Cherries
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Summary
Editor's review
As an editor, I believe the reading value of this book lies in providing a nuanced slice for understanding Dazai's inner world. Unlike the thorough despair in No Longer Human, the sorrow in Cherry is closer to daily life, a fatigue and tenderness gradually worn down under the pressure of trivial life. Dazai's writing has a peculiar transparency that can transform negative emotions into a poignant literary experience. The translation of this book conveys the original's tone well and reads fluently and naturally. For readers new to Dazai, this anthology is a good starting point; for veteran fans, they can more finely savor the stylistic evolution and ideological trajectory of the author's late creative period.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Japanese literature, especially the "Buraiha" school
- Deep readers who wish to explore the complexity of human nature and inner contradictions through literature
- Literature lovers who appreciate delicate psychological description and private novel narrative style
- Urban people seeking emotional resonance and literary solace under life pressure
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking light, pleasant, and fast-paced stories
- Readers impatient with extensive inner monologue and low-spirited emotional description
Reading tips
- It is recommended to start with shorter pieces like "The Story of a Snowy Night" or "The Cricket" to gradually enter Dazai's literary atmosphere.
- While reading, you may combine Dazai's biographical background, but avoid over-identification; focus on the literariness of the text itself.
- Try reading in segments during quiet times, savoring the seemingly plain but highly tense details in the text.
About the publisher
Chongqing Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher known for its titles in the humanities, social sciences, literature and arts, with about 940 books in its catalogue. Its publishing areas cover world history, science fiction, foreign literature, architecture and philosophy. Representative titles include Xiang Da's A History of Communications Between China and the West, Liang Sicheng's Rules of Qing-Style Construction, Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem II: The Dark Forest and III: Death's End, Ann Rand's The Fountainhead (25th Anniversary Edition), and Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series. Its authors include Xiang Da, Liu Cixin, Liang Sicheng and Ann Rand. The press has developed distinctive strengths in historical source editing, the introduction and creation of science fiction, the translation of foreign literature, and architecture and philosophy titles, balancing scholarly value with general readership. As public information is limited, this profile outlines its publishing directions based only on the books in the catalogue.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 富岳百景
- 满愿
- 故乡
- 女生徒
- 亲友交欢
- 母亲
- 叮当叮当
- 维庸之妻
- 阿珊
- 家庭的幸福
- 樱桃
FAQ
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About the author
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.
Chen Ling is a scholar-translator active in the field of Japanese literary translation. She studied in the Department of Japanese at Beijing Foreign Studies University and later in the Faculty of Literature at Nanzan University in Japan, and is currently a professor at Fukuoka Women's University in Japan. Her translations include Osamu Dazai's The Wife of Villon and Kikigaki Igo, and she co-translated, with Ye Lin, the Dazai collection Cherries. The two translated works held in this catalog are short and medium-length fiction by Osamu Dazai, with themes centering on family relationships, emotional predicaments, and the textures of everyday life; her versions are attentive to preserving the original's restrained tone and finely drawn psychological detail. With academic training in both Japanese language and Japanese literature, as well as teaching experience at a Japanese university, she brings the cultural context of the source texts closer to Chinese readers, helping them appreciate the emotional layers and narrative style of Dazai's work. Further details of her life and translation output are limited in publicly available sources.
Ye Lin: public information is limited, and details of her identity and life remain unclear. Judging from the works in the collection, she is closely associated with the compilation of historical materials on the Nanjing Massacre, having taken part in the translation and editing of volumes in the Historical Materials on the Nanjing Massacre series, including Japanese officers' and soldiers' diaries and recollections and Japanese military documents. These sources present the details of wartime atrocities through first-hand Japanese records and are of significant documentary value. She has also worked on translations of foreign literature, including Run, Melos!, Cherries, and The Idiot (Japanese), covering both classic fiction and documentary writing, which shows sustained engagement in historical compilation and literary translation. Her work emphasizes documentary organization and textual conversion, is rigorous and practical in style, and offers useful texts for related historical research and for Chinese readers seeking to understand Japanese literature.
