Kokoro

Natsume SōsekiPeople's Literature Publishing House2019

Rating 4.3
Chapters
3
Series
Zhongjingdian Selections
ISBN
9787020143894

Tags

Literature Foreign Literature Natsume SosekiHuman NatureEgoism and MoralityPsychological InsightEpistolary FormFull-Length NovelJapanese LiteratureModern Classic

Summary

Kokoro is one of the late masterpieces of Natsume Sōseki, a giant of modern Japanese literature. It was serialized in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and Osaka Asahi Shimbun in 1914, and published as a single volume by Iwanami Shoten the same year. The book consists of three parts—"Sensei and I," "My Parents and I," and "Sensei and His Testament"—which are formally independent yet build on one another. The narrator, "I," is a young student in Tokyo who happens to meet a proud, reserved, and deeply learned "Sensei" by the sea. Sensei lives in near seclusion, his speech betraying a profound distrust of human nature and of others, yet he shows "I" a peculiar closeness. "I" visits him repeatedly, hearing him talk of life and human relations, but never touching the hidden wound in his heart. The second part turns to "I" returning to his country home because of his father's grave illness, moving between family ties, household affairs, and funeral arrangements, setting "I"'s daily life against Sensei's spiritual shadow. The third part is the book's pivot: Sensei leaves behind a long letter. In it he recounts how, in his university days, he and his friend K both loved their landlady's daughter; out of pride and self-interest he proposed first to her family, and K ultimately chose suicide. Though Sensei married the woman he loved, he was thereafter ceaselessly reproached by his conscience and finally took his own life. With a slow, quiet, and deeply moving touch, the novel portrays the collision of love and friendship, the conflict between selfishness and moral duty, and the contradictory, wistful, helpless inner world of modern Japanese intellectuals. This edition in the People's Literature Publishing House's "Chinese Classics Selection" series is translated by Yu Rongsheng and included in that series.

Editor's review

夏目漱石在日本被称为“国民大作家”，《心》常被认为是其创作的最高峰，长踞日本文学畅销榜前列，入选日本中学教材，并被《时代》杂志列入“二十世纪亚洲重要的五大著作”。漱石自己说，这是写给“渴望探究自己内心的人”的书。它没有激烈的冲突和复杂的情节，力量全在“向内”的凝视：一个看起来什么都不缺的知识分子，为什么过得像一个活着的幽灵？答案藏在一封迟到的长信里。于荣胜的译文克制、句子干净，读起来与漱石原作的沉静气质相当贴合。三家译本争胜的年代，这一版的好处是体例清楚、章节分明，264页的篇幅也适合一次完整读完。读完之后，你未必会喜欢“先生”，但很难忘掉他。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读第二部“双亲和我”时不妨放慢速度，它是理解先生与“我”两代人心境对照的关键过渡。
  2. 读到第三部的长信时可回头再翻第一部中先生的几处对话，许多伏笔在此收束。
  3. 搭配漱石《三四郎》《后来的事》一起读，能更完整看清他笔下明治知识分子的精神困境。
  4. 读完写一段自己的“读后感式辩词”：如果你是先生，会不会也迈出那一步。取“心”做书名，本身就有一次自问的意味。

About the publisher

People's Literature Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

People's Literature Publishing House publishes across classical literature, foreign literature, documentary writing and folk literature, with 492 titles in its catalogue. Representative books range from the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms to Lao She's Teahouse and Longxu Ditch in the Selected Works of Lao She, as well as translated foreign literature such as Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Dante's Divine Comedy and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, alongside documentary and fictional works including Primo Levi's If This Is a Man and João Guimarães Rosa's The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. Its authors include Chinese writers such as Lao She, translators such as Shen Emeri and Li Wenjun, and foreign authors such as James Wood. Overall, the house has a strong record in editing classic works and translating foreign literature, with a publishing character that bridges Chinese and foreign writing and values textual quality.

Contents

  1. Part One: Sensei and I
  2. Part Two: My Parents and I
  3. Part Three: Sensei and His Testament

FAQ

《心》是推理或恐怖小说吗？ 不是。它是夏目漱石晚期的长篇小说，以人物内心自白和书信体展开，谈到朋友之死等沉重情节，气氛压抑但并不属于悬疑或恐怖类型。
人民文学出版社2019版是谁翻译的？ 由北京大学日本语学研究者于荣胜翻译，收入该社“中经典精选”系列，2019年3月出版，ISBN为9787020143894，精装264页。
没读过夏目漱石，从这本开始合适吗？ 合适。《心》篇幅不长、结构清晰，常被列为漱石的入门作；不过它属于晚期偏内省的作品，若更想读轻快幽默的文风，可先读《哥儿》或《我是猫》。
书里的“先生”为什么一直不愿与人深交？ 书中逐步揭示：先生年轻时因私心抢在好友K之前向心上人提亲，K随后自杀。此事成了他终身的良心负担，使他自我封闭，无法坦然面对他人与自己。
这本书大约需要多久读完？ 全书约二百六十余页，分三部分，普通读者以每天四五十分钟计，三到五天可读完；若细读第三部的长信，可再留出一两天。

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About the author

Natsume Sōseki Author · Japan · 1867–1916

Natsume Sōseki, whose real name was Natsume Kinnosuke, is a representative author of modern Japanese literature. Born in Edo, he graduated from the English Department of Tokyo Imperial University and later studied in Britain. He rose to fame with I Am a Cat in 1905 and went on to write works such as Botchan, The Three-Cornered World, Sanshirō, and Kokoro, earning recognition as Japan's "national writer." He died of a stomach ulcer in 1916. His works often take the daily lives and inner worlds of intellectuals as their subject, with a humorous yet restrained style that combines satire of social manners with careful exploration of loneliness, selfhood, and moral dilemma. His writing spans novels, essays, and other forms, and his style gradually shifted from early light satire to deeper psychological portrayal, exerting a profound influence on the development of modern Japanese literature.