During the cell cycle, protein levels are thought to be controlled mainly by regulating transcription and protein degradation. The importance of translation regulation during somatic mitotic divisions remains unclear. Using ribosome profiling and metabolic labelling in cells synchronized with a small-molecule CDK1 inhibitor, Tanenbaum et al. found that translation is globally reduced by ∼35% during mitosis. Moreover, 199 genes showed specific translation regulation: they were all translationally repressed at mitotic entry and re-activated at mitotic exit. The authors then focused on EMI1, which is an inhibitor of the anaphase-promoting complex (APC/C) that is degraded early during mitosis to enable mitotic progression. They found that translational repression of EMI1, mediated through its 3′ UTR, was required for the efficient activation of APC/C, revealing that translational repression cooperates with protein degradation to regulate protein activity during mitosis.