Comparing and Evaluating two English versions of Samguk Yusa

The purpose of this paper is to compare and evaluate two English versions of Samguk Yusa. One is translated as Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea in 1972 by Ha and Mintz. The other is Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea in 2006 by Kim. Comparing and evaluating two versions, Vermeer’s translation model is employed. Three important factors in this model are translators’ purposes, intratextual coherence, and intertextual coherence. Ha and Mintz regarded Samguk Yusa as a collection of legends and stories and ignored historical facts. Kim, however, thought that Samguk Yusa was a precious book because it transmitted us historical facts that had been overlooked by Samguk Sagi. Ha and Mintz did not mention their translational principles, but Kim used sense for sense translational principles. Ha and Mintz broke the intratextual and intertextual coherences by translating the original text arbitrarily. In contrast, Kim always tried to keep both coherences and delivered its message clearly.