The Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation & Multilingual Texts

Special Guest Judge, Yuki Tejima:

What struck me immediately about the poems written in Spanish by Rosa Berbel, “Tidying Up”, “Climates” and “Sacking the Temple”, translated into English by Jane Stringham, was the physicality of the words, darting, propelling, then easing on the page as they liken ritual and devotion to activities from our day-to-day: cleaning, scrubbing, moving. No matter the strength in our will and physical body, “there is no way to truly clean thoughts / No way, no shape, / or form can escape their persistence.” (“Tidying Up”) The translation invites us to step into the “sacred spaces” though they are quietly vanishing (“Sacking the Temple”), conveying with an exquisite touch the heart-rending reality we will find. All three poems transport us through the world while keeping us firmly rooted, the translation capturing the moments deemed indescribable: “you can’t quite / get rid of everything / growing in the margins”. (“Climates”) It is in these margins that I find both comfort and revelation.

Yuki Tejima is a Japanese-English translator whose upcoming translations include two novels by Mizuki Tsujimura, Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon and How to Hold Someone In Your Heart. Also coming in 2025 are Then Why’d You Ask Me To Come? by Risa Wataya and Someone to Watch Over You by Kumi Kimura. Raised in Los Angeles, she moved to Tokyo in 2014 where she began her career in literary translation after a decade of translation and copywriting work in film and television, as well as the food and fashion industries. A recipient of the JLPP (Japanese Literature Publishing Project) International Translation Competition Prize in 2020, she has since been selected for the Emerging Translator Mentorships at the National Centre for Writing (2022) and ALTA (2023). She was a recipient of the PEN Presents grant in 2023.