A Farewell with Regret

Name: A Farewell with Regret
ISBN: 9787801489968

Osamu DazaiNew Star Press2006

3.5

Chapters: 11
Series: Lu Xun Library
ISBN: 9787801489968

Report an error Find this book

Summary

A Farewell with Regret is a novel written in 1945 by the Japanese author Osamu Dazai, drawing on Lu Xun's youth as a student at the Sendai Medical College. The book unfolds through the recollections of an elderly country doctor who, by chance, meets the Chinese student Zhou Shuren and records the young man's studies, daily life and friendships in Sendai, as well as his bond with his teacher Mr. Fujino. Rather than day-by-day reportage, the work uses the interior monologue and delicate sensibility for which Dazai is known to imagine the loneliness, self-respect and uncertainty about the future that a young foreigner feels in an unfamiliar land, and to depict the quiet friendship that lingered in Japanese memory after those days had passed. This edition is published by New Star Press in the Lu Xun Library series, translated by Yu Xiaozhi. It opens with prefaces by Shozo Fujii and Dong Bingyue, and the main text is followed by several scholarly essays on Dazai's motives for writing A Farewell with Regret, the wartime context of "Greater East Asian Harmony" on which the novel relies, the relation between Dazai's writing on Lu Xun and Takeuchi Yoshimi's Lu Xun, and a reconsideration of the so-called "Sendai myth." It is rare in literary history for a Japanese writer to make a Chinese writer the protagonist of a full-length novel; these appendix essays also give readers a point of comparison for seeing the literary quality and the historical limitations of this novel.

Editor's review

这是一部容易引起误会的书：作者是在《人间失格》中写下深重阴郁的太宰治，主人公却是中国的鲁迅。《惜别》写于1945年，即日本战败之年，太宰治受当时出版机构之邀，去写一部关于鲁迅留日生活的“传记小说”——书名取自鲁迅《藤野先生》中与恩师惜别的意象。他没有选择忠实的史料复现，而是用回忆体、第一人称视角，让一位仙台的老年医生把青年周树人重新“说”出来。因此读者既能读到极为细致的日常：租房、饮食、寄信、听课、与同学相处，也能读到一种明显的“太宰味”，就是对人心空隙的体察，以及表达与理解之间难以跨越的距离。它并不等于真实的鲁迅，却补充了一个侧面的问题：在战时日本，一个日本作家如何想象中国、想象鲁迅。本版附录的研究文字尤其值得留意，它们直接指出小说所依附的“大东亚之和睦”框架，并厘清竹内好等学者的鲁迅论与太宰治的差异。把它当作小说读，可以感受文字的质感；把它当作一份思想史料读，更能看清虚构与政治语境之间的纠缠。

Who it's for

A good fit for

读过鲁迅《藤野先生》，想看看日本作家如何重写这段往事的读者
对太宰治感兴趣，已读过《人间失格》，想了解他另一面创作的读者
研究中日现代文学关系、战争时期日本文人言论的读者
喜欢回忆体、第一人称叙述和细腻心理描写的小说读者

Not a good fit for

想借这本书了解鲁迅生平确切史实的读者，本书是小说而非传记
期待《人间失格》式颓废抒情强度的读者，本书语调相对克制
对战时日本语境与文本政治性缺乏兴趣，只想读轻松故事的读者

Reading tips

先读鲁迅《藤野先生》，再读本小说，可以清楚看到两者在叙述视角与情感重心上的差别。
读正文之后不要跳过附录，那几篇研究文字能帮助理解1945年的写作背景与小说的时代局限。
把书中“青年周树人”当作太宰治的文学想象而非史料，留意作者的叙述视角如何影响事实的取舍。
可配合竹内好关于鲁迅的论述对照阅读，体会两位日本知识分子理解鲁迅的不同路径。

About the publisher

New Star Press China · Founded in 1989

New Star Press focuses on classic works, mystery and detective fiction, science fiction, history, foreign literature and art, and its 602 titles in the library show a balance between popular reading and humanistic depth. Representative books include The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Illustrated Collector's Edition, And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, The Player of Games, Local Government in Qing China, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and A Collection of Fine Ukiyo-e Prints, spanning classic literature, detective fiction, science fiction, local history and visual art. Its authors and contributors include William Shakespeare, Agatha Christie and Iain M. Banks, as well as translators such as Zhu Shenghao and Su Fuzhong and illustrators such as John Gilbert and George Cruikshank. Known for the detective series Midnight Library and for social-science and humanities titles, the press emphasizes edition design and reading experience; public information is limited, so this profile highlights the publishing features reflected in the library's books.

Shozo Fujii Preface
Dong Bingyue Preface
Lu Xun in Classic Youth Literature
The Belated "Dazai Lu Xun"
A Farewell with Regret
Postscript
Appendix: The Intention of A Farewell with Regret
Appendix: On A Farewell with Regret—The Illusion of "Greater East Asian Harmony"
Appendix: Dazai's A Farewell with Regret and Takeuchi Yoshimi's Lu Xun
Appendix: The Other Side of the "Sendai Myth"
Appendix: The Other in the Self-Portrait—A Study of Dazai's A Farewell with Regret

FAQ

这本书是鲁迅的传记吗？

不是严格意义上的传记。它是一部以鲁迅留日经历为素材的长篇小说，太宰治在事实基础上加入了大量想象与心理揣摩，人物、场景和对话都带有虚构成分，应作为文学作品阅读。

《惜别》为什么在1945年写成？

当时日本处于战争末期，太宰治受出版方约稿写作这部作品。书名取意于鲁迅《藤野先生》中与藤野先生惜别的场景，而作品本身也难免受到当时“大东亚”话语的影响，附录中有专门讨论。

于小植译本有哪些内容？

新星出版社2006年版为228页，正文前有藤井省三、董炳月两篇序言，正文后有后记及数篇研究附录，讨论《惜别》的创作意图、“大东亚之和睦”幻影、与竹内好鲁迅论的关系等。

和2010年第二版有什么区别？

2006年版ISBN为9787801489968，2010年新星出版社推出第2版，ISBN为9787513300193，同样由李冬木等篇章结构相似、页数228页；购买时可据ISBN区分版本。

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Osamu Dazai Author · Japan · 1909–1948

Osamu Dazai (1909–1948) was a Japanese novelist born Tsushima Shūji into a wealthy landowning family in Aomori Prefecture. A leading figure of Japan's "Buraiha" or decadent school, he entered the literary world in the 1930s, and his early work The Setting Sun was shortlisted for the first Akutagawa Prize. In the postwar years he produced his most important writing, including The Setting Sun and No Longer Human, works marked by self-mocking confession and a gloomy, sentimental tone that portray outcasts, alienation, and self-destruction. His influence on later Japanese literature is profound. In 1948 he drowned himself with his lover, Yamazaki Tomie, at the age of 38. His fiction centers on self-exile, the disintegration of family, and the spiritual crisis of postwar Japan, and his decadent yet sincere style has earned him a wide readership in the Chinese-speaking world as well.