good

“我以这一丛野草，在明与暗，生与死，过去与未来之际，为我自己，为友与仇，人与兽，爱者与不爱者，我希望这野草的死亡与朽腐，火速到来。要不然，我先就未曾生存，这实在比死亡与朽腐更其不幸。”

黑暗时代里，生命的泥委弃在地面上，不生乔木，只生野草。鲁迅是一株野草。愤怒时可以写针砭时弊的檄文，绝望里就是能写诗，写阴郁寒凉的意象。 但即便是哀哀的环境依然有斗士的热血。方方面面都很好。就算没了高中语文阅读理解的那股劲，也能体味到作者心境之万一。

《淡淡的血痕中》是我最喜欢的一篇。摘一段：

“几片废墟和几个荒坟散在地上，映以淡淡的血痕，人们都在其间咀嚼着人我的渺茫的悲苦。但是不肯吐弃，以为究竟胜于空虚，各各自称为“天之僇民”，以作咀嚼着人我的渺茫的悲苦的辩解，而且悚息着静待新的悲苦的到来。

这都是造物主的良民。他就需要这样。

叛逆的猛士出于人间；他屹立着，洞见一切已改和现有的废墟和荒坟，记得一切深广和久远的苦痛，正视一切重叠淤积的凝血，深知一切已死，方生，将生和未生。他看透了造化的把戏；他将要起来使人类苏生，或者使人类灭尽，这些造物主的良民们。

造物主，怯弱者，羞惭了，于是伏藏。天地在猛士的眼中于是变色。”

要当一个猛士 哪怕在别人看来是傻子。要当猛士。

The title brings Leaves of Grass to mind, and both works are all-encompassing, mundane and transcendental at once. But, whereas Whitman's poems seem to achieve —in active life and contemplation— a tranquil union with the universe, Lu Xun's unwanted weeds are in constant turmoil and a lot darker in nature ('I hope for the swift death and decay of this wild grass').

Written in 1927, Wild Grass also shares quite a bit —I think— with other Western works that would come later on. It seems to me that it has something of the reflective tone and (to a lesser degree) the style of Woolf's the Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942); 'The Passer-By' prefigures Waiting for Godot (1953).

And then there is the question of Lu Xun being erected into China's main modern literary figure by the Communist Party. He denounced the Kuomintang, but can't his criticism be turned against the CCP too?

''Before the revolution we were slaves. And now we are the slaves of former slaves.''

Bu güzel kitapla yollarımızın kesişmesi #müslümancenazesi kitabını okumamla başladı. Pekin Üniversitesi İngiliz Dili Edebiyatı bölümünde hocalık yapan Chu hoca, Dünya'ya bu önemli kişiyi duyurmak için çevirilerini yapıyordu. Mutluluk, Yeni Hikayeler gibi kitaplarından bahsediyordu. Hatta bu kitapta o kadar çok kitap var ki daha sonra bir liste yaparım✌️ Neyse doğal olarak benim de ilgimi çekti ve çevirisi var mı diye bakarken #yabaniot la karşılaştım. Hemen almadım ama alır almaz da okudum. İçinde 23 öykü ve #luxun a ait bir de şiir var. Lu Xun, Çinliler için çok önemli; adına düzenlenmiş Lu Xun Edebiyat Ödülü var, 2007 JR27 astroidine ismi verilmiş ayrıca Merkür'deki bir kraterin adı da Lu Xun'dur.

Öncelikle bu eseri #erciyesüniversitesi #çindiliedebiyatı öğrencilerinin çevirdiğini bilmiyordum. Eseri satın alınca farkettim; çeviri dersinde hocalarıyla beraber çevirmişler, sonra da hem hocalarının düzenlemeleri ve editöryel dokunuşlar yapılmış. Ve hocaları #feyzagörez öğrencilerinin de geleceğin çevirmenleri olabilmeleri adına böyle bir girişimde bulunmuş.

I don’t normally rate 5 stars. But the depth of Xun LU totally deserves it. If there is only one to be chosen, he can be the one.
唯一见过对人性和灵魂如此深深反思，同时有能力如此简洁犀利语言剖析这种深刻的，中国作家。

they may have lost all their leaves and have only their branches left but these, no longer weighed down with fruit and foliage, are stretching themselves luxuriously. A few boughs, though, are still drooping, nursing the wounds made in their bark by the sticks which beat down the dates while, rigid as iron, the straightest and longest boughs silently pierce the strange, high sky, making it blink in dismay, they even pierce the full moon in the sky, making it pale and ill at ease.

my love lives on the mountain side but too high the mountains,
my love lives in the heart of town but the crowds I fear,
my love lives on the river bank but the stream's to deep,
my love lives in a rich man's house but I have no car,
helpless I shake my head and now my tears
are scattered near and far.

at a time when I lose track of time, I shall go far away alone, alas, if it is dusk, black night will surely engulf me, or I shall be made to vanish in the daylight if it is dawn.

I yawn, light a cigarette, and puff out the smoke, paying silent homage before the lamp of these green and exquisite heroes.

Lu Xun, as always, writes stories that feel like little puzzles—full of the uncanny echoing of his writing style and loaded to hell and back with allegory, of course, but also somehow beyond allegory and into fable territory? this collection is a fun mix of the didactic and the fully dream-like (after all, it is mainly a series of his worst and strangest dreams, full of death and body-politics and viscera and eerie emptiness and landscapes). But also I’m not sure these are meant to be read as pure allegory, either—the urge to read politically isn’t as strong for me as it used to be, at least. Certainly knowing the political context and Lu Xun’s ability to despair in it helps in piecing together what these stories ‘mean’—but then again, do dreams always mean what we think they do? Sometimes a dead body in a barren field is just a dead body. Sometimes when you die, sensation doesn’t leave. Sometimes death doesn’t stop the world, just stretches it.

And I found a lot of these pieces weirdly moving just as tableaus, just as little moments of strange feeling…to reread, especially bookmarked pieces. But of course it’s the new year—and I’m in the mood to be moved in the eerie and winding dark…

Addendum: I had a conversation with my dad about this book and while he doesn’t remember specific essays from this one, his two cents on Lu Xun were…mid? But also reminded me of who my dad is and how he has thought about these things, however biased his POV is, and he is my dad. Which is also a weirdly moving thing.

Happy new year?

List of favorites/pieces you especially want to revisit:
秋夜
影的告别
希望
过客
死火
墓碣文
颓败线的颤动
死后
一觉

“于浩歌狂热之际中寒；于天上看见深渊。于一切眼中看见无所有；于无所希望中得救。”

Ohut vihkonen lupasi edustavansa merkittävää kiinalaista kirjallisuutta. Teoksen kuvataan olevan proosarunoutta, mutta paino on kyllä proosalla, ei runoudella. Lyhyet katkelmat ovat villiä tavaraa, niissä on paljon unenomaista sekavuutta ja painajaismaista tunnelmaa. Kiinnostava, mutta enemmän kulttuurisena kuriositeettina kuin maistuvana kirjallisuutena.

I feel like this required a higher level of vocabulary than I was able to give.

"The creator, the weakling, hides himself in shame. Then heaven and earth change colour in the eyes of the fighter."

A collection of prose poems that gets better and better as you keep reading.

4.5/5

Brilliant