Jesse Kirkwood, 35, grew up in a small hamlet in the Lake District — “literally on the side of a mountain” — in England. Since 2011, he has worked as a professional academic, legal and commercial translator from French and Polish into English, adding Japanese literary translation after winning the 2020 Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize. Kirkwood’s translation of “Sympathy Tower Tokyo” by Rie Qudan was recently published by Penguin.
1. What first sparked your interest in languages? My parents had spent most of their lives in South Africa, where, among other things, my dad ran an anti-apartheid publishing house. They brought with them to England a secret second language, Afrikaans, which they didn’t often use because of the associations it carried for them. To me, it was like they had a hidden and slightly unwanted superpower. It also made me realize early on that languages aren't just these neutral tools of communication but entire cultural universes that come with all sorts of baggage.
2. You’ve translated a wide range of genres. Any favorites? I gravitate towards more literary work, just because that’s what I tend to read for pleasure. By “literary,” I really mean anything where it’s language or mood that compels the reader rather than purely plot. In that sense, the many worlds of Nanae Aoyama have been a real joy to discover.
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