Classical and contemporary Korean literature will be available electronically through the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, which has digitalized 33 masterpieces.

The project involved digitalizing 28 classical pieces, which had been previously translated into English, French and German from Korean, as well as five works which were translated through the institute but had not been published abroad. 

Titled, “The Digital Library of Korean Classics,” the 28 classical works include “Printemps Parfume,” “The Cloud Dream of the Nine,” “Korean Fairy Tales,” “Memoirs of a Korean Queen,” “Lives of Eminent Korean Monks: The Haedong Koseung Chun” and “The Classical Poetry of Korea” as well as other various folktales. 

The five previously unpublished works that are now available in digital format include “Classical Writings of Korean Women” and “The History of Korean Literature” as well as three contemporary works -- “The House of Pomegranate Tress,” “A Trip Through the Mirror” and “Chocolate Friend and Other Stories.” 

The institute hosted the 15th International Workshop for Translation and Publication of Korean Literature last October, which invited experts from various fields and discussed ways to enhance the translation and promotion of classical literature in a modern world. 

The 33 digitalized books can be reached on the following websites: http://library.klti.or.kr, https://play.google.com/store/books, http://archive.org, https://openlibrary.org and https://www.free-ebooks.net.

By Joel Lee  (joel@heraldcorp.com)