Charlotte Instructor Asa Yoneda’s Translation Is Shortlisted For The International Booker Prize
When most people think of translating, they may think of key phrases necessary when visiting a foreign country. Often, that work is simplified through free translator apps, helping travelers navigate language barriers.
That process, however, is far from the work of professional literary translators, including the award-winning work of Asa Yoneda, UNC Charlotte instructor of Japanese translation.
Yoneda’s translation of “Under the Eye of the Big Bird,” a 278-page work of dystopian fiction by Hiromi Kawakami, was recently named to the shortlist for the International Booker Prize, the world’s most influential award for translated fiction.
It is hard to overstate the prestige of being shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, according to Anabel Aliaga-Buchenau, chair of the Department of Languages, Culture and Translation at UNC Charlotte.
“It’s a prize that recognizes the incredible creativity of the author and also the work a translator does,” said Aliaga-Buchenau.
“Hiromi Kawakami is one of the most respected, beloved and hilarious authors writing in Japanese right now, and this book is by far my favorite of hers,” said Yoneda. “The novel contains many different narrative voices that gradually reveal more about the future/fantasy world they inhabit, so I had fun working with the subtle differences between them, and the slow reveals of what’s going on.”
Kawakami’s book has been out for 10 years, so Yoneda hopes her new English translation will bring people to an exciting work, finding “a book that will challenge them, stick with them, and tell them more about themselves as readers,” said Yoneda.
The authors and translators of the six books who make the shortlist are each awarded £2,500, with the winning author and translator splitting £50,000.
“Every shortlistee is a worthy winner, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to travel to London and spend a little time with the other authors and translators involved in this year’s selection,” said Yoneda.
“We’re all holding our breath; we want her to win,” said Aliaga-Buchenau.
The translation process
The task of translating hundreds of pages of fiction can take months of work and be a tedious and lengthy process, coming with obstacles like differing sentence structures between languages or even idioms or sayings that may not translate literally.
“Translating is hard because you have to understand someone else’s work as well as — or even better than — if it were your own,” said Yoneda. “You’re always learning new things, new ways of writing, new ways of describing the world.”
“It is not, ‘Oh, this is this word, that’s this word in English,’ that’s not how it works,” Aliaga-Buchenau said. She explained the importance of retaining the atmosphere, flavor, feeling and everything that the original text does in another language.
Learning from the best
Beyond Yoneda’s professional translation work, she is an excellent resource and example for UNC Charlotte students.
Yoneda imparts translation advice to the students she teaches.
“We’re looking for the zone where form and function, or accuracy and effectiveness become the same thing,” said Yoneda.
“What a gift to have her happen to live in Charlotte and say, ‘Sure, I’ll teach one course per semester.’ It’s an unusual opportunity to learn from somebody who is so experienced, and does this for a living, and is so incredibly good at what she does” said Aliaga-Buchenau.
She describes Yoneda as a beloved instructor, showing students the real-world opportunities they can tackle after graduating.
“For them to see that the processes they learn in class, minute little things can eventually lead to being able to translate a text like that,” said Aliaga-Buchenau.
The 2025 winner of the International Booker Prize will be announced May 20 in London.