There is an annual coffee shop outside the East Gate of Tsinghua. This coffee shop has a lot of space, old wooden tables and chairs, and many books to read, which is similar to the Halloween bookstore before the relocation. The overall style is more like a book than a coffee shop with a little style.

? There is also "annual coffee" on campus in Tsinghua, with different styles and limited space, but for convenience, some of our friends usually choose the annual meeting on campus. However, "Miss Coffee" outside the East Gate left an indelible impression on me, because I met Zweig's Yesterday's World here during several visits.

? I have always liked Zweig's books. Perhaps among German writers, Zweig was known to readers in China earlier. Many people know Zweig from the novella Letter from an Unknown Woman. Personally, I think his achievements in writing biographies far exceed novels. Biographies of writers are difficult to write. How can we make a fair evaluation of his works? How can it be regarded as a fair representation of the lives of these people who are diligently pursuing lofty realms? This is very different from the biographies of politicians and scientists, because there is no uniform standard, so biographers need strong appreciation and writing skills. Zweig has received strict language training since he was a teenager. He and Freud are good friends, and they are good at psychoanalysis in their works. More importantly, he became famous at a young age and made friends with people of the same age as Rilke, romain rolland and Gorky. In other words, he lives in a cultural environment handed down by others. These endow him with unique conditions, and his insight combined with concise and vivid words is the best choice for writers and biographers.

? Before I met that book, I never knew that he had written such a book as a farewell to the world. Yesterday's World was written in 194 1, and Zweig committed suicide in Brazil a few months later at the age of 60. He finally wrote: "Since the world where I speak my own language has sunk for me, and my spiritual hometown, Europa, has also destroyed myself, I am more willing to rebuild my life from scratch here than anywhere else. However, a man in his sixties needs special strength to start all over again, and my strength has been exhausted because I have been homeless all the year round and wandering around the world. So I think it's better to end my life in time without losing my dignity. For me, mental work is the purest happiness, and personal freedom is the noblest wealth in the world. I greet all my friends. I hope you can see the rising sun after this long night, and I, who is too impatient, will leave before you. "

? This passage is not only Zweig's last words, but also the main tone of Yesterday's World.

? Thank you very much for buying me that set of Yesterday's World, otherwise I would have a hard time falling asleep that day. The first volume and the second volume were almost read at one go. At that time, I thought I had understood that the brighter and warmer the world was yesterday, the more cruel the reality became. Just like we recall the dawn in the dark, the last touch of red, the last ray of light at sunset. But I don't understand. At that time, I had not read the history of World War I and World War II. It's like listening to an old man telling a story, and I don't know anything about that old man, so I thought he was talking about old age. Actually, that's just old age in his eyes. The fact is unique, but the fact has thousands of images. Why does the fact show this and not that in this person's eyes, which explains everything? Yesterday's world is not the realism of Europe before and after the two world wars, but the Europe in Zweig's eyes, the war in Zweig's eyes and the world of yesterday in Zweig's eyes.

? Zweig was born in a wealthy Jewish family in Austria. As he said, after two or three generations of wealth, it is difficult for Jewish families to maintain the impulse to pursue money, but they will turn to music, literature and other artistic fields. When he was growing up, rich Jews were proud of training poets, playwrights and musicians. Therefore, it is logical for him to concentrate on his studies, and he has successively entered the University of Vienna and the University of Berlin. However, his interest and pursuit of literature is far above the pursuit of academic qualifications, and he does not think that the school can provide the literary creation space he needs. Since middle school, he has devoted himself to the creation of poems. During his stay at Vienna University, his poems were published by famous publishing houses. By the age of 26, his plays had been accepted by the Royal Theatre in Berlin. When he was studying, he began to travel in the European continent, met famous poets, writers and artists at that time, and became close friends with them. Paris became his second hometown, the hometown of literature and art. During this period, he translated a lot of poems, and his translation talent was widely recognized.

? Just as his fame as a young writer rose, in 19 14, he was 33 years old and World War I broke out. The World War I described in Yesterday's World is completely different from the World War I written by Churchill. Churchill's History of World War I vividly reproduces the scene at that time. The French battlefield is almost synonymous with the chopping block, where groups of young people shed blood and died. This is also the intuitive reason why France surrendered after the fall of World War II. This country can no longer send its children to a battlefield full of death, no matter what the name of the war is. In Zweig's memoirs, there is no such bloody scene as World War I, because he did not go to the battlefield. Like many sober people, he knew that war was stupid, so he became a civil servant with his well-known writing ability, and later went to Switzerland in the neutral zone to join the anti-war movement with writers such as romain rolland. In this way, he experienced World War I unscathed.

? The period from World War I to World War II was the golden age of Zweig's creation. During this period, he lived in a big house in Salzburg on the German-Austrian border. He overthrew the creative style before the First World War, and all his works were not reprinted before the First World War. Most of Zweig's works we see now are works of the Salzburg period. His home is the most elegant place, where he laughs with great scholars and has no contact with Ding Bai. A large number of his works have been translated into foreign languages (according to him, there were already Chinese versions of his works in China at that time), and the royalties are constantly flowing, even supporting his expensive collection cost of manuscripts of artists and writers. He is not only a famous writer, but also a famous writer who was recognized at birth. The obscurity and poverty experienced by many writers did not befall him. At that time, he lived comfortably and happily, and was at the peak of his creation. Therefore, the reconstruction of the defeated country after World War I has nothing to do with him. 193 1 year is his 50th birthday. According to the tradition in the German-speaking world, the whole society will celebrate the writer's 50th birthday. Of course, he will have this honor. The postman delivered bags of congratulatory messages and letters to his home. A writer's honor and wealth at birth depend on the perfection of his creation. Goethe is such a lucky man, so is Zweig.

? Zweig's bad luck did not begin in World War II, but in Hitler's coming to power. Hitler seized the German regime in 1933. 1934, Zweig's books were banned in Germany, and even the famous Strauss's plays were banned because of his Jewish identity. Zweig is probably one of the few writers who can clearly judge current events. When he left Salzburg, the situation was not too bad, and he had time to deal with his property calmly. After a few short years, Jews who fled Germany and Austria could only become poor. He didn't even choose his favorite Paris as his foothold, but went to a strange and friendless England, and then went from England to Brazil, which could not be burned by the war. In hindsight, he almost made the most perfect arrangement. If there were Jews who could escape bad luck at that time, Zweig was in a good position among those people, because his books were also published outside the German-speaking world, so they could support his life.

? However, he no longer wants to stay in this world, as he himself explained: "Personal freedom is the noblest wealth in this world." He didn't lose his property and security to the point where he couldn't make a living, but his freedom was indeed trampled on mercilessly. He was expelled from his motherland, and works written in his mother tongue were banned in the German-speaking world. As a writer, he is out of breath because of writing and creation. We can see living blood sacrifice in Churchill's works; In Zweig's book, we see the free breathing that is caught. Zweig said nothing, but he definitely did one thing: "Give me liberty or give me death". Compared with physical experience, spiritual freedom is more valuable.

? Therefore, Yesterday's World is not a book reflecting the history and reality of Europe during the two world wars, but a spiritual swan song. It is the fallen world in Zweig's eyes, not the war and facts in the eyes of ordinary people. Perhaps, only by reading in this sense can we see the unbearable burden of the spiritual world and understand what kind of writer and person Zweig is.

At the end of Yesterday's World, Zweig wrote: "But in any case, every shadow is still a bright child. Only those who have experienced light and darkness, peace and war, prosperity and decline can really live." Zweig did experience such a life, and in the end, he sacrificed his spiritual freedom.

? There are many different survival logics in the world, which may come from culture or personal pursuit. I went to bed early last night and woke up in the early morning thinking about Zweig's choice. Perhaps, life is a process in which I have to travel light. When I was young, I thought I could take a lot of things with me on the road. Later, time was limited, which made the space limited. At this time, I realized that I can only choose a limited number, and sometimes I can only choose one. Only then did I understand what is indispensable in my life and what a person is like. Lucky people may have never experienced such a test in their whole lives, and some people must face such a choice. There are many such records in history, such as Yang Jisheng in Ming Dynasty and Qiu Jin in modern times. The list is long. Zweig is one of them. This is the definition of self and the ultimate self-portrait. Whether this self-portrait will be hung in the halls of art or history or not, at least they will shine forever in the halls of mankind. Perhaps this is what Zweig said: when the human stars shine.