Ordinary life

Translator's Note: The world is a warmer place because of us, not me.
Karel Capek Chronology

Praised by Thomas Mann and influenced by Milan Kundera
A novel by Karel Capek, the greatest storyteller of the 20th century
A masterpiece that sings of our ordinary yet extraordinary lives.

Czech national author Karel Čapek's novel, An Ordinary Life, has been published by Open Books, translated by Song Soon-seop.
This is the 275th book in the Open Books World Literature series.
Karel Čapek is a world-renowned Czech writer, along with Franz Kafka and Milan Kundera.
Capek often introduced the neologism "robot" and wrote a dystopian play, "R.
Although he is known as the author of "UR", Čapek's horizons as an intellectual and writer are much broader.
Although his creative period was only about 20 years from the publication of his first independent collection of short stories, “The Passion of the Christ” (1917) to his last work, the play “Mother” (1938), he displayed diverse talents as a journalist, critic, director, and photographer in addition to being a writer, and demonstrated philosophical depth and extensive knowledge.
"An Ordinary Life" is one of Čapek's representative works, and is the story of a man who, facing death, reflects on his "ordinary life" and encounters a new "self."
It explores the truth of identity by illuminating the various selves hidden within an individual's life through the records of a deceased railway official's life.
Along with 『Horduval』 and 『Shooting Star』, it is one of Čapek's "Philosophical Trilogy" novels, and each of the three novels has an independent plot.
"An Ordinary Life" is the final work in the trilogy, and is considered a masterpiece that honestly addresses questions about life through a narrative that is both accessible and deeply resonant.
The protagonist is an ordinary man who is a retired railway official.
As his heart condition worsens, he begins to feel a premonition of death and decides to write an autobiography to reflect on his life.
He, who had a habit of keeping his surroundings perfectly organized, made his own life the subject of final organization.
I wonder if it is meaningful for someone like me, who has lived an extremely ordinary life, to leave behind such a record, but I ask the question, “Can a normal, ordinary life not be glorious?”
He tells the story of his life from his childhood.
The book chronicles his childhood in the countryside as the son of a cattle rancher, his school days in the city, his studies in philosophy at university but then dropping out to join the National Railroad, his marriage, and his promotion.
Up to this point, it has been a relatively ordinary and “cleanly written” life.
But as the record of the flashbacks unfolds, the narrative gradually begins to change.
Events that were treated as minor episodes in one's life story, deviations that did not fit one's personality, begin to take on new meaning, and new selves begin to speak out, one by one.
The heroic self, the romantic self, the depressive self, etc.
Each new self reconstructs his life with his own story, and he begins to wonder if the "ordinary self" he had defined as himself was not the only self, but rather just one of many selves.
And finally, I am seized by the confusion that perhaps the existence of “me” is the sum total of everyone I have ever had a relationship with, my ancestors’ ancestors’ ancestors, and even everything I have ever had the possibility of having a relationship with.
Who am I?
In this way, this work explores the deep and delicate aspects hidden within a life that at first glance appears ordinary and simple.
It makes us face the unfamiliar selves that emerge as if unearthed in the face of death, and the various possibilities that were or could have been in our lives.
Through this, it shows that “life is a collection of many different and possible lives,” and that it is not just the life of a special someone, but the story of everyone.
It says that it is “a true and ordinary life, the most ordinary life,” and that it is “our life, not mine, the vast life of us all.”
Each scene of the flashback is described warmly and humorously in a dense yet concise colloquial style.
This work is a glimpse into the author's discovery of a life that cannot help but be beautiful, existing alongside countless others, including parents, friends, and colleagues, who appear in every precious moment of life, and equally countless others themselves.
Song Soon-seop, who translated this book, is one of the few Czech literature specialists in Korea, and he translated Karel Čapek's metaphorical and delicate sentences into Korean that is easy to read while preserving the author's intentions.
The translation script used was Karel Capek, Obycejny ?ivot, in Karel Capek: Spisy VIII (Praha: Ceskoslovensky spisovatel, 1985).



A word from the translator
Capek's novel, "An Ordinary Life," which deals with the interpretation and celebration of life, can be read as an homage to life that transcends the dictionary definition of ordinariness as "ordinary, without anything outstanding or different," when we embrace one another within the category of "us."