introduction

In my "Horse Branch Diary", there is such a paragraph:——

"When I arrived at Central Park, a secluded place that was agreed upon in the radial direction, Shoushan had arrived first, and after a short rest, he began to translate "Little John". It's a good book, but it came about by accident. About 20 years ago, I bought dozens of old German literary magazines in a second-hand bookstore in Tokyo, Japan, with an introduction to the book and a biography of the author, because it had just been translated into German. I thought it was interesting, so I asked Maruzen Bookstore to buy it; I want to translate, but I don't have this power. Later, I often thought about it, but I was always diverted by other things. It wasn't until last year that I decided to translate it and advertise it during the summer vacation, but that summer vacation was even more difficult than other times. This year, I remember that once I checked it, there were a lot of difficulties, but I still didn't have this power. Asked Shoushan Keken to translate, he agreed, so he started, and agreed that the translation must be completed in the middle of this summer vacation. ”

This was last year, July 6, 1926. Twenty years ago, then, it was, of course, 1906. The so-called literary magazine, which introduced Little John, was Das litte, published on August 1, 1899

^a

ische Echo), which has probably become an organ of old-school literature now, but that one is still the twenty-first issue of the first volume. The original work was published in 1887, when the author was only twenty-eight years old; Thirteen years later, the German translation was printed, and the translation into Chinese was forty years after it was published, and he was sixty-eight years old.

The words in the diary are very simple, but they contain many trivial things. When I was studying abroad, I had some fun listening to textbooks and copying handouts of the same type as textbooks. After the earthquake in Japan, it must have been very different, at that time there were quite a lot of bookstores in this area, and every summer evening, hedgehogs often gathered a group of students in ragged clothes and hats. On the left and right walls of the shop and on the large bed in the center were books, and deep inside sat a shrewd shopkeeper with blazing eyes, looking to me like a big spider sitting on a web, waiting for the limited tuition fees of those who threw themselves into the net. But I can't help but feel a little empty in my arms just like everyone else, going to see how many copies I have to buy.

But the dilapidated semi-monthly magazine "Literary Repercussions" also got it from such a place.

I still remember that the goal of buying it was ridiculous at that time, but if I wanted to look at the titles of the books they published every half month and the news of the literary circles of various countries, it was better to chew on them than to slaughter them and swallow them empty, and as for the ambition to buy and read group books, I didn't even dream of it. But I came across a specimen of the translation of John the Little, chapter 5 of the book, and I was fascinated. A few days later, I went to Nanjiangtang to buy it, but I didn't have it, and I went to Maruzen Bookstore, but I didn't have it, so I had to ask him to order it from Germany. About three months later, the book was in my hands, and it was A

Ms. a Fles, with Dr. D. Leehe (D) at the head

． Paul Rache, Biblio^thek die Ge-samt-Litte

atu

des I

－u

d－Ausla

^des，ve

lag vo

Otto He

del, Halle a.d.S.), priced at only seventy-five fenne, our four corners, and also cloth-covered!

As the preface says, this is a "symbolic realistic fairy tale poem". Rhymeless poems, fairy tales for adults. Because of the author's erudition and sensitivity, it may have surpassed the fairy tales of ordinary adults. Among them, such as the life of the golden worm, the words and deeds of the fungus, the ideal of the firefly, and the peace theory of the ant, are all a mixture of reality and fantasy. I am a little afraid that if I don't pay much attention to the phenomena of the biological world, I will lose some of my interest. But I have a hunch that there are people who love people who feel that there is "humanity and the metropolis where their sorrows are" as long as they do not lose their innocence.

This is also the contradiction of human nature, and the joys and sorrows of fortune and misfortune. People are childish, follow the "spin", and become friends with creation. Blessed and disgraced, a little longer and yet curious: how, what, why? So it attracted the embodiment of intellectual desire: the little ghost head "will know"; Gradually, I also encountered the cold spirit of scientific research: "Piercing Chisel". The dreams of childhood were torn to shreds; As for scientific research, "the beginning of everything he has learned is very good,—— but the deeper he delves, the more bleak and bleak it becomes." Only the "Doctor Number" is a happy person, as long as the result of everything is turned into numbers on the paper, he will be satisfied, and he will see the light. Whoever wants to go further will suffer. Why? The reason is that he knows a few things, but he does not know everything, so he is finally one of the "human beings", unable to merge with nature, and has the heart of heaven and earth as his heart. John was looking for such a book that could know everything at a glance, but because of this, he "knew everything" and "chiseled", and finally took "Doctor Number" as his teacher, adding more suffering. It wasn't until he saw in himself that God would go straight to "the metropolis where humanity and their sorrows were" that he realized that this book was not in the world, but could only be found in two places: one was the "whirlwind", the chaos of the lost original and nature, and the other was the "eternal end"—death, the chaos of the unarrived restoration of nature. And it was clear that the two of them were in the same .......

If we give a speech in a foreign land, because the language is different, and someone interprets it, there is no way, at most, but we are afraid that he will omit, make mistakes, and lose his spirit. But if the translator adds some explanations, statements, summaries, or even explanations, I think it will be annoying to both the speaker and the listener. Therefore, I don't want to say anything more about the content either.

I don't want others to persuade me to eat what he loves, but what I love often unconsciously persuade others to eat. The things I read are the same, "Little John" is one of them, it is a book that I love to read and want others to read, so I unknowingly, I have the meaning of translating into Chinese. This happened about a long time ago, because I felt as if I had a great debt to the author and the reader.

But why didn't you do it sooner? "Busy", ornaments; The big reason is still in the very ununderstood premises. It seems that he has understood, but when he pulled out the pen to translate, he was puzzled again, in short, the strength of the external Chinese was not enough.

The year before last, I had indeed resolved to use the summer vacation to get through this road with a dictionary, but I did not have time, and at least two or three months of my life were under siege by "righteous men" and "scholars". By the summer of last year, when I was about to leave Beijing, I remembered the book again, and my friend who had worked with me for many years, Qi Zongyijun, who had helped me translate "The Worker Sui Hui Liufu", hid in a red-walled hut in Central Park and translated it into a draft first.

Our translation is that every afternoon, there must be no shortage of tea with a pot of good tea and a large piece of sweat on the body. Sometimes it goes on quickly, sometimes it argues fiercely, sometimes it is discussed, and sometimes no one can come up with an appropriate translation. When I was dizzy, I looked at the sunlight and greenery outside the small window, and my mind gradually calmed down, and I slowly heard the cicadas chirping in the tall trees, and this was about a month. Soon I took the draft to Xiamen University, where I wanted to find time to sort it out, but I didn't have the time. I can't live anymore, and there are also "scholars" there. So I took it to Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, where I wanted to find time to tidy up, but I didn't have the time; And I can't live anymore, and there are "scholars" again. As a result, he fled into his own apartment, which had just been rented for less than a month; Very wide, but very hot house - Baiyun Tower.

The scenery of Shagang by the sea in the Netherlands is fascinating enough to be described in this book alone. Outside my building, however, it was different: the sun was hot, and sometimes it rained like a rope; In the small harbor in front of them are more than a dozen ships of the households, one ship and one family, one family and one world, talking, laughing, crying and scolding, with the joys and sorrows of the metropolis. It is also as if I don't know that there is a young life where it is dying, or is being killed, or is **, or is "running a rotten business" and making materials for this business. However, I gradually came to know that although there was still my life in this silent city, even if I had been defeated and retreated, I had not yet fallen. It's just that there is no "fire cloud", and it is embarrassing and rainy, and if it is clear, it is like the time to sort out this translation. So I started on May 2, made some corrections, and transcribed it, and it was finished at the end of the month, which took another month.

It's a pity that my old colleague Qi Jun doesn't know where to roam now, and since the separation last year, there has been no news so far, and although there are difficulties, there is no way to discuss or argue. If there is a mistranslation, I am responsible. In addition, although the city is silent, there is sometimes a reconnaissance eye, or a letter to play, or a Beijing-style rumor, to disturb the ears and eyes, so the pen is always sloppy. If you want to translate literally, the sentence will also become astringent; Owen knew that I was not strong enough to do it. Little John, as Polemond put it, uses "a simple language that is close to that of a child," but it is difficult enough to translate, and the result is still unsatisfactory. For example, the urgent and powerful sentence at the end: "U."

d mit sei

em Begleite

gi

g e

de

f

ostige

Nachtwi

de e

tgege

，de

schwe

e

Weg

ach de

g

osse

，fi

ste

Stadt，wo die Me

schheit wa

u

d ih

Weh．” The second half, which I translate as "the difficult road to the great and dark city, which is the place of humanity and their sorrows," is long and incomprehensible, but I have no better way of translating it, for when dissolved, the spirit and strength are very different. But the original translation is very clear: the hard road leads to the big, dark city, which is where humanity and their grief lie.

The names of animals and plants also made me feel quite difficult. I only have a copy of the "New Duhe Dictionary" by my side, from which I can find the Japanese name, and then I can look up the Chinese characters from a copy of the "Cilin". However, there are more than 20 of them, and I would like to thank Zhou Jianrenjun for giving me a more detailed dictionary in Shanghai. However, we have always been so alienated from nature that even if we find out the name that appears in the book, we don't know what the real thing is. Chrysanthemum and pine, we understand, the purple flower is a little moldy, and the lotus flower (p

imel) doesn't even know what the translator is like, although he has written it down in a dictionary. There are many things that live in the sands of the Netherlands, no wonder we are not familiar with them, however, for example, the rat woman (Kelle) among insects

assel) and Malu (Laufe

kalfe

I remember in my hometown I would come across a broken brick or gravel in a wetland. We call the latter "stinky woman" because it stinks all over it; I have never heard anyone call it in the former, and it seems that the people of my country have not yet given it a name; Guangzhou has: "ground pig".

Contrary to the literal translation of the literal desire of words, the name of the person is paraphrased because it is symbolic. The little ghost head Wistik agreed on "Gairan" last year, but now because the "Gai" person is suspicious and slightly inappropriate, he simply changed it to "will know". Scientific research of the ruthless elf Pleuze

That is, the German translation of Klaube

Originally, it was best translated as "picky", picking means picking, picking means blowing. However, since Professor Chen Yuan coined the phrase "picky trend", I have avoided it, because I am afraid that the teaching power of "Gossip" is very great, and this translation will also be interpreted as "provocative". With this as another name for scholars, it is the same as a knife and pen, so there is a felony, which is better translated as "piercing and chiseling". Moreover, China's so-called "chaos and death" is also very similar to his pulling John away from nature. Little girl Robi

etta I didn't understand its meaning for a long time, and I wanted to transliterate it; In the middle of this month, Mr. Toe Shaoyuan tried to make a final investigation, and a few days later he wrote back:-

ROBINETTA ONE, MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY LIST NOT INCLUDED. I SUSPECTED THAT SHE AND ROBIN WERE ONE YIN AND ONE YANG, SO I CHECKED ROBIN AGAIN AND SAW THE FOLLOWING EXPLANATION:-

ROBIN: IS ROBERT'S AFFECTIONATE NAME, AND ROBERT'S MOTTO IS "MAKE THE NAME FAMOUS", THEN, WELL, IT IS TRANSLATED AS "RONG'ER".

In English folklore, it's called Robi

Good fellow is a kind of monster that likes to play pranks. If the Netherlands says the same, then the little girl is called Robi

ETTA, which probably has something to do with it. Because she really played a terrible big joke with little John.

"John Batol" is a "Book of Love", which is a sequel to "Little John" and is also the end. I don't know if there are translations in other countries; But according to his fellow countryman, Polemond, "it is a symbolic prose poem, in which it is not narrated or described, but crying and shouting"; And even he "doesn't know much".

Although the preface of Dr. Takhe in the original translation does not say much about the book, it can give a glimpse of Dutch literature in the eighties of the nineteenth century, so it was translated. In addition, I have included two texts as appendices. The first is the biography of the author of this book, Trick Wang'er, which is published in the twenty-first issue of the first volume of "Literary Repercussions".

The author of the biography, Polemond, was a famous Dutch poet at that time, and he is mentioned in the preface, but he is quite dissatisfied with his poems. His writing was also peculiar, and I was a little frightened and wanted to stop translating, but it was a futile task to finish translating it because I could know a little bit of Wang's experience and work up to that time. The last one is my little note on translating the names of animals and plants, and it doesn't matter much.

I don't know anything about the authors beyond what the biography says and what follows. I only vaguely remember that during the war in Europe, there was a declaration against the war among the spiritual workers, which was also translated in China in the "New Youth", and there was indeed one of his signatures.

On May 30, 1927, Lu Xun wrote down the west window of the Dongdi Apartment in Guangzhou.

Translation of names of animals and plants

As for the translated names of animals and plants, I have already explained a few with the text, and the meaning is not exhausted, so I will write a little more.

I still remember a few old books on flora and fauna that I had left in Beijing. In this autumn of "seeking red", I wonder if they are okay? Should you not break the ban? However, although I am in Guangzhou, the "birthplace of the revolution", I still dare not be delusional and calm; In order to complete a wish as soon as possible, I took some tricks and wrote a letter to ask Zhou Jianrenjun in Shanghai. Our correspondence was seven round-trips, but fortunately, the envelope was safely delivered with all sorts of checks, but slowly.

But the results of this letter were not good. Because the only German book he can check is He

^twig's Zoology and St

assbu

ge

The botany of the scientific name was found from there, and then the Chinese name was searched. He also quoted China's only "Dictionary of Botany" several times.

However, although the names in the dictionary are all Chinese characters, many of them are actually Japanese names. It is true that old Chinese names are often used in Japanese books, and most of them are written in Chinese characters. If it is moved in the same way, the result will be nothing. I thought it wasn't quite right.

It's just that the old name of China is too difficult. There are many words that I don't recognize, and I can't even pronounce them. To know its shape, to look up the book, often do not understand the essentials. Scholars have always commented on the birds, beasts, plants, trees, insects, and fish on "Mao's Poems", the small scholars on "Erya", and the medical scientists have always commented on many animals and plants on "Materia Medica", although everyone has also written many books. I think that in the future, if a dedicated biologist is to take the old names that are available, he will also have to visit the common names of various places, and choose those that are more common and suitable for use, and set them as the correct names.

In the following, I will say a few things in fragmentation according to the chapters of this book.

A plant Ke at the beginning of the first chapter

Bel can't think of it. This belongs to the Apiaceae family, and the scientific name is A

th

iscus。 But I couldn't find the Chinese translation, and I didn't understand the meaning, so I had to transliterate: Kebler. Luckily, it only came out once, and then it was gone. In Japan, it's called ジマク.

There are also several kinds of Chapter 2:——

Buche is a very common tree in Europe, with oval and thin leaves, hairy underneath, brown bark, wood for breeding, and edible fruit. In Japan, it's called Bu

a), they also determined that China called it beech. "Materia Medica" cloud: "Beech trees, everywhere in the mountains, the skin is like sandalwood, and the leaves are like oak mistletoe." "It's approximate. And the "Dictionary of Botany" is also called. The saddler, the cypress also, is not used today.

When John saw a blue water dragonfly (Libelle), he thought, "This is a moth." "Moth's original text is Feue

schmette

li

g, Yiyun Fire Hu Butterfly.

The name of China is not verifiable, but I am afraid it is not Hu Die; At first, I suspected that it was a red dragonfly, but the blue clouds of the upper civilization were not. Now let's translate it as a moth, waiting for the advice of those who know.

Spiral flower (Wi

de) a drum flower, China is also everywhere. On the self-growing field, the leaves are halberd-shaped or arrow-shaped, the flowers are like morning glory, the color is pale red or white, it blooms before noon, and wilts in the afternoon, so Japan is called daylight.

Xuan'er always likes to hold a flower in her hand. He had previously taken the swallow flower (I

is）； In the third chapter, it was replaced by Maiglolckche

(May bells), also known as Maiblume (Mayflowers). Recently, there are two Chinese translations: Junyingcao, Lily of the Valley.

All are Japanese names. The latter digit is now used, because it is comparatively solvable.

There are three kinds of birds in Chapter 4, all of which belong to the class of birds:——

One, pi

ol。 The Japanese say that the Chinese call it "cutting reeds", and they call it "reed cutting". It resembles a warbler, with a white belly and a long tail, and lives in the reeds in summer, and is good at making noise. I now translate it as Wren, I don't know if it's right or not.

II, Meise. The body is small, the mouth is small and pointed, and it is good at singing. The head and wings are black, but the cheeks are white, so it is called a white-cheeked bird in China. When I was a child in my hometown, I heard farmers call it "Zhang Feiniao".

Three, Amsel. pale on the back, grayish on the chest and abdomen, with dark spots; Sexually alert and good at flying. Japan's "Cilin" is thought to be the Chinese bald bird.

Chapter 5 also has two bird names for the finch family: Roh

d

ossel u

d D

ossel。 There is no way to examine, so I have to translate it literally as reed finch and sparrow. But the words used in the novel are not as meticulous as scientifically speaking, and perhaps the two are still the same thing.

Two of the two germs that are keen to talk are the black, fat ghost fungus (Teufelsschwa-mm) and the elongated, red, speckled flytrap (Fliege).

schwamm), all of which are literal translations, except that the word "catch" is added. The flytrap compares itself to the birdberry (Vogelbee

e), which is also a literal translation, but because of the word berry, we can also deduce that this fruit is red and white spots, like a mulberry-like thing. The "Great Dictionary of Botany" is called the Seven Degrees of Stove, which is the Japanese name Na

akamado's literal translation, and the word "degree" was added.

The little fungus that sprays the seeds out of the holes and thinks it is a big and happy fungus, I remember calling it a sorrel fungus in China, because its shape resembles the fruit of a sorrel plant. But I forgot the source and didn't dare to use it; Literal translation of E in German

dste

, called the land star. The Great Dictionary of Botany is called Saturnus, I think, about Ea in English

thsta

But this Ea

th, I don't think it's better to translate it as "earth," lest it be mixed with Saturn in the sky.

Chapter 6 of the Hob Grass (Hopfe

) is transliterated, according to the Treatise on Chemical Hygiene.

Red Cheek Bird (Rotkehlche

) is a translation. This bird also belongs to the family of birds, with a broad, pointed beak, a white belly, a russet head and back, and a lovely song. In China, it's called robin.

The aster of chapter 7 is Aste

； Sinia is Zi

The transliteration of ia, known as zinnia in Japan.

The forerunner of spring at the beginning of Chapter 8 was Pine Snow Grass (Sch

eeglolckche

In Germany, it is called Snow Bell. Next up is the purple flower ground (Veilche

In fact, it is not necessarily purple, and some people translate it as violet. Finally, the lotus flower blooms (P

i－mel od． Schlüsselblume), called primrose in Japan, "Cilin" cloud: "belongs to the primrose family, self-growing in the mountains and wilderness." The leaves are ovate, heart-shaped. The flower stems are long, apical umbel-shaped. flowers reddish-purple, or white; It resembles a cherry blossom, hence the name. ”

This time, the rowdy pulsatilla bird on the ivy outside the window is Sta

The translation is not the bald bird mentioned in chapter 4. But it also belongs to the class of birds, resembling a dove and small, all gray-black, with a white top; Inhabiting the wild, on the nesting tree, a flock of flying, a white-haired one.

The animals in the pool that John spoke of are also things that we need to know in detail. But the water beetle is Wasse

kalfe

The literal translation of the , I don't know the details. Water spider (Wasse

lalufe

Actually, it's not a spider, but it's similar in shape, only five or six minutes long, and its whole body is pale black and shiny, and it tends to gather on the surface of the water. "Cilin" cloud: China's famous water strider. It's too quaint, so don't use it. Salamander (Salama

de

) is an amphibian, lizard-like, grayish-black, that dwells in ponds or streams, and in some parts of China it is simply edible. The original translation of the thorn fish is Stichli

G, I don't think that's right, because it's a fish that lives at the bottom of the deep sea. Stachelfisch is a small freshwater fish with hard spines on its back and abdomen, about a foot long, and it spawns between the stems, leaves, or fibrous roots of aquatic plants at the bottom of the water. In Japan, the former is called the hardfin fish, commonly known as the silk fish; The latter type is spinyfin.

Massliebche

I don't know what the name of China is, let's use the Japanese name, daisy.

Since Little John lost Xuan'er, and then Rong'er, he has also become estranged from flowers, insects and birds. But in chapter 9, he also remembers that he met two haughty yellow summer flowers: Nachtke

ze u

d Kol

igske

ze, literally translated, is the night candle and the king candle, the scientific name Oe

othe

bie

is et Ve

Both are European plants, and China has no name. The former has been imported quite a lot lately; Many translations use the Japanese name: Evening primrose, Tsukimi, Playing with the Moon, because it blooms in the evening. But the flower craftsmen in Beijing once set up another name, which is the fragrance under the moon; I used to use it in "Peachy Clouds", and I still do. The latter did not know the details, so they had to translate the German name literally.

Chapter 11 is a miserable visit to the grave, and of course there will be no more interesting creatures. There are five kinds of worms that John knew of the incantations that pierced and recited darkness. Earthworms and centipedes, I think, all of us know them, to the same extent as John. The Rat Woman and Malu are stranger, but I've already said that in the introduction. Oh is the only one to give them lanterns

wu

M, my "New Independence and Dictionaries" notes: 蠼螞. Although it is clearly translated into a square word, and it is indeed a Chinese name, it is actually still with Oh

wu

m couldn't understand it, because I finally didn't know what it was. Release the skills of "scholars" to check ancient books, and some, "Jade Chapter" cloud: "Leech, insect name; Also known as cockroaches. There is also the cloud of "Boya": "Crickets, grubs." "I don't know the point. I also had to be a private number doctor, and I was satisfied when I saw a Chinese-style number. One last resort is to translate a passage from the Japanese "Shirin" to illustrate its shape: "An insect belonging to the family Cockleidae in the class Orthoptera."

body length of about an inch; The whole body is dark brown with yellow feet. wingless; There are tentacles of twenty knots. There is a discrepancy at the tail end, so as to coerce small insects and the like. ”

CHAPTER XIV

daluglei

For the sand eyes, it is a literal translation, and this article explains that it is a small butterfly.

There is also a mü

Ze, there is no explanation in my "New Independence and Dictionaries" other than currency. Qiao Feng wrote to Yun: "Chadwen has no such name in taxonomy. Later, in a German dictionary, it was found that mü

Ze can be used as mi

Ze explained a word, and mi

Ze then mint also. Probably good, I think. In this way, it is translated as mint.

Written on June 14, 1927. Lu Xun.

Thoughts, Landscapes, People

Inscription

Two or three years ago, when I translated The Charm of Beijing from this collection of essays, I didn't think of continuing to translate it into a book. Whenever I don't want to compose, or can't compose, but I can't compose, I always use a little translation to blame, and I like to choose the translator and reader, and the two articles are effortless. This one is suitable.

It is refreshing and brisk, and it is not difficult to write down, but it is also clear that the shadow of China can be seen. I have very few books, and I have translated several of them, probably on ideas and literature.

The author's focus is on jurisprudence, and the book's focus is on politics and liberalism. I don't know anything about that. I only think that the observations on the current situation and national character of Britain and the United States, and the comments on several figures, such as Arnold, Wilson, and Mulley, are very clear and to the point, gushing like a bottle of water, so that people do not realize that the end is over. I have heard that there are also many young people who want to read such words. In the self-examination of the old translations, there were already 12 long and short ones, so I simply translated and added eight more articles under the glass window in the tide of "revolutionary literature" in Shanghai, and put together a book for printing.

There are thirty-one articles in the original book. As the author says in the preface, "From the second article to the twenty-second part, it is a feeling; The following part 23 is a travel account and thoughts about travel. "In the first part, I have translated fifteen selected passages; From the second part, only four articles have been translated, because it seems to me that the author's travelogues are light, but often too light, to make one read the miscellaneous of a daily newspaper, and thus reduce the interest in translating. That article "Speaking of Liberalism" is not the text that I have paid attention to.

Myself, I think that what Qu Ti said that freedom and equality cannot be sought and obtained together, is more insightful, so people have to take one or the other first. However, that is exactly what the author has studied and fascinated, and in order not to lose the true character of this book, he specially translated that one.

I would like to add a few words here. My translations and introductions are just for some readers to know that there are such things, people, thoughts, and speeches in ancient or modern times. It's not a needle for everyone to use as a word and action. There are no satisfactory articles in the world, so as long as I feel that some of them are useful or some of them are beneficial, I will start to transpose them as I have to do as mentioned above, but once they are translated, although there are big things that go against my intentions in the whole text, I will not abridge. Because I mean that if I change my true appearance, I am sorry not only for the author, but also for the reader.

The same is true when I translated and printed Chugawa Hakumura's Out of the Ivory Tower. And in the "Afterword", I mourned the author's early death, because I firmly believed the author's opinion, and it was still a rush in Japan at that time. Later, when I saw Mr. Yuan Fa's paper in Shanghai's "Revolutionary Women", I learned that because he saw the author's other book "Impressions of Beimi" in favor of the doctrine of good mothers and good wives, he blamed me for my gaffe, and regretted that the author did not die early. It really scared me. I am too unpopular, so the selection and translation have never been so strict, thinking that if you want a complete book, I am afraid that there will be no books that can be read in the world, and if you want a complete person, there will be only a limited number of people in the world who are worthy of living. Every book, from the point of view of every person, has its merits and its faults, which are inevitable in this modern age. I hope that readers of this book will heed my statement.

For example, the book "On the Way of Doing Things" is a very ordinary short essay, but it has given me a lot of benefits. I have always done things that I have never finished, and I always keep them in my heart all the time, so I am also prone to sleepiness. In that article, it is instructed that such a temper is not good, and people must not be stagnant in things. I think this is something that can be emulated in whatever you do, but it must not be confused with the Chinese ancestral tradition of "doing things inappropriately", that is, "not being serious".

There are three illustrations in the original book, because I don't think it fits much with this article, so I changed them all, and added a few more than the original number to see the characters and places mentioned in the text, hoping to increase the reader's interest. A few friends who helped me collect the pictures, I am here to express my gratitude, as well as the gentlemen who taught me the original text that I did not understand.

On March 31, 1928, Lu Xun completed the translation in his apartment in Shanghai.

Translator's Note on Speaking of Humor

Will humo

This word, transliterated as "humor", is the beginning of Yutang. Because those two words seem to have meaning, they are easily misunderstood as "silent" and "quiet", so I don't agree with them, and I have never used them. But after thinking about it a few times, I finally couldn't think of any other appropriate words, so I still finished the work with ready-made. 1926, 12, 7. The translator is known in Xiamen.

Translator's Note on Study Life and Its Dangers

This is one of the articles in "Thoughts, Landscapes, and People", and it is not written when it was written, but it is about something that was made. The author is a jurist and likes to talk about politics, so he agrees.

A few years ago, there was a movement among Chinese scholars to teach young people to hide in their study rooms. I had a slight objection at the time, but I was afraid that after the young man entered the study, he would leave the real life in real society and become a nerd,—— nonsense nerd, not a brave nerd. Unexpectedly, he is still charged with the crime of "overthinking", and the young people who have a little bit of a speech about the real life in the real society have suffered unexpected disasters at most. Translating this article, thinking about the freedom of speech in Japan, I really "can't help but feel emotional"!

The author wants the study to be close to the society, with the intention of making him aware of the "World Commentary" and correcting his own biased thinking. But I thought it meant incomplete.

First, we must first look at what kind of "world commentary". If it is a corrupt society, of course, there is only corrupt public opinion from what has happened, and if we learn from it and correct ourselves, the result will be that it will not be in the same stream, and it will become smooth. According to my opinion, a fair world judge makes a man humble, while an unjust or gossip-like world judge makes a man arrogant or sneering, otherwise he will surely die of anger or be forced to die.

June 1, 1927, translator's note.