the complete works of chuang tzu translated by burton watson

Readers who would like to see more of Saigyo’s poems should also keep in mind William LaFleur’s Mirror for the Moon (New Directions, 1978), which contains 173 poems in translation.Īlthough published in 1977, Ryokan: Zen Monk-Poet of Japan bears mentioning because it is another of Burton Watson’s excellent translations of the works of a Buddhist monk-poet. One of the love poems reads:Īnd another poem from the same chapter is no less immediate: The poems are presented in a traditional “seasonal” arrangement, along with chapters on Love, Miscellaneous, and Poems from the Kikigaki shu (a short text of Saigyo poems discovered in 1929). Watson has translated two hundred of Saigyo’s poems while providing a romanized version of the originaI Japanese. Saigyo quit secular life when he was twenty-two, but for some time the lure of the social and political life of the city continued to strain his monastic commitments. Although relatively little is known of his life, he was apparently born into a well-connected warrior family and practiced martial arts as a young man, but was not unfamiliar with Japanese court life. Saigyo (1118-1190 C.E.) was a Buddhist poet-priest who ranks as one of the most influential court poets of Japan. Saigyo: Poems of a Mountain Home is Watson’s most recent collection of poetry in translation.

But in addition to translations of histories, prose, and Taoist texts, there are at least half a dozen publications of Watson’s translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry, all of which remain in print. His earliest works appeared in the sixties and were translations of Chinese classics, ranging from the Records of the Grand Historian of China (Columbia University Press, 1961) to The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu(Columbia University Press: 1968). Burton Watson, an occasional professor at Columbia University and a regular resident of Japan, is a prolific and masterful translator of Chinese and Japanese.

The complete works of chuang tzu translated by burton watson