Among the rich and colorful spiritual legacy left by the great revolutionary, thinker and writer Lu Xun, this one was written in classical Chinese in 1907 when Lu Xun was 26 years old, with the longest length and the longest number of words, except literary history monographs, such as A Brief History of Chinese Novels and translated novels, such as Nicholas Nikolai Gogol's masterpiece Dead Soul.
Lu Xun himself once said in the inscription of his essay grave that he was "good at making strange sentences and writing ancient Chinese, and was influenced by People's Daily at that time". Indeed, some "strange sentences" mentioned in the original text, many archaic words in ancient Chinese and many foreign historical and literary allusions have increased our reading obstacles and understanding difficulties, especially for young readers. But Lu Xun's exposition is very important, so we must spend some time and read it carefully and patiently from beginning to end. To understand Lu Xun's early ideological tendency, his outlook on the world, literature and aesthetics, especially the social situation, ethnic contradictions and class struggle in China in the early 20th century, we must read the struggle between the advanced bourgeois revolutionary democrats and the backward and reactionary feudal royalists in China at that time. In order to study how literature and art served the political struggle at that time, and how Lu Xun used the principle of making the past serve the present and making foreign things serve China, and profoundly criticized the old tradition, old culture and the decadent way of Confucius and Mencius, it is necessary to read the book On the Poetic Power of Moro. In particular, if we want to know the basic situation of the progressive romantic movement and its poetry schools in western and eastern Europe from the beginning to the middle of the 9th century, and why and how Lu Xun introduced romantic poets and their representative works, and used them as a weapon to participate in the struggle against the old system and dark rule of the Qing Dynasty at that time, we respected the spirit of "devil poets", "rebel poets", "revenge poets" and "patriotic poets", and boldly proposed to
At the beginning of the 20th century, Lu Xun was a radical revolutionary democrat, evolutionist, passionate patriot and revolutionary romanticist. Lu Xun was the first Prometheus who brought the so-called "Satan Poetry School" in Europe-the "fire of resistance" of revolutionary romanticism to the motherland. Of course, to analyze and study these ideological tendencies in Lu Xun's youth and their influence on Lu Xun's later ideological development, we can't just limit ourselves to the article on Moro Poetry. At the same time, his articles such as The Soul of Sparta, The History of Mankind, The History of Science, The Theory of Eliminating Evil Sound, and the science fiction novels he translated and introduced at that time provided us with extremely rich ideological materials, which were all valuable documents. However, among them, three political papers and literary papers, namely, the theory of cultural extremism, the theory of Moro poetry and the theory of breaking evil voices, are particularly important, which express Lu Xun's early historical, political and literary views. The article "On Moro Poetry" is the spiritual outlook of young Lu Xun. His enthusiasm and dedicated expression for exploration captured his vivid face at that time. This is a flower branch of a poem that thrived in the soil of realistic struggle in the turbulent era in which he lived-although the main characters it introduced and commented were eight romantic poets in the rising period of European bourgeoisie-it can be studied and studied as a representative work reflecting Lu Xun's early thoughts and feelings.
Lu Xun's articles served the bourgeois national democratic revolutionary struggle in China at that time, and played the role of revolutionary public opinion in this revolutionary movement (although there were not many respondents at that time, Lu Xun felt very lonely, but there was indignation like "sending a message"). This paper fiercely criticizes the old tradition and culture, and justifiably attacks the Westernization School, the Reform School and the Retro School. This is a brilliant masterpiece of China in the Enlightenment period before the May 4th Movement. It is an essay that exposes and criticizes feudal ideology, and records the loudest voice of our advanced intellectuals seeking truth from the west and calling for "warriors in the spiritual world". At the same time, it is also the first programmatic document advocating romanticism in China. It is full of love and profound meaning; Invincible and charming. Among them, scientificity, militancy and lyricism are closely combined; There are quite a few clips that are really catchy to read, and they are quite beautiful in melody and timbre. As far as its overall understanding level is concerned, it was undoubtedly the highest in China's cultural and ideological circles at that time. This can be understood by browsing related newspapers, collections and other related materials in the late Qing Dynasty.
In addition, it should be pointed out that Moro's On Poetic Power is the first article in modern China that opened up a new way for literature research-a new way for comparative literature research. Lu Xun is the earliest outstanding comparative writer in China. 1907, it can be said that the study of comparative literature in China began. In this paper, the discussion of "national conditions" and "literary affairs", the task and function of literature and its influence on Byron all belong to the category of comparative literature research. In the past, our academic circles paid little attention to this point, but now it seems that we should strengthen the exploration and research in this area.
This anthology includes four parts: first, the original text; Second, comment; Third, translation today; Fourth, explain. Here are some necessary explanations in the notes.
There are 525 notes * * *, almost twice as many as the notes on this article in the Complete Works of Lu Xun. This part is not limited to words that are not commonly used and difficult to understand in classical Chinese (including idioms), as well as allusions, place names, book titles, article titles and so on. As far as possible, the foreign language materials cited in the original text are also explained. The explanation is complicated and simple, depending on the specific situation. For English, German, French, Russian, Italian and other foreign languages, check and note directly from their respective related materials as far as possible; For Polish and Hungarian materials, please annotate them according to relevant works in English, German, French and Russian.
All the works, discourses, prefaces, diaries, letters and memoirs of poets, writers and critics quoted or extracted from the original text are all translated into modern Chinese according to Lu Xun's own classical Chinese translation. All these are solved in the third part of this collection, Modern Translation. Where Lu Xun's translation of classical Chinese differs greatly from the original, for the sake of seeking truth from facts, it will be retranslated according to the original foreign language that has been found, and it will be reflected in this part for the reference of ordinary readers.
Here are a few examples.
A passage quoted by Nietzsche, a German philosopher, before the beginning of this paper is quoted from the 25th section of chapter 3 "von Alten and Novtafern" of Nietzsche's masterpiece "Isprak Zarathustra". However, there are some differences between Lu Xun's translation and the original German text, which needs to be translated again. For example, if you don't check Nietzsche's original German, some readers may think it is a "new work". A look at the original text shows that this is "the rise of a new nation" (Dawerden Neue V.
At the end of the first section of the first paragraph of the original text, Lu Xun quoted a passage from Thomas Carlyle, a British writer in the 19th century, from "that clear voice, that singing voice is born" to "just fragmented", which comes from the third chapter of Carlyle's masterpiece Heroes and Hero Worship, "A hero as a poet: Dante; Shakespeare "(as a hero of the poet; ; Dante; Shakespeare) translated from the last section. The translation is somewhat different from the original, so it needs to be retranslated. At the same time, it added a few words deleted by Lu Xun, that is, the so-called "omitted" part of the original text, so that ordinary readers can see the whole leopard at a glance.
Theodore K.
At the end of the second quarter of the fifth paragraph of the original text, Lu Xun quoted Byron's words, from "the British criticized me but didn't care about my heart" to "I don't want to listen to another generation but the author also", which came from Byron 18 19' s letter to his friend John Murray from Venice on April 6. Lu Xun's translation is quite different from the original letter, so it needs to be retranslated in order to read it with the classical Chinese translation and enhance understanding.
In the middle of the third quarter of the sixth paragraph of the original text, there is a passage describing Shelley's childhood experience, which comes from the preface of the author of Shelley's narrative lyric poem "Islamic Rebellion". Some are Shelley's own words, and some are rewritten by Lu Xun according to other materials. Only by checking Shelley's original sequence can we know which words are original and which are written and performed by Lu Xun.
Some aspects of Lu Xun's writings in classical Chinese are really hard to read, especially there are many difficulties in translating them into vernacular Chinese and fluent Mandarin. My translation, annotation and explanation (the "explanation" part of this book is about 40,000 words, entitled "The Glorious Course of Chinese and Foreign Poetry". This is a random long article after I studied Moro's poetry theory, which introduces the background, ideological significance, several important arguments and the relationship with comparative literature research. ) is just an attempt, the main purpose of which is to help ordinary young people (including students of Chinese department in colleges and universities today) understand this important paper of Mr. Lu Xun. This is my greatest wish in this job in recent years.
This September is the centenary of the birth of the great Lu Xun. Several universities and other cultural and academic groups at home and abroad are actively preparing to hold various commemorative activities, which will be a brilliant festival in the history of culture and art. This book was completed just before the centenary of Lu Xun's birth. In addition to excitement and relief, consider it a small gift in memory of Lu Xun.
In the spring and May of 198 1 year.
Chinese Department of Nanjing University