Translations
In addition to the translations into modern Japanese mentioned above.
Finnish: Kai Nieminen. 2025. Genjin tarina. 2 volumes. Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 9789511180876 & ISBN 9789511180883 Translation already started in 1980s by Martti Turunen and Kai Nieminen (poems).
French: René Sieffert. 1977. Le Dit Du Genji. Paris: Publications orientalistes de France. ISBN 9782716900980
German:
Herberth E. Herlitschka: Die Geschichte vom Prinzen Genji, wie sie geschrieben wurde um das Jahr Eintausend unserer Zeitrechnung von Murasaki, genannt Shikibu, Hofdame der Kaiserin von Japan. 2 volumes. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1937. (numerous new editions). Translated from Waley.
Oscar Benl. Die Geschichte Vom Prinzen Genji. (Zürich: Manesse Verl, Manesse-Bibliothek Der Weltliteratur : Corona-Reihe Vollst. Ausg, 1966; 1992).
Hindi: लेखिका, मुरासाकी शिकाबू ; अनुवादक, छविनाथ पाण्डेय ; भूमिका, महामहिम सेजिरा योशिज़ावा., et al. गेंजीकी कहानी : जापानी साहित्यका उत्कृष्टतम उपन्यास. , Translated by पाण्डेय, छबिनाथ and Chabinātha Pāṇḍeya, Prathama Hindī saṃskaraṇa, साहित्य अकादेमी की ओरसे ज्ञानमण्डल लिमिटेड, 1957.
Italian: Maria Teresa Orsi, La storia di Genji, (Torino: Einaudi, 2012) ISBN 978-88-06-14690-0. The first translation from the Japanese rather than from Waley, including all 54 chapters.
Korean: 柳呈譯., 紫式部, Chŏng Yu, Yu Chŏng, 源氏物語. (Seoul: T’ŭkpyŏlsi: 乙西文化社 1982)
Russian: The complete Russian translation of The Tale of Genji (Повесть о Гэндзи) was finalised in 1993. The translation was published by Vostochnaya Literatura Publishing House. The work was translated by Tatiana Sokolova-Deliussina and issued in four volumes and Appendix.
Spanish: Fernando Gutiérrez. Genji Monogatari = Romance de Genji. Lunas, 1992. ISBN 9788476510506
Ukrainian: The complete Ukrainian translation of The Tale of Genji (Повість про Ґендзі) was finalised in 2022. The translation was published by Folio Publishing House as part of the World Literature Library series. The work was translated by Ivan Dziub and issued in three volumes: The Tale of Genji. Book 1. Chapters 1–20 (2018), Book 2. Chapters 21–38 (2020), and the concluding chapters in 2022. An excerpt from the chapter "The Wind in the Pines" (Вітер у соснах), translated by Y. V. Osadcha, was previously included in the anthology Japanese Literature (2010).
Urdu: لىڈى موراساکى ؛ مترجم، سيد احتشام حسىن., et al. گنجى کى کهانى : ناول, Translated by حسىن، سيد احتشام، Sayyid Iḥtishām Ḥusain, بک ٹائم،, 2020.
The first partial translation of Genji into English was by Suematsu Kenchō, published in 1882. Arthur Waley published a six-volume translation of all but one chapter, with the first volume published in 1925 and the last in 1933. In 1976, Edward Seidensticker published the first complete translation into English, made using a self-consciously "stricter" approach with regards to content if not form. The English translation published in 2001 by Royall Tyler aims at fidelity in content and form to the original text.
The major translations into English are slightly different, reflecting the choices of the translator and the period in which the translation was made. Each version has its merits, its detractors and its advocates, and each is distinguished by the name of the translator. For example, the version translated by Arthur Waley would typically be referred to as "the Waley Genji". In 2025, a team at Boston University launched genjipoems.org to digitize an English translation of the work's poetic content, drawing from full translations by Waley, Seidensticker, Tyler, and Washburn, as well as Edwin Cranston's 2006 translation of its poems.
The Suematsu Genji (1882) – Suematsu's Genji was the first translation into English, but is considered of poor quality and is not often read today. It includes seventeen of the chapters.
The Waley Genji (1925–1933) – Waley's Genji is considered a great achievement for his time, although some purists have criticized Waley's changes to the original. Others have criticized as overly-free the manner in which Waley translated the original text. Regardless, it continues to be well-appreciated and widely read today. When the Waley Genji was first published, it was eagerly received. For example, Time explained that "the reviewers' floundering tributes indicate something of its variegated appeal. In limpid prose The Tale combines curiously modern social satire with great charm of narrative. Translator Waley has done service to literature in salvaging to the Occident this masterpiece of the Orient." The translation omits the 38th chapter completely.
The Seidensticker Genji (1976) – Seidensticker's Genji is an attempt to correct what were perceived to have been Waley's failings without necessarily making his translation obsolete. Seidensticker hews more closely to the original text, but in the interests of readability, he takes some liberties. For example, he identifies most of the characters by name so that the narrative can be more easily followed by a broad-based audience of Western readers.
In 2008, a 4,400-page Braille version of the Seidensticker Genji was completed. This Braille edition was the product of five Japanese housewives from Setagaya, Tokyo, working voluntarily for five years and was subsequently donated to the Japan Braille Library (日本点字図書館) and the Library of Congress. It is also available for download.
The McCullough Genji (1994) – A selection from ten chapters of The Tale of Genji along with selections from The Tale of the Heike, translated by Helen Craig McCullough for Stanford University Press.
The Tyler Genji (2001) – Tyler's Genji contains more extensive explanatory footnotes and commentary than the previous translations, describing the numerous poetical allusions and cultural aspects of the tale. Tyler consciously attempted to mimic the original style in ways that the previous translations did not. For example, this version does not use names for most characters, identifying them instead by their titles in a manner which was conventional in the context of the 11th-century original text. Writing for The New York Times, reviewer Janice Nimura described it as "wonderfully evocative of the original, [but] can be difficult to follow". According to Michael Wood, Tyler's version "makes a special virtue of attending to a certain ceremonial indirectness in the way the characters address one another. The great temptation for a translator is to say the unsaid things, and Tyler never gives in to it." Machiko Midorikawa notes in a review of Genji translations that more recent translators from classical Japanese "have endeavoured to find ways of preserving more of what once seemed unfamiliar or strange to English readers".
The Washburn Genji (2015) – Dennis Washburn's Genji separates the poems from the prose and puts interior thoughts in italics. The translation has been received slightly more controversially than Tyler's, with most criticism aimed at the perceived over-clarification of the text and addition of modern colloquialisms.
