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The Rainbow World: Japan in Essays and Translations
Nonfiction. In THE RAINBOW WORLD, Burton Watson, internationally respected translator and writer, charms us with his experiences as a student of East Asian culture and longtime resident of Japan. These essays, written over many years, reflect the changes that have taken place in postwar Japan and suggest both the pleasures and trials experienced by foreigners living there. Taken as a whole, this collection is a candid and warm picture of the Japanese people, presented with humor and lightness of touch.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Burton Watson
137 books52 followersBurton Watson was an American sinologist, translator, and writer renowned for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature. Over his prolific career, he brought classical works of poetry, philosophy, and history to a wider audience, earning numerous accolades, including the PEN Translation Prize and the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation.
Born in New Rochelle, New York, Watson served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before studying Chinese at Columbia University. He later moved to Japan, where he worked as a scholar and translator, remaining there for most of his life. His translations, influenced by Arthur Waley and Ezra Pound, emphasized clarity and poetic resonance. Among his most notable works are translations of The Analects of Confucius, Records of the Grand Historian, The Lotus Sutra, Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by Han Shan, and The Tale of the Heike.
Watson’s work played a crucial role in introducing Chinese and Japanese literary traditions to the English-speaking world, and his translations continue to be regarded as both scholarly and literary achievements.
Born in New Rochelle, New York, Watson served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before studying Chinese at Columbia University. He later moved to Japan, where he worked as a scholar and translator, remaining there for most of his life. His translations, influenced by Arthur Waley and Ezra Pound, emphasized clarity and poetic resonance. Among his most notable works are translations of The Analects of Confucius, Records of the Grand Historian, The Lotus Sutra, Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by Han Shan, and The Tale of the Heike.
Watson’s work played a crucial role in introducing Chinese and Japanese literary traditions to the English-speaking world, and his translations continue to be regarded as both scholarly and literary achievements.
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July 16, 2014What a charming, charming book!
Burton Watson (b. 1925) is one of our finest translators of classical Chinese and Japanese literature, so it can hardly surprise that he writes beautifully, nor that he provides valuable insights into Japanese literature, history and culture in these essay/articles composed for various periodicals over the decades of his life in Japan, beginning with his first experiences as an uneducated sailor on a U.S. Navy ship in Yokosuka harbor in 1945. But what a pleasant surprise to find in his little stories of personal encounters with ordinary and not so ordinary Japanese that he is also an intensely observant lover of humankind, the stories therefore suffused with the wry humor and poignancy that often characterize the writings of those who know and accept the way our species behaves, at least when it is not acting at its extremes of horrifying, abhorrent repulsiveness... He kept me laughing until way too late last night as I told myself "just one more" again and again.
Watson also gives us more than 20 pages of translated Japanese poems by Sugawara no Michizane, Jakushitsu Genko and others for which he provides context and background. As a taste, here is a poem written in Chinese in 902 by Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) in the middle of an exile in which he was being starved to death slowly. (His garden in Kyoto is referred to in the first line.)
The ones newly planted north of Sempu Ward,
the ones at banquet time west of Jiju Palace:
different plums, though the same man sang to them -
how the flowers must have laughed at all my grieving!
The Rainbow World (1990) is an expanded re-publication of Japan: First Impressions, Second Thoughts (1984). I wish it were four times longer.
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http://leopard.booklikes.com/post/930...
Burton Watson (b. 1925) is one of our finest translators of classical Chinese and Japanese literature, so it can hardly surprise that he writes beautifully, nor that he provides valuable insights into Japanese literature, history and culture in these essay/articles composed for various periodicals over the decades of his life in Japan, beginning with his first experiences as an uneducated sailor on a U.S. Navy ship in Yokosuka harbor in 1945. But what a pleasant surprise to find in his little stories of personal encounters with ordinary and not so ordinary Japanese that he is also an intensely observant lover of humankind, the stories therefore suffused with the wry humor and poignancy that often characterize the writings of those who know and accept the way our species behaves, at least when it is not acting at its extremes of horrifying, abhorrent repulsiveness... He kept me laughing until way too late last night as I told myself "just one more" again and again.
Watson also gives us more than 20 pages of translated Japanese poems by Sugawara no Michizane, Jakushitsu Genko and others for which he provides context and background. As a taste, here is a poem written in Chinese in 902 by Sugawara no Michizane (845-903) in the middle of an exile in which he was being starved to death slowly. (His garden in Kyoto is referred to in the first line.)
The ones newly planted north of Sempu Ward,
the ones at banquet time west of Jiju Palace:
different plums, though the same man sang to them -
how the flowers must have laughed at all my grieving!
The Rainbow World (1990) is an expanded re-publication of Japan: First Impressions, Second Thoughts (1984). I wish it were four times longer.
Rating
http://leopard.booklikes.com/post/930...
September 12, 2018
Burton Watson for many is considered one of the key figures in East Asian studies and for good reason. Watson's translations of Chinese and Japanese classics have been used for decades however this collection writings isn't so much about Chinese and Japanese literature but merely short writings on living in Japan, general thoughts on Japanese culture, and his general attitude about the east.
I should mention that this book isn't an autobiography, just writings by a fantastic translator.
I should mention that this book isn't an autobiography, just writings by a fantastic translator.
May 18, 2025
4.1 stars.
June 21, 2015
Picked this one up for a buck at a local bookstore because I was familiar with some of the author's work as a translator. An impressive collection of short essays and poetry translations. I enjoyed most of the essays quite a bit, especially "Green Valley", "Sojun", "Rohatsu Notes", and "My Mansion on the Hill". Watson writes simply but beautifully about everyday things and somehow manages to convey the essence of a situation without fuss. The translated poems are all from the ancient and medieval periods of Japanese literature, very short, and wonderfully evocative. They reminded me of Gary Snyder's translations of the poems of Cold Mountain, and that is high praise indeed. I even loved the cover art, which graphically echoes the tone of the whole collection. I'm keeping this one.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews