Burton Watson
Encyclopedia
Burton Watson is an accomplished translator of Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 literature and poetry. He has received awards including the Gold Medal Award of the Translation Center at Columbia University in 1979, the PEN Translation Prize
PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize
The PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize is an annual award given to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been presented annually by PEN American Center and the Book of the Month Club since 1963....

 in 1981 for his translation with Hiroaki Sato of From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry, and again in 1995 for Selected Poems of Su Tung-p'o
Su Shi
Su Shi , was a writer, poet, artist, calligrapher, pharmacologist, gastronome, and statesman of the Song Dynasty, and one of the major poets of the Song era. His courtesy name was Zizhan and his pseudonym was Dongpo Jushi , and he is often referred to as Su Dongpo...

.

Watson was born in New Rochelle, New York. He dropped out of high school at age 17 to join the Navy in 1943 and was stationed on repair vessels in the South Pacific. His first experiences in Japan came of weekly shore leaves when he was stationed on a ship at Yokosuka Harbor in 1945. Subsequently, he majored in Chinese and Japanese studies at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. In 1951 he returned to Kyoto, this time as a Ford Foundation Overseas Fellow. In 1956 he completed a dissertation on Sima Qian
Sima Qian
Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...

, earning a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He worked as an English teacher at Doshisha University in Kyoto, as a research assistant to Yoshikawa Kōjirō, who was Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Kyoto University
Kyoto University
, or is a national university located in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest Japanese university, and formerly one of Japan's Imperial Universities.- History :...

, and as a member of Ruth Fuller Sasaki
Ruth Fuller Sasaki
Ruth Fuller Sasaki , born Ruth Fuller, was an important figure in the development of Buddhism in the United States. As Ruth Fuller Everett , she met and studied with Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki in Japan in 1930...

's team translating Buddhist texts into English. He has also taught at Stanford and Columbia as a professor of Chinese. He moved to Japan in 1973, where he remains to this day, and has devoted much of his time to translation.

He and colleague Professor Donald Keene
Donald Keene
Donald Lawrence Keene is a Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years...

 frequently attend and participate in the seminars of William Theodore de Bary given to students at Columbia University.

Translations

Notable translations include:
  • The Lotus Sutra: and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, 2009
  • Late Poems of Lu You, Ahadada Books, 2007.
  • Analects of Confucius, 2007
  • The Tale of the Heike
    The Tale of the Heike
    is an epic account of the struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War...

    , 2006
  • The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, 2004
  • For All My Walking: Free-Verse Haiku of Taneda Santōka
    Taneda Santoka
    was the pen-name of a Japanese author and haiku poet. He is known for his free verse haiku.- Life :Santōka was born in a village on the southwestern tip of Honshū, Japan’s main island, to a wealthy land-owning family. At the age of eleven his mother committed suicide by throwing herself into the...

     with Excerpts from His Diaries, 2004
  • The Selected Poems of Du Fu
    The Selected Poems of Du Fu
    The Selected Poems of Du Fu is a collection of English translations of Chinese poetry by the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu, translated by Burton Watson. Published in 2002, the book includes an introduction to the poet and his work and an extensive bibliography...

    , 2002
  • The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol 1 in 1999 and vol 2 in 2006.
  • The Wild Geese
    The Wild Geese (novel)
    Mori Ogai's classical novel, The Wild Geese or The Wild Goose was first published in serial form in Japan, and tells the story of unfulfilled love set against a background of social change. The story is set in 1880 Tokyo. The novel contains commentary on the changing situation between the Edo and...

     (Gan, by Mori Ōgai
    Mori Ogai
    was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. is considered his major work.- Early life :Mori was born as Mori Rintarō in Tsuwano, Iwami province . His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyō of the Tsuwano Domain...

    ), 1995
  • Selected Poems of Su Tung-Po, (Copper Canyon Press
    Copper Canyon Press
    Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...

    , 1994)
  • The Lotus Sutra
    Lotus Sutra
    The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...

    , 1993
  • Records of the Grand Historian
    Records of the Grand Historian
    The Records of the Grand Historian, also known in English by the Chinese name Shiji , written from 109 BC to 91 BC, was the Magnum opus of Sima Qian, in which he recounted Chinese history from the time of the Yellow Emperor until his own time...

    : Han Dynasty, 1992
  • Saigyō
    Saigyo
    was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period.-Biography:Born Satō Norikiyo in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of the Age of Mappō , Buddhism was...

    : Poems of a Mountain Home, 1991
  • The Tso Chuan
    Zuo Zhuan
    The Zuo Zhuan , sometimes translated as the Chronicle of Zuo or the Commentary of Zuo, is among the earliest Chinese works of narrative history and covers the period from 722 BCE to 468 BCE. It is one of the most important sources for understanding the history of the Spring and Autumn Period...

    : Selections from China’s Oldest Narrative History, 1989
  • The Flower of Chinese Buddhism (Zoku Watakushi no Bukkyō-kan, by Ikeda Daisaku), 1984
  • Grass Hill: Poems and Prose by the Japanese Monk Gensei, 1983
  • Ryōkan
    Ryokan
    was a quiet and eccentric Sōtō Zen Buddhist monk who lived much of his life as a hermit. Ryōkan is remembered for his poetry and calligraphy, which present the essence of Zen life.-Early life:...

    : Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, 1977
  • Buddhism: The First Millennium (Watakushi no Bukkyō-kan, by Ikeda Daisaku), 1977
  • The Living Buddha (Watakushi no Shakuson-kan, by Ikeda Daisaku), 1976
  • Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by the T’ang Poet Han-Shan, 1970
  • The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu
    Zhuangzi
    Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, a period corresponding to the philosophical summit of Chinese thought — the Hundred Schools of Thought, and is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name,...

    , 1968
  • Records of the Grand Historian
    Records of the Grand Historian
    The Records of the Grand Historian, also known in English by the Chinese name Shiji , written from 109 BC to 91 BC, was the Magnum opus of Sima Qian, in which he recounted Chinese history from the time of the Yellow Emperor until his own time...

     of China, 1961


Many of Watson's translations have been published through the Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology,...

.

External links

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