- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDonald Lawrence Keene
- Donald Keene was born on June 6, 1922 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Hanjo (1964), Camera Three (1955) and Arena (1975). He died on February 24, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.
- Well-known Japanologist.
- Graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor's degree in 1942.
- In 2011, he retired from his position at Columbia University and moved to Japan where he relinquished his American citizenship and became a Japanese citizen.
- Shincho Professor Emeritus of Columbia University,.
- He served as a Navy interpreter during WWII, interrogating Japanese prisoners of war and translating sailors' diaries.
- I suppose every kind of poetry has its overtones, things that are not spoken. But this is especially true of Japanese. The most important statement in the English language is "I love you." You translate that into Japanese, there's no "I" and there's no "you".
- [on Yukio Mishima] He delighted in the Japanese language. It offended him, it even gave him physical pain when someone used language badly.
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