WMU Japanese literature scholar wins
prestigious translation award

Dr. Jeffrey Angles, WMU associate professor of Japanese Literature and Translation Studies, was recently awarded the prestigious Japan-United States Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature for his translation of Chimako Tada’s “From a Woman of a Distant Land” in his upcoming book “Forest of Eyes: Poetry of Tada Chimako” (University of California Press, fall 2010).

The Japan-U.S. Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature is offered through the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University. Written work is judged based on the literary merit of the translation and how accurately it reflects the spirit of the original Japanese text. Dr. Angles’ award is evidence of his outstanding scholarship and translation abilities within a literary context.

Angles will travel from Kyoto, Japan where he is performing research on sabbatical, to attend the award ceremony April 9, 2010, in New York City. The ceremony will take place at the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, which was established in 1985 at Columbia University in honor of Professor Keene, a renowned professor, scholar and translator of Japanese literature. The Center is dedicated to advancing the understanding of Japan and its culture in the U.S. through university instruction, research, and public education.

The Japan-U.S. Commission was established in 1975 as an independent agency by the U.S. Congress. The Commission administers a U.S. government trust fund that originated in connection with the return to the Japanese government of certain U.S. facilities in Okinawa and for postwar American assistance to Japan.

Information about the Keene Center and the commission is accessible online at: http://www.keenecenter.org/content/view/12/29/ and http://www.jusfc.gov/index.asp .