Translating literature into a different language requires not only high linguistic skills but also a fair understanding of the culture and society depicted in the original version. Distilling authors’ intended messages and meaning, translators navigate subtle nuance, aided by reading between the lines if necessary. However, is the medium of poetry comparable? Condensing wording, meaning, and nuance to fit the desired meter and style, writing poetry is, technically, very different from writing novels. Therefore, should those who accept the challenge of translating poetry be equipped with special skills disparate from those that are required for translating novels?

For the second day of the miniseries ‘Finding Japanese Poetry’, the Japan Foundation has invited three experienced poetry translators, YOTSUMOTO Yasuhiro, LENTO Takako, and Dr Janine Beichman, to introduce and explore their individual approaches to Japanese poetry and consider issues in reading and translating this sophisticated but demanding literary form, in an informal roundtable discussion. This will be led by Dr Alan Cummings, Senior Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, who is also a translator of the shortest type of Japanese poem, the haiku.

About the panellists

Dr Alan Cumming is a translator and senior lecturer in Japanese Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, SOAS, University of London. His academic research is in early modern Japanese literature and theatre, especially kabuki. Amongst his publications are a volume of translations of haiku and senryu, Haiku: Love (British Museum Press, 2013), and several translations in the Kabuki Plays on Stage series (University of Hawai'i Press).

Dr Janine Beichman, professor emerita of Daito Bunka University in Japan, has published biographies and translations of the poets Masaoka Shiki and Yosano Akiko, and translated Ōoka Makoto's anthology of classical and modern poems by Japanese poets. Her most recent publication is the translation of Ozawa Minoru’s Well-Versed: Exploring Modern Japanese Haiku. She has received grants from the NEH, the NEA, and America PEN for her research and translations of Yosano Akiko. Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets, her translations of Ōoka Makoto’s poetry, received the 2019-2020 Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature.

LENTO Takako was born and educated in Japan. LENTO is an award-winning translator of poetry from Japanese to English and vice versa. Her books include translations of Yosa Buson, Tamura Ryuichi, Tanikawa Shuntaro, Yoshimasu Gozo, Kaneko Mitsuharu, Nagase Kiyoko, and Shinkawa Kazue. She frequently contributes essays and translations to publications in the U.S. and Japan. Ms. Lento holds an MA in literature from Kyushu University and an MFA in poetry and translation from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives in the U.S.

YOTSUMOTO Yasuhiro was born in 1959. So far he has published 13 books of poetry, two novels, and a couple of literary criticisms. Yasuhiro also published a few poetry translations including Stay home on Earth!, an anthology of COVID-19 related poems from around the world; The Poetic Works Homo Sapiens, an anthology of contemporary poetry from 32 poets in 22 countries; and Kid by Simon Armitage. His latest book is The Selected Poems of Shinkawa Kazue (Vagabond Press, Sidney), co-translated with Takako Lento.

This online event is free to attend but registration is essential. To reserve your space, please book your ticket here.