I read this script because of the introduction in "New Youth", and I started translating this script on August 2, 1919, and since then it has been published in the "National Gazette" in Beijing day by day. By the 25th of October, the publication of the National Gazette was suddenly banned, and I stopped translating, in the middle of the conversation between the two military envoys in Act III, Scene 2.

In November of the same year, because of the hope of the reporter of "New Youth", I revised the old translation again, and finished the translation of the fourth act, which was published in "New Youth" on a monthly basis. From Volume 7 No. 2, it is divided into four issues. But the fourth number is the population problem, and most of them have been confiscated by unknown people, so there are probably many people who have not seen it.

When Mr. Zhou Zuoren corresponded with Mr. Warrior Koji, he mentioned this translation and asked him if he had any opinions on human beings living in China. Therefore, the author wrote an article and sent it to Beijing, and I went elsewhere, so Mr. Zhou translated it, which is the one at the beginning of the book, "An Unknown Friend with China". The original translator's note said: "The title of "A Youth's Dream", Mr. Takeshi Koji once said that he wanted to change it to "A and War", and he used this new name in this article, but because we still translated the old name, I still wrote "A Youth's Dream" in the translation. ”

Now, before the third printing of the synthesized monograph. I took this opportunity to make further corrections according to the errata sent by the author, corrected a number of typos, and made a note of the old things, so that everyone can see how this book has been in China in the past two years, and it can easily become a small history of a book.

On December 19, 1921, Lu Xun was recorded in Beijing.

Translator's preface

In the fourth volume and fifth volume of "New Youth", Zhou Qiming once talked about "A Youth's Dream", so I also searched for a copy, read him, and was very moved: I felt that my thoughts were very thorough, my confidence was very strong, and my voice was very true.

I believe that "everyone is treated as a human being, not as a state, so that peace can be eternal, but only when the people are awakened" is true, and I believe that it will always be achieved in the future. Now the state is a thing, although it still exists; However, the true nature of human beings is revealed day by day: when the European war is not over, in foreign newspapers, you can always see the beauty and tans of the two armies in the armistice, and the love for each other after the war. Although they are still in the drum of the country, they are already like race walkers, competitors when they go, and friends when they go.

China holds a sports meeting, but it always fights because of the finals; The days have long passed, and the two sides are still hating. In society, there is probably no reason to hate each other, what north and south, what provinces, provinces and counties, they have nothing to do with each other, and they are all full of bitterness. Therefore, I am very skeptical and terrified of the saying that Chinese love peace. I think if China were half as strong as Germany before the war, I don't know what kind of national character it would be. It is now a notoriously weak country in the world, but the North and the South have not yet negotiated peace, and the war has lasted longer than the European war.

There are no more people shouting yet, and they hit a high-rise building in the middle of the night to hit an alarm bell. In Japan, however, someone has already called it. They are happy in short.

But there seem to be many people in China who have come to their senses. But I am still terrified, for fear that it is the old-fashioned consciousness that will inevitably lag behind in the future.

Yesterday afternoon, Sun Fuyuan said to me, "You can make something." I said, "The article can't be done." "A Youth's Dream" is very translatable. But at this time, it is not very appropriate, the two sides are fighting each other, and I am afraid that no one may be happy to see it. "When I lit the lamp at night, I saw the golden letters on the spine of the book, and remembered the words of the day, and suddenly I was a little suspicious of my roots, and I felt terrible and ashamed. People shouldn't do that,—— so I did the translation.

The warrior Koji's "Miscellaneous Feelings of the New Village" said, "O people who have a fire in their homes, don't leave the fire in a secluded place, put it in a place where we can see, and inform you that there are also your brothers here." "They have raised their torches in the midst of the storm, but do I want to cover them with a black veil and curry favor with them who are asleep?

But in the book, I naturally have different opinions, so I won't go into detail now, and let everyone think about it with their own meaning.

August 2, 1919, Lu Xun.

Translator's Preface II

I translated this script, which I started at the beginning of August, and published it in the National Gazette day by day; By the 5th of October, the National Gazette was suddenly banned from publication, and the script was in the middle of the conversation between the two military envoys in Act III, Scene 2. Now, because of the hope of the reporter of "New Youth", the translation has been corrected again and published in this magazine.

There are four acts in the whole book, and the third act is divided into three scenes, all using a young man as a clue. But within the four acts, no matter which scene and that scene have their own beginning and end, they can become a complete work on their own: so they can be seen separately and together, and everything is indispensable.

The purpose of the whole play, which has already been shown in the preface, is against the war, and there is no need for the translator to say it again. But I think a few readers may think that Japan is a belligerent country, so the people should be familiar with this book, so why should China have this? My private opinion is very different: the Chinese themselves are admittedly not good at war, but they do not curse war; It is true that he does not want to fight, but he does not sympathize with others who do not want to fight; Although I think of myself, I don't think of other people's selves. For example, when it comes to Japan's annexation of Korea, there are often such remarks as "Korea itself is a vassal of Japan," and as long as you listen to this tone, it is enough to make people afraid.

So I think this script can also cure many old Chinese ideological diseases, so it is also very meaningful to translate into Chinese.

November 24, Lu Xun.