Burton Watson

Born 1925 (age 8889)

New Rochelle, New York, United
States
Occupation Scholar, translator
Nationality American
Period 1962present
Burton Watson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Burton Watson (born 1925) is an American scholar
and translator
[1]
of both Chinese and Japanese
literature. He has received awards including the Gold
Medal Award of the Translation Center at Columbia
University in 1979, the PEN Translation Prize in
1995
[2]
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.
Contents
1 Biography
2 Translations
3 Notes
4 References
5 External links
Biography
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. In 1951
[3]
he returned to Kyoto, this
time as a Ford Foundation Overseas Fellow.
[2]
In 1956 he completed a dissertation on Sima Qian,
earning a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
[1]
He worked as an English teacher at Doshisha University in
Kyoto, as a research assistant to Yoshikawa Kjir, who was Professor of Chinese Language and
Literature at Kyoto University,
[4]
and as a member of Ruth Fuller Sasaki's team translating Buddhist
texts into English.
[1]
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 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, 2006
The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, 2004
For All My Walking: Free-Verse Haiku of Taneda Santka with Excerpts from His Diaries, 2004
The Selected Poems of Du Fu, 2002
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol 1 in 1999 and vol 2 in 2006.
Vimalakirti Sutra 1997
The Wild Geese (Gan, by Mori gai), 1995
Selected Poems of Su Tung-Po, (Copper Canyon Press, 1994)
The Lotus Sutra, 1993
Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty, 1992
Saigy: Poems of a Mountain Home, 1991
The Tso Chuan: Selections from Chinas Oldest Narrative History, 1989
The Flower of Chinese Buddhism (Zoku Watakushi no Bukky-kan, by Ikeda Daisaku), 1984
Grass Hill: Poems and Prose by the Japanese Monk Gensei, 1983
Rykan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan, 1977
Buddhism: The First Millennium (Watakushi no Bukky-kan, by Ikeda Daisaku), 1977
The Living Buddha (Watakushi no Shakuson-kan, by Ikeda Daisaku), 1976
Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by the Tang Poet Han-Shan, 1970
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 1968
Records of the Grand Historian of China, 1961
Many of Watson's translations have been published through the Columbia University Press.
Notes
1. ^
a

b

c
Stirling 2006, pg. 92
2. ^
a

b
"Ahadada Books-Burton Watson" (http://www.ahadadabooks.com/content/view/125/31/). Retrieved
2008-06-03.
3. ^ Halper 1991, pg. 53
4. ^ "Harvard University Press: An Introduction to Sung Poetry by Kojiro Yoshikawa"
(http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/YOSINT.html). Retrieved 2009-06-01.
References
Halper, Jon, ed. Gary Snyder: Dimensions of a Life (1991) Sierra Club Books. ISBN 0-87156-
616-8
Stirling, Isabel. "Zen Pioneer: The Life & Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki" (2006) Shoemaker &
Hoard. ISBN 978-1-59376-110-3
External links
Biographical sketch (http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/rct/30th/bio/bw.html)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burton_Watson&oldid=628114515"
Categories: 1925 births Living people People from New Rochelle, New York
American sinologists JapaneseEnglish translators ChineseEnglish translators
This page was last modified on 3 October 2014 at 18:31.
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