Sayuri Okamoto is the recipient of a 2014 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for her translation of Dear Monster: The Naked Poetry of Gozo Yoshimasu. In his most recent work, Yoshimasu, an aurally and visually stunning poet known for his Talmudic density, struggles to respond to the 3.11 disaster in Japan, which took the lives of over twenty thousand people. The experience of reading these poems is emotional, psychological, and physical, and grounded in the poet’s strong sense of mission. In her deft, polyvalent translation, Okamoto has given the lie to those who consider Yoshimasu’s poetry untranslatable. Read Okamoto’s essay on translating Dear Monster here.
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This translation is available for publication.
This piece is part of PEN’s 2014 translation series, which features essays and excerpts from the recipients of this year’s PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants.