The Winners of the 2001 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Translation Award

Professor Royall Tyler

For his translation of  The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. (Viking Press)

Royall Tyler was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris. He has a B.A. in Far Eastern Languages from Harvard, and an M.A. in Japanese History and Ph.D. in Japanese Literature from Columbia University. He has taught Japanese language and culture at Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Oslo, Norway. Beginning in 1990, he taught at the Australian National University, in Canberra, from which he retired at the end of 2000. He spent the 2001-2002 academic year as a Visiting Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University.

Widely acknowledged as the world's earliest novel that remains fully alive today as a widely read masterpiece, The Tale of Genji was written by Murasaki Shikibu in the first decade of the eleventh century. Professor Tyler's highly praised translation, detailed and poetic, remains scrupulously true to the Japanese original while appealing immediately to the modern reader as well. Although two other complete English translations exist (Arthur Waley's of 1933 and Edward Seidensticker's of 1976), Professor Tyler considers his version "a new, more detailed and more fully engaging Genji than has yet been seen in a language outside Japanese. Every word, every sentence offers a range of possibilities among which I had to thread a path thanks to my own conception of the text. That is why this is a new Genji."

Professor Tyler's previous works include Japanese Noh Dramas, a selection and translation of Noh plays published by Penguin Putnam, Inc.; Japanese Tales and French Folktales, anthologies published by Pantheon Books; and The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity, a study of a medieval Japanese cult published by Columbia University Press.

The prize was presented to Professor Tyler during an award ceremony at Columbia University on April 11, 2003.

Reception and Award Ceremony for the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature Friday, April 11, 2003 Main Reading Room, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Kent Hall, Columbia University   Introduction speech by Prof. Donald Keene Prof. Royall Tyler delivers his acceptance speech   Prof. Tyler receiving his award from Prof. Keene   Prof. Tyler, Prof. David Lurie, and Prof. William T. de Bary at the reception All photos: Joe Pineiro

Presented by the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, with the support of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission