The University of Iowa’s Japanese Program and the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies (CAPS) will host a multilingual memorial reading on February 28 at 7 p.m. to honor the life and legacy of Takako Lento (1941–2024), a trailblazing translator, educator, and champion of Japanese literature. The event, held in person at the Center for Language and Culture Learning (CLCL) in Phillips Hall and accessible via Zoom, will be open to all.

Lento, who passed away suddenly on December 4, was a foundational figure in the University of Iowa’s literary community. A 1967 graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—one of the few women and people of color in the program at the time—she taught the university’s first Japanese literature courses from 1968 to 1971. She was one of the international writers on campus whom Paul and Hualing Engle consulted as they prepared to launch the International Writing Program (IWP), and she was an early translator of Tamura Ryūichi and Yoshimasu Gōzō, two prominent poets who were among the first participants in the IWP. Over her five-decade career, she was a tireless advocate for modern Japanese poetry.

A two-time recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature, Takako Lento devoted her life to making Japanese poetry visible in English. “She worked tirelessly for decades to share modern Japanese poetry with the world, producing mountains of translations that are not only solid but that sing,” said translator Jeffrey Angles. In a message to the community of poets in Japan, the poet Yotsumoto Yasuhiro (IWP 2023) wrote, “Imagine how dismal the place of Japanese poetry in the world would be had Takako not existed.”

Her dedication only intensified with age; since 2011, she published at least nine volumes of translations, including one in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin, whose own work she later elegantly translated into Japanese. Lento was co-editor of the forthcoming Cornell Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Poetry. In 2022, Takako was named to the University of Iowa’s inaugural class of “Eight Over 80,” honoring eight people 80 years of age or older connected with the university who are still making a difference in the world. 

The memorial will bring together nearly every living poet Lento collaborated with. They will read their own poems in Japanese, and a group of translators from across the world will read Lento’s English translations of these poems. Confirmed participants include poets such as Hachikai Mimi, Kashiwagi Mari, Moriyama Megumi, and Yotsumoto Yasuhiro, alongside translators Jeffrey Angles, Janine Beichman, Kendall Heitzman (ASLL), Kendra Strand (ASLL), and others. This event may be the largest gathering of leading Japanese poets ever to read for a U.S. audience.

Below is the Zoom link for the February 28th event:

https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/92390614475?pwd=KWttWEftAf1aHmOHsPWgbWxbfSChGO.1