Prof. Yuemin He wins Jules Chametzky Translation Award

Annandale Campus English Professor Yuemin He was awarded the 2025 Jules Chametzky Translation Prize from The Massachusetts Review for her translation of a contemporary Chinese poem. A translation of two poems by Dr. He was published in the magazine last summer, and the one titled “A Life Unexperienced Before” was selected for the annual award.

A Life Unexperienced Before
There is a life we had never experienced
Say kissing with a mask separating our faces
and touching the familiar and strange
with gloves on. Say yesterday afternoon  
we tried to recognize each other while the lake separated us
like two people separated between life and death
only our reflections undulating in the cool water
Weeping willows sprout along the banks of Dusi Lake
The higher the dawn redwoods reach the greener they look
There is a life at least I am not ready for
Say as a poet
I have used three times the word
“separate,” as if I
were separated from this poem
The fourth “separate”
is for you to use to explain:
what is poetry and what is life
I try to persuade myself to love myself
but after repeated disinfection
what in me and my life
is allowed to survive at all
— by Zhang Zhihao

Here is the link to announcement in The Massachusetts Review, and the magazine’s interview with Dr. He after the publication of the two poems.

—Yuemin He, professor of English, Annandale Campus