Burton Watson

Burton Dewitt Watson (June 13, 1925 – April 1, 2017) was an American sinologist, translator, and writer known for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature. Watson's translations received many awards, including the Gold Medal Award of the Translation Center at Columbia University in 1979, the PEN Translation Prize 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 his translation of Selected Poems of Su Tung-p'o. In 2015, at age 88, Watson was awarded the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation for his long and prolific translation career.

Life and career Watson was born on June 13, 1925, in New Rochelle, New York, where his father was a hotel manager. In 1943, at age 17, Watson dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy. He was stationed on repair vessels in the South Pacific during the final years of World War II. His ship was in the Marshall Islands 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 and that the song was "Kimigayo".

Watson left Japan in February 1946, was discharged from the Navy, and was accepted into Columbia University 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 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 for further study, but the Chinese Communist Partywhich had taken control of China in 1949 with their victory in the Chinese Civil Warhad closed the country to Americans. He was unable to find any positions in Taiwan or Hong Kong, and so moved to Japan using the last of his GI savings. Once there, he secured three positions in Kyoto: as an English teacher at Doshisha University, as a graduate student and research assistant to Yoshikawa Kōjirō, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Kyoto University, and as a tutor in English, giving private lessons. His combined salary was about $50 per month, and he lived much like other Japanese graduate students. In 1952, he was able to resign his position at Doshisha, thanks to payment from Columbia University for his work on Sources in Chinese Tradition, and later in the year, a position as a Ford Foundation Overseas Fellow.

Translations Translations from Chinese include: The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, Soka Gakkai, 2009 Late Poems of Lu You, Ahadada Books, 2007 Analects of Confucius, 2007 The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, 2004 The Selected Poems of Du Fu, 2002 Vimalakirti Sutra, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996 Selected Poems of Su Tung-P'o, Copper Canyon Press, 1994 Records of the Grand Historian: 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 Records of the Grand Historian 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 with Excerpts from His Diaries, 2004 The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1 in 1999 and vol. 2 in 2006 The Wild Geese (Gan, by Mori Ōgai), 1995 Saigyō: 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 were published by Columbia University Press.