Royall Tyler (born 1936 in London, England) is a scholar, writer, and
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
of
Japanese literature
Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japa ...
. Major works include English translations of ''
The Tale of the Heike'' (平家物語, ''Heike Monogatari'') which won the 201
Lois Roth Award and ''
The Tale of Genji
is a classic work of Japanese literature written by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu around the peak of the Heian period, in the early 11th century. It is one of history's first novels, the first by a woman to have wo ...
'' (源氏物語, ''Genji Monogatari)'' which received the
Japan-US Friendship Commission Translation Prize in 2001.
Career
Tyler completed his B.A. in Far Eastern Languages at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in 1957. He then obtained a master's degree in Japanese history and PhD in Japanese literature at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, where he was supervised by
Donald Keene
Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japane ...
. After teaching at Ohio State, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University Oslo (Norway) became head of the Japan Centre in the faculty of Asian Studies at the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
in
Canberra
Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
. With his wife, Susan Tyler, he retired in 2000 to rural New South Wales. Between 1993 and 2023 the couple bred alpacas on their property near the town of Braidwood.
Honors
*
Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Translation Prize, 2002
*
Japan Foundation: Japan Foundation Award, 2007
*
Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 2008
Lois Roth Award 2012.
Selected works and translations
* ''Japanese Tales,'' Pantheon, 1987
* ''French Folktales,'' Pantheon, 1989
* ''Japanese Nô Dramas,'' Penguin, 1990
* ''The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity,'' Columbia University Press, 1992
* ''The Tale of Genji,'' Viking, 2001 (hardback) and Penguin, 2002 (softcover)
* ''Mistress Oriku: Stories from a Tokyo Teahouse'' by Kawaguchi Matsutarô, Tuttle, 2007
* ''The Glass Slipper and Other Stories'' by Yasuoka Shôtarô, Dalkey Archive Press, 2008
* ''The Ise Stories: Ise monogatari,'' University of Hawai'i Press, 2010 (with Joshua Mostow)
* ''Flowers of Grass'' by Fukunaga Takehiko, Dalkey Archive Press, 2012
* ''The Tale of the Heike,'' Penguin, 2012
* ''A Great Valley Under the Stars,'' Isobar Press, 2014
* ''The Castelvecchio Family'', by William R. Tyler (formatted and supplemented), 2014
* ''From the Bamboo-View Pavilion: Takemuki-ga-ki,'' Blue-Tongue Books, 2016
* ''A Reading of The Tale of Genji,'' Blue-Tongue Books, 2016
* ''Joy, Despair, Illusion, Dreams: Twenty Plays from the Noh Tradition'', Columbia University Press, 2024
* ''The Dawn of the Warrior Age: War Tales from Medieval Japan'', Columbia University Press, 2024
* ''A Shattered Realm: Wars and Lives in Fourteenth-Century Japan'', Kindle Direct Publishing, 2024
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyler, Royall
1936 births
Living people
Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Harvard College alumni
Scholars of Japanese literature
Japanese–English translators
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class
Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities