensory prose that invites deep reflection on human fragility.

Park Wansuh steps away from grand epic scenes to focus on the places where fear becomes common sense, addressing themes such as the materialism of post-war society, moral conformity, and alienation.

In stories like «Stolen Poverty» and «We Teach Shame,» dignity and modesty emerge as precarious constructs against a social order that measures and classifies individuals.

The work places a central focus on female experience, depicting common women burdened by familial and economic expectations they did not choose. Their bodies embody exhaustion and repressed desire, forced to sustain life while everything around them crumbles.

First Spanish Edition

The first Spanish edition of «The Cry of the Earthworm,» published by Editorial Telúrica, was translated directly from Korean by Cammy Cho and has benefitted from the support of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).

This publication is part of a larger project: it previously published The Naked Tree, recognized as the most important novel by the author, who is among South Korea’s most admired and respected writers.

Regarding the book’s translator, Cammy Cho (Barranquilla, 1988), it is noteworthy that she is a distinguished editor and illustrator specializing in Korean literature. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between Asia and the Spanish-speaking world, with a particular interest in female voices and the recovery of 20th-century Korean women authors.

Trained at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, she has been awarded the Rookie Award for her contributions to film and webtoons and boasts an extensive catalog of translations of authors such as Bora Chung, Djuna, and the very Park Wansuh.

As for Telúrica, it is a translation publisher, run by experts in multilingual communication who specialize in rescuing works of historical-cultural value, such as literature by survivors of the atomic bomb. They currently distribute throughout Chile and Argentina. For more information, visit their Instagram here.

El Ciudadano

La entrada «The Cry of the Earthworm»: Park Wansuh’s Unflinching Voice on the Moral Fracture of Post-War Korea Arrives in Chile, Translated by Cammy Cho se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.