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 Japanese Literature at
Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years. Soon after the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, he retired from Columbia, moved to Japan permanently, and acquired citizenship under the name
Kīn Donarudo (キーン ドナルド) which is essentially his birth name in the
Japanese name order. This was also his poetic and occasional nickname, spelled in the ''
ateji'' form . or ''kīn do narudo''; is usually pronounced ''kinu'', as in
Kinugawa River, and as ''naruto'', as in the
Naruto Strait, which are both well-known place names, yielding the reading ''kinu naruto''. A further twist is that can also be read as ''do'', corresponding to the ''Do-'' in ''Donald''.}}
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