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Brief introduction of the author

Nakajima Atsushi (1909 ~ 1942) is a novelist. Born into a sinologist's family, he found creative vitality in the forgotten ancient history of China and foreign lands, and grew into a wonderful flower in the literary world.

This 33-year-old writer, who died young, showed his aloof side from his childhood. He is happy to publish in the alumni magazine instead of contributing to the literary magazine. Asthma, coupled with the experience of being severely disciplined by my stepmother as a child, tends to be withdrawn. When I grow up, I doubt the existence of people. His grandfather and father were both Han Confucianism, and Nakajima, who was nurtured from childhood, was known as a "poet, philosopher and moralist" who digested and absorbed ethical thoughts.

However, Nakajima is not partial. Besides Chinese, he also absorbed western European literature. 194 1 year, he quit his job as a high school teacher and went to Nanyang, where he adapted his favorite English writer robert louis stevenson's life in the Pacific Satsuma Island in his later years into Wind, Light and Dreams, and wrote his local experience as South Island Tan. According to China's classical literature, there are Li Ling, a disciple, born in Jason Wu, and some China poems.

Nakajima has been troubled by his illness and survival value all his life. The Classic of Mountains and Seas is adapted from Li's Biography of Man and Tiger in Tang Dynasty, but the theme is different from the original. The cry of the tiger is actually a symbol of the writer's own spirit. In the dusty story isolated from time and space, the writer looks for the place where the soul lives and states his lifelong thinking about the meaning of existence.

Translation:

Zheng Li, a native of Longxi, is a well-read person. Tianbao [1] in the last few years, he became the number one scholar at a young age. Later he became a captain in Jiangnan [2]. He is a humble man, who thinks highly of himself and is not satisfied with being a humble official. Soon, he retired from office and returned to his hometown (located in Shaanxi Province) to live in seclusion, not to associate with people, and was addicted to poetry and songs. He thought it would be better to be a poet after death than to be an inferior official. However, it is not easy to make a name for yourself. Life is getting worse and worse, and Li Zheng is getting more and more uneasy. Since then, the appearance has become colder and colder, and it has become more and more skinny, leaving only bright eyes and pupils. The face of a plump and beautiful teenager who passed the imperial examination is not everywhere. A few years later, trapped in poverty, for the sake of his wife and children, he had to endure humiliation and go to the East to be a local official again. On the one hand, it is also because of the semi-despair of the poet's road that I want to take. His former colleague has been promoted to a very high position, but he has to bow and scrape to his former cold and blunt colleague. It's not hard to imagine how much Zheng Li's self-esteem has been hurt. He is very unhappy, and his wild personality cannot be suppressed. A year later, he went on a business trip, lived by the Rushui River [3], and finally went crazy. One night, his face suddenly changed. After he got up, he didn't know what to shout, jumped out of bed, rushed into the dark night and never came back. He searched nearby Shan Ye and disappeared completely. Since then, no one knows the whereabouts of Zheng Li.

In the second year, a governor named Yuan Kui [4], who lived in Chenjun, Henan Province, was ordered to go to Lingnan [5] for business, and stopped in Zhechuan County, Henan Province on the way. The next morning, when it was getting dark, the official of the post station said, "There are man-eating tigers on the road not far from here. Travelers only dare to take this road during the day. It's still early, so it's safer to go on the road later. However, according to Yuan, while there were many people accompanying him, he ignored the advice of the post office and left. By the twilight of the waning moon, when I was crossing the forest and grass, a tiger really jumped out of the grass and was about to pounce on Yuan, but suddenly turned and hid in the grass. In the grass, a voice came out: "That was close!" Repeatedly muttering. This voice was painfully familiar to Yuan. In fear, he suddenly remembered and cried, "Isn't that my friend's voice?" Yuan miserable and Jinshi in the same year didn't have many friends, and Yuan miserable was one of the closest friends. This may be because Yuan's bitter and gentle personality and strict temperament never conflict.

In the grass, I was speechless for a moment. Occasionally there is a faint sob. Then, he replied in a low voice, "I am indeed Zheng Li in west Gansu. 」

Yuan miserably forgot his fear, dismounted and approached the grass, and said in a nostalgic tone, long time no see. Ask, why not get out of the grass? Zheng Li replied that I am a different person now. How can I have the cheek to expose this tragic appearance in front of my old friends? Besides, my appearance will definitely make you feel horrible and disgusting. I didn't expect to meet an old friend. At this moment, nostalgia is more than shame. Please don't think about my ugly appearance. Give me some time to catch up with your friend Li Zheng.

In retrospect, it was incredible, but it was not surprising that Yuan accepted this supernatural strange situation naturally and miserably. He ordered his men to stop, stand on the grass and talk to the invisible voice. Talk about the news of the capital, old friends, Yuan's current tragic situation and congratulations. Two people who were closely related in their youth, after talking about those things without any gap, Yuan miserably asked why she became like this. The voice in the grass said:

A year ago, I was on a business trip and stayed at Rushui River that night. The moment I slept and opened my eyes, it seemed that someone was calling my name outside the door. When I went out, the sound in the dark attracted me. Unconsciously, I ran out one by one, got carried away and ran like hell. I don't know when I ran into the forest Moreover, I don't know when my left and right hands were running on the ground, and my body seemed to be full of energy and lightly crossed the rock. When I woke up, my fingers and elbows were covered with hair. It's getting a little light. Seeing the reflection of the valley stream, I have become a tiger. I didn't believe my eyes at first, but later I thought it was a dream, just like what I did in Love, Love and Love. When consciousness is not a dream, I am at a loss, followed by fear, thinking that anything can happen, and I am deeply afraid.

Why is this happening? I don't know. We hardly know anything. Do what you are forced to do for no reason, and at least survive. This is our destiny as creatures. I immediately thought of death. At that moment, I saw the rabbit running in front of me, and the "person" in my body suddenly disappeared. When the people in my body woke up again, my mouth was covered with rabbit blood and rabbit hair was scattered all over the floor. This is the first experience of becoming a tiger. What have I done since then? I can't bear to mention it. However, there will always be a few hours in a day when human nature will be restored. At that time, I will be able to speak, have complex thinking ability and recite chapters and sentences of scripture as before. It is sad, fearful and indignant to examine the sadistic behavior after becoming a tiger and ruminate on one's fate with one's own feelings. But the recovery time is getting shorter and shorter. I don't understand why I became a tiger. However, what I have been thinking recently is, why was I alone before? This is terrible.

After a while, I was afraid that the humanity in my body would be completely buried and disappeared after I got used to being a beast. Just like the cornerstone of the ancient palace is slowly submerged by sand, in the end, I will completely forget my past and become a tiger. Like when I met you on the road today, I didn't know you were an old friend, and I don't regret tearing you to pieces and swallowing you. Is it a beast? People? What is that? Think about this, and then forget, isn't it that you should be now from the beginning? Don't! It doesn't matter what it is. Perhaps, when the humanity in my body disappears completely, I will get happiness instead, but why are the "people" in my body afraid of the truth coming true? Ah, how horrible, sad and unbearable it is when my memory as a person disappears. This kind of mood, nobody understands, nobody understands. Unless it becomes me. Before I become a beast, I have a request.

Yuan miserably a line held her breath, listening attentively to the incredible dialogue in the grass, words continue to say:

Nothing else. I wanted to be a famous poet, but before I realized it, I met this fate. Hundreds of poems I wrote before have not been published, and I'm afraid the manuscript has disappeared somewhere. Fortunately, I remember dozens. Can you record it for me? I don't want to be a celebrity, and I don't know if I'm doing well, but if I don't pass on these things that have ruined me and made me crazy for a lifetime to future generations, I will die with peace of mind.

Yuan miserably ordered his subordinates to write down the words in "Wild Grass" sentence by sentence. Zheng Li's voice rang out on the grass, with a length of about 30 poems. His poems are elegant and interesting, and you will know that the author is talented. Yuan sighed miserably and thought abstractedly that the author's quality is undoubtedly first-class, but although it is a first-class work, it seems that something is missing in the nuances.

After singing old poems, the voice suddenly changed, self-deprecating said:

It's a shame to say, even if I become miserable now, I will still dream that my poems are recited by romantic people in Chang 'an. This is my dream lying in a stone cellar. Please make fun of me, the man who missed becoming a poet and became a tiger (Yuan sadly remembered the habit of laughing at himself when he was young, and listened sadly). Well, since it's a laughing stock, I'll improvise a poem to prove that Lao Li Zheng is still alive in the tiger's heart.

Yuan miserable life subordinates wrote, the poem is like this:

I became a special disaster because of madness, but I still can't escape.

Today's slave, who dared to be the enemy at that time?

I'm proud of foreign bodies.

This Xixi Mountain is not the howling of the bright moon, but the howling.

At this time, moonlight, cold light and dew wet the ground, and the cold wind through the trees told us that it was dawn. Everyone completely forgot those strange things and was in awe of the poet's impetuous heart. Zheng Li's voice rang again:

I once said that I don't understand why I met such a fate, but when I think about it, it can't be said to be accidental. When I am a man, I avoid contact with others and make people think I am arrogant. In fact, people don't know that this is a shame. Of course, I used to be a talented person in the village. I can't say that I have no self-esteem, but it is cowardly self-esteem. I want to achieve fame in poetry, but I don't want to learn from my teacher or my poetry friends. I am determined not to associate with vulgar things, which is entirely caused by my weak self-esteem and arrogance and shame. I am worried that I am not a pearl jade, but I don't want to grind it hard. On the other hand, I think I may be polished into jade, so I despise interacting with mediocre tiles. I gradually drifted away from the world, alienated from personnel, resentment and shame, and slowly nourished my thin self-esteem. Everyone's temperament is like a beast, and everyone is his own lion. My beast is a disgrace to arrogance, not a tiger. My shame hurt myself, made my wife miserable and hurt my friends. As a result, my appearance has become commensurate with my inner self. Looking back now, I completely wasted my only talent. In fact, saying that "life is too long to do nothing, life is too short to do nothing" is completely a show-off of literati. To put it bluntly, it just exposes their lack of talent, cowardly sense of danger and laziness. There are many people who are less talented than me, and there are many people who can become poets after heart-and-soul training. Today, when I became a tiger, I understood everything. Thought of here, it's really a burning pain in my chest and I regret it. I can't live like a human anymore. Even if I can make many beautiful poems in my mind, how can I publish them? Moreover, my mind is getting closer to the tiger every day. What should I do? My deserted past. I just can't stand it. Whenever this time, I climb the big stone on the opposite mountain and shout at the empty valley. How I want to talk to people about this burning grief in my chest. Last night, I was there howling at the moon. Who can understand this pain? However, when the wild animals hear my howl, they will only be afraid and give in, but the mountains, the moon and the dew can't understand a tiger growling and growling. I sigh that no one understands my feelings. Just like when I was a man, no one knew my fragile heart. Is it just the dew at night that wets my mane?

It's dark and bright around. I don't know where the horn came from, it penetrated the Woods and sounded earnestly.

It's time to say goodbye Zheng Li said: We have to be a tiger. Before I leave, I have one more request about my wife and children. They still don't know my fate. When you return to the south, please tell them that I am dead, and never tell them what happened today. This is my shameless request, please have pity on them. If you can help them avoid hunger and cold, it will be a kindness to me.

Say that finish, there was a mournful sound on the grass. Yolanda miserably tears, nodded and answered. Zheng Li tone quickly replied to just self-mockery, said:

If I were a man, I should have asked for it first. However, I miss my poems more than my wife and children who are struggling in life. Therefore, it is not surprising to be a beast!

By the way, Yuan, don't go this way when you come back from Lingnan. At that time, I might attack even my old friends! After breaking up, when you walk to the top of the hill about a hundred paces ahead, please look back and see what I look like now, not to be brave, but to hope that after showing my ugly appearance, you will no longer want to pass by and see me. ~

Yuan said goodbye to the grass seriously and got on the horse. Tears of sadness and forbearance oozed from the grass. Yuan looked back several times and walked on the road with tears in his eyes.

When they walked to the mountain, they looked back at the Woods and grasslands as instructed and saw a tiger jumping out of the thick grass. The tiger looked up at the crescent moon that had lost its white light, roared two or three times, and jumped into the grass again, never to be seen again.

To annotate ...

[1] The reign year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, 742 ~ 756.

[2] Officials in charge of police justice.

[3] Laojun Mountain in Chongxian County, Henan Province flows into the Huaihe River.

[4] Officials in charge of taxation and agriculture.

[5] South of Wuling refers to Guangdong, Guangxi and Annan.

[6] Special passages and accommodation for escorting officials or delivering official documents.

Classic story.