Burton Dewitt Watson (June 13, 1925April 1, 2017) was an American sinologist, translator, and writer known for his English translations of Chinese and

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

.Stirling 2006, pg. 92 Watson's translations received many awards, including the Gold Medal Award of the Translation Center at Columbia University in 1979, the

PEN Translation Prize The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been p ...

in 1982 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''. In 2015, at age 88, Watson was awarded the

PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation The PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, named in honor of U.S. translator Ralph Manheim, is a literary award given every three years by PEN America (the U.S. chapter of International PEN) to a translator "whose career has demonstrated a commit ...

for his long and prolific translation career.

Life and career

Burton Watson was born on June 13, 1925, in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state o ...

, where his father was a hotel manager. In 1943, at age 17, Watson dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy, and was stationed on repair vessels in the South Pacific during the final years of the Pacific Theatre of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. His ship was in the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Inte ...

when the war ended in August 1945, and on September 20, 1945 it sailed to Japan to anchor at the Yokosuka Naval Base, where Watson had his first direct experiences with Japan and East Asia. As he recounts in ''Rainbow World'', on his first shore leave, he and his shipmates encountered a stone in Tokyo with musical notation on it; they sang the melody, as best they could. Some months later, Watson realized that he had been in

Hibiya Park Hibiya Park (日比谷公園 ''Hibiya Kōen'') is a park in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, Japan. It covers an area of 161,636.66 m2 (40 acres) between the east gardens of the Imperial Palace to the north, the Shinbashi district to the southeast and the K ...

and that the song was ''" Kimigayo"''. Watson left Japan in February 1946, was discharged from the Navy, and was accepted into

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

on the G.I. Bill, where he majored in Chinese. His main Chinese teachers were the American Sinologist L. Carrington Goodrich and the Chinese scholar Wang Chi-chen. At that time, most of the Chinese curriculum focused on learning to read

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...

and Chinese literature, as it was assumed that any "serious students" could later learn to actually speak Chinese by going to China. He also took one year of Japanese. Watson spent five years studying at Columbia, earning a B.A. in 1949 and an M.A. in 1951. After receiving his master's degree, Watson hoped to move to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

for further study, but the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

who had taken control of China in 1949 with their victory in the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on main ...

had closed the country to Americans. He was unable to find any positions in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

, and so moved to Japan using the last of his GI savings. Once there, he secured two positions in Kyoto: as an English teacher at Doshisha University, and as graduate student and a research assistant to Professor

Yoshikawa Kōjirō is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 73,262 in 31,031 households and a population density of 2300 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Located in far southeastern S ...

of the Chinese Language and Literature at

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff = 3,978 (Total Staff) , students = ...

. His combined salary, including tutoring English several evenings per week, was about $50 per month, and so he lived much like other Japanese graduate students. In 1952, he was able to resign his position at Doshisha, thanks to Columbia University stipend for ''Sources in Chinese Tradition'', and later in the year, a position as a Ford Foundation Overseas Fellow. Although he had long been interested in translating poetry, his first significant translations were of '' kanshi'' (poems in Chinese written by Japanese), made in 1954 for

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japane ...

, who was compiling an anthology of Japanese literature. A few years later, he sent some translations of early Chinese poems from the ''Yutai Xinyong'' to

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

for comment; Pound replied but did not critique the translations. In subsequent years, Watson became friends with

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...

, who lived in Kyoto in the 1950s, and through him

Cid Corman Cid (Sidney) Corman (June 29, 1924 – March 12, 2004) was an American poet, translator and editor, most notably of ''Origin'', who was a key figure in the history of American poetry in the second half of the 20th century. Life Corman was bor ...

and

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

. In 1956 he earned a Ph.D. from Columbia with a doctoral dissertation on 1st century BC historian

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years be ...

entitled "Ssu-ma Ch'ien: The Historian and His Work". He then worked as a member of

Ruth Fuller Sasaki Ruth Fuller Sasaki (October 31, 1892 – October 24, 1967), born Ruth Fuller, was an American writer and Buddhist teacher. She was important figure in the development of Buddhism in the United States. As Ruth Fuller Everett (during her first ...

's team translating Buddhist texts into English, under the auspices of the Columbia University Committee on Oriental Studies., returning to Columbia in August 1961. He subsequently taught at Columbia and Stanford as a professor of Chinese. He and colleague Professor

frequently participated in the seminars of

William Theodore de Bary William Theodore de Bary (; August 9, 1919 – July 14, 2017) was an American Sinologist and scholar of East Asian philosophy who was a professor and administrator at Columbia University for nearly 70 years. De Bary graduated from Columbia Coll ...

given to students at Columbia University. Watson moved to Japan in 1973, where he remained for the rest of his life, and devoted much of his time to translation, both of literary works, and of more routine texts such as advertisements, instruction manuals, and so forth. He never married, but was in a long-term relationship with his partner Norio Hayashi. He stated, in an interview with John Balcom, that his translations of Chinese poetry were greatly influenced by the translations of Pound and

Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were t ...

, particularly Waley. While in Japan, he took up Zen meditation and kōan study. Although he worked as a translator for the

Soka Gakkai is a Japanese Buddhist religious movement based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese priest Nichiren as taught by its first three presidents Tsunesaburō Makiguchi, Jōsei Toda, and Daisaku Ikeda. It is the largest of the Japane ...

, a Japanese Buddhist organization, he was not a follower of the Nichiren school of Buddhism or a member of the Soka Gakkai. Despite his extensive activity in translating ancient Chinese texts, his first time in China was a three-week trip in the summer of 1983, with expenses paid by the Soka Gakkai. Watson died on April 1, 2017, aged 91, at the Hatsutomi Hospital in Kamagaya, Japan.

Translations

Translations from Chinese include: * ''The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras'', Soka Gakkai, 2009 * ''Late Poems of

Lu You Lu You (; 1125–1210) was a Chinese historian and poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋). Career Early life and marriage Lu You was born on a boat floating in the Wei River early on a rainy morning, November 13, 1125. At the time of his ...

'', Ahadada Books, 2007 * '' Analects of Confucius'', 2007 * ''The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings'', 2004 * '' The Selected Poems of Du Fu'', 2002 * ''

Vimalakirti Sutra The ''Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa'' (Devanagari: विमलकीर्तिनिर्देश) (sometimes referred to as the ''Vimalakīrti Sūtra'' or ''Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra'') is a Buddhist text which centers on a lay Buddhist meditat ...

'', New York: Columbia University Press 1996 * ''Selected Poems of Su Tung-P'o'',

Copper Canyon Press Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, founded in 1972 specializing exclusively in the publication of poetry. It is located in Port Townsend, Washington. Copper Canyon Press publishes new collections of poetry by both ...

, 1994 * '' The Lotus Sutra'', Columbia University Press, 1993Deal, William E. (1996
Review: ''The Lotus Sutra'' by Burton Watson
''China Review International'' 3 (2), 559-564 * ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

: Han Dynasty'', Columbia University Press, 1993, . * '' The Tso Chuan: Selections from China’s Oldest Narrative History'', 1989 * ''Chinese Lyricism: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century'', 1971 * ''Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by the T’ang Poet Han-Shan'', 1970 * ''The Old Man Who Does As He Pleases: Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Lu Yu'', 1973 * ''Chinese Rhyme-Prose: Poems in the Fu Form from the Han and Six Dynasties Periods'', 1971 * ''The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu'', 1968 * '' Su Tung-p'o: Selections from a Sung Dynasty Poet'', 1965 * '' Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings'', 1964 * '' Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings'', 1964 * '' Hsün Tzu: Basic Writings'', 1963 * '' Mo Tzu: Basic Writings'', 1963 * ''Early Chinese Literature'', 1962 * ''

of China'', 1961 * '' Ssu-ma Ch'ien, Grand Historian of China'', 1958 * ''Chinese Rhyme-Prose: Poems in the Fu Form from the Han and Six Dynasties Periods''. Rev. ed. New York Review Books, 2015. Translations from Japanese include: * '' The Tale of the Heike'', 2006 * ''For All My Walking: Free-Verse Haiku of

Taneda Santōka Taneda (written: 種田) is a Japanese surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be plac ...

with Excerpts from His Diaries'', 2004 * ''The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin'', vol 1 in 1999 and vol 2 in 2006 * ''

The Wild Geese ''The Wild Geese'' is a 1978 war film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, and Hardy Krüger. The screenplay concerns a group of mercenaries in Africa. It was the result of a long-held ambit ...

'' (''Gan'', by Mori Ōgai), 1995 * ''

Saigyō was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. Biography Born 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 ...

: Poems of a Mountain Home'', 1991 * ''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: 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 Many of Watson's translations have been published through the

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 Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fie ...

Notes

References

* *Watson, Burton. ''The Rainbow World: Japan in Essays and Translations'' (1990) Broken Moon Press. *Halper, Jon, ed. ''Gary Snyder: Dimensions of a Life'' (1991)

Sierra Club Books Sierra Club Books was the publishing division, for both adults and children, of the Sierra Club, founded in by then club President David Brower. They were a United States publishing company located in San Francisco, California with a concentrat ...

. *Stirling, Isabel. "Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki" (2006) Shoemaker & Hoard. *Kyger, Joanne. "Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960-1964" (2000) North Atlantic Books. .

External links

Biographical sketch

Burton Watson Obituary (Paid NYT Death Notice)

Burton Watson reading from ''The Old Man Who Does As He Pleases''
* Lucas Klein
Not Altogether an Illusion: Translation and Translucence in the Work of Burton Watson

World Literature Today ''World Literature Today'' is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The stated goal of the magazine is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book revie ...

(May–August 2004). {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Burton 1925 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Academics from New York (state) American expatriate academics American expatriates in Japan American sinologists American translators Chinese–English translators Columbia College (New York) alumni Japanese–English translators Writers from Chiba Prefecture Writers from New Rochelle, New York United States Navy personnel of World War II