Chapter 2 translator's words

In June 1985, as a research fellow of the International Exchange Fund, I came to Tokyo, where I had been away for half a century.I spent most of my time in the library of Toyo University, and sometimes I went out for a run. I met Yasushi Inoue, Sata Inago, Endo Shusaku, Sono Ayako, Nakano Takaji and other writers. I have translated all of their works.Only Seicho Matsumoto, I heard that he was writing several books at the same time, was too busy, so I did not write or call him directly, but only greeted him through Ms. On June 11 this year, five days before returning to China, Ms. Fujii and I visited this old writer known as "Japan's Balzac".His residence is located in the east of Takaido, Suginami District, in a quiet environment.The two yellow wooden doors were tightly closed, and only the word Matsumoto was written on the door plate.Lush trees are planted on both sides of the gate, and red rhododendrons are in full bloom.The wicket next to the gate was ajar, and we went into the yard and pressed the buzzer on the porch (the main entrance of the house).A young maid welcomes us into a Western-style living room.Outside the window is a lush green lawn.Along the walls of the room are tri-colored horses from the Tang Dynasty, terracotta warriors and armor from Japanese warriors, showing the owner's love for historical relics.

Fujii Yasuo is a quiet and elegant middle-aged woman. After graduating from university 26 years ago, she came to work at Bunyishunju Club. She is currently the deputy director of the publishing department. For 23 years, she has been the responsible editor of Matsumoto's works.She knew the writer very well.When Matsumoto was busy, he said: "Don't come to pick up the manuscript yourself, send someone else. Because when you come, I just want to talk, and that will delay the writing." While we were sipping green tea and eating Japanese sweets brought by the maid, the living room door was pushed open with a bang, and Seicho Matsumoto, whom I had only seen in photos, stood in front of me.For a quarter of a century, he has been Japan's highest-taxed writer almost every year, but he is dressed very plainly, slovenly, and his gray hair is fluffy, with a strand hanging down his face.

He first expressed his gratitude to me for being the first to introduce his works in China.Then he talked about his visit to China in May and June 1983.He visited Fuzhou, Xi'an, and Lanzhou, and exchanged views on literature and art with Zhou Yang, chairman of the my country Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and Feng Mu, vice chairman of the Writers Association, in Beijing. I gave him the three versions I brought.In 1965, the Writers Publishing House printed an edition, including "The Mystery of the "Imperial Bank Incident"", "The President of Xiashan National Railway was Murdered", "The Essence of the "Matsukawa Incident"", "The White Bird Incident" Incident", "The Rastavorov Incident".In 1980, "The Planning of the Korean War" was added, which was reprinted by the Foreign Literature Publishing House.Subsequently, it was rearranged and published by Fujian People's Publishing House in 1983.In addition to making some revisions to the translation, I also made a supplementary translation of "The Disaster of the "Jupiter"".

I told him that my brother Wenxue Park and I translated the companion volume of the book as early as the 1970s.International Culture Publishing Company intends to publish it, but hopes that the original author will write a preface for the Chinese translation.He agreed, and asked someone to fetch a pen and paper on the spot.His handwriting is vigorous, and it is completely impossible to tell that it was written by a seventy-seven-year-old man.Then, he asked someone to bring a pen and inkstone and two "Selected Short Stories by Matsumoto Seicho" and signed them to Xuepu and me. I told him that this year was the first time in my life to spend New Year’s Day abroad, and fortunately I borrowed his novel "Hot Silk" from the Ishikawa Library to spread my homesickness.Hearing this, he immediately asked Fujii to ring the bell, and someone sent two volumes of "Hot Silk" and signed them to me.I noticed that he was panting, and I remembered what Fujii said he had just returned from a trip abroad, and he had to go to the hospital to check his eyesight the next day. I couldn't bear to sit any longer, and I saw that I had stayed for forty-five minutes, so I got up and said goodbye .

In December 1983, I met Seicho Matsumoto's eldest daughter, Mrs. Watanabe, Mrs. Watanabe, the eldest daughter of Seicho Matsumoto, at a banquet held by the wife of the then Japanese ambassador to China, Nobuko Shikatori. She told me that her father He is an extremely hardworking writer.I was reminded of something I read in a Japanese magazine about Seicho Matsumoto's eating habits.He was afraid of eating too much and would feel sleepy in the afternoon, so he usually only ate buckwheat noodles for lunch. Among what Matsumoto said, the one that impressed me the most is: "As long as I live one day, I will strive to do more work."

Matsumoto Seicho is a famous contemporary Japanese novelist, born in 1909 in Kokura City, Fukuoka Prefecture.After graduating from elementary school in 1923, he worked as a handyman at Chuanbei Electric Factory, and later worked in a small printing shop. At the same time, he studied writing with several young people who were fond of literature. His life was very hard until 1941. When I became a staff member of the advertising department of the Asahi Shimbun in 1999, my life settled down.In February 1950, he published his first work "Xixiang Bank Notes", and has since entered the literary world.

In Japan, Matsumoto Seicho was a prolific and influential writer. In 1984 Bungeishunjusha published "The Complete Works of Matsumoto Seicho" with a total of fifty-six volumes.Since 1963, he has successively served as the chairman and president of the Japan Reasoning Writers Association, and he resigned in 1977. Throughout Seicho Matsumoto's works, they can be roughly divided into the following five categories: 1. Mystery novels: Mystery novels are a popular literary genre in Japan, and the content is mainly based on logical reasoning for criminal investigation and case-solving stories.From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, Matsumoto wrote "Points and Lines", "Eye Wall", "The Painting of the Black Land", etc., focusing on investigating the motives of crimes and exploring modern Complicating factors in Japanese society.These works have an obvious tendency of realism, high ideological and artistic qualities, and are very popular among readers.In this way, mystery novels have entered a new stage of development, thus forming a unique literary genre-socialist mystery novels.

Mystery novels are the most popular among readers among the works of Matsumoto Seicho, which came out in 1959 and printed fifty-four editions in 1961. 2. Novels based on past legends: represented by "Tianbao Tulu" (1963). 3. The novels based on international themes, represented by "Hot Silk" (1984). 4. Historical novels, represented by The Design of Symbols, which condemned militarism. "Symbol" refers to the "emperor", and the author attempts to explore how the emperor system was formed in the Meiji period through this work. Concerning "Design of Symbols," there was a notable controversy between Matsumoto and Hayashi Fango (who had participated in the early proletarian literary movement in Japan and later turned to militarism).Lin Fangxiong published a comment in the "Asahi Shimbun" (May 28, 1963), attacking Matsumoto for "lack of a basic understanding of the characters of the Meiji era."He believes that in the Meiji era, "regardless of the officials and the people, although they have different positions, they are all engaged in a fierce battle", and slandered Matsumoto's writing in "Symbol Design" as "not only 'divorced from history', but is 'faking history'".

On June 12 of the same year, Matsumoto Seicho wrote an article in "Tomorrow Shimbun" to refute Hayashi Fangxiong's "new imperial view of history".He said, "The problem lies in the fact that the positions of 'officials' and 'people' in the Meiji era were different, and the interests of the classes they belonged to conflicted with each other... This is how the Meiji era contained internal conflicts and 'transformed into a modern country'. Important It is this process." In this regard, there are also novels based on the lives of famous artists in history, which can be represented by the short story collection "Japanese Art Tan" (1957).

5. The reportage that exposes the inside story of the US and Japanese authorities after the war is representative.This is the most characteristic work of Seicho Matsumoto.After that, he also wrote "Japanese Bureaucracy".For these three works, he won the "Japan Journalists Association Award" in 1963. It was originally serialized in "The Spring and Autumn Period of Literature and Art" and published as a booklet in 1962.This can be said to be the continuation of the novel.The content of the book is limited to events that occurred during the American occupation.In this book, the author focuses on the shady political circles in Japan after the Japan-U.S. peace talks, especially rewriting the "cabinet investigation room" set up to take over the intelligence agency of the U.S. occupation army headquarters.In this work, the author uses some pseudonyms to allude to many politicians and chaebols headed by Shigeru Yoshida.The author revolves around intelligence agencies to expose the problem of illegal handling of precious metals by the U.S. military, and sharply analyzes the collusion between Japanese politicians, monopoly capital, and the U.S. embassy. , and thus more political.

, and "Modern Bureaucracy" were included in the 30th and 31st volumes of "The Complete Works of Matsumoto Seicho".After the publication of the Three Books, it immediately attracted the attention of readers and had a profound impact in the past twenty years. The word "black mist" became a catchphrase popular all over Japan for a while. In April 1982, after the death of Tsukamoto Suyama, the general manager of Tsukamoto Corporation, the editor-in-chief of the Japanese "Informer" magazine Takano Meng wrote a long article in "Bunyishunju" (July 1982 issue) to mourn him, Takano wrote: "Someone will suddenly think of Hara Nakasa 'Ito Mitsuru', one of the main characters in Seicho Matsumoto's famous novel (see Chapter 10 of this book). Matsumoto describes the inside story of various aspects of postwar occupation Japan in the book." "In 1960, Tsukamoto Suzan built a building on the thoroughfare of Ginza. The following year, this novel was serialized in "Benyichunqiu" for a whole year. The staff officer of the Front Army Command, smuggled back a large amount of diamonds and precious metals. After returning home, he became the adjutant of a general (Commander Tanaka) as if nothing had happened, and the general committed suicide during the armistice. After the war, Ito (Tsukamoto) Became one of the key figures in mastering the 'V funds' (M funds) of unknown origin, part of which came from those Philippine treasures. Due to his special status, Ito (Tsukamoto) as a machine manufacturer It rose to prominence and now has a magnificent building in the center of Shimbashi (Ginza)." Gao Yemeng went on to write that Tsukamoto had never been to the Philippines, and there was no clue that he had brought back treasures from abroad.The character Ito may still have the shadow of Makoto Tsukamoto, the former military police officer. "But because Matsumoto's novels are written so realistically, many people believe that Ito is Tsukamoto Soyama himself." Takano Meng also wrote that the general manager Sasa (see Chapter 8 of this book) that appeared in the book is based on the general manager Shirohiko Guzhuang.After the war, the power of Guzhuang was so great that it was called "Kingdom of Guzhuang". Gao Yemeng finally wrote that he chose the profession of journalist because he studied in high school.It can be seen how this work was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in postwar Japan. As early as 1965, there was a Russian translation, and in 1969 it was translated into Bulgarian.Now, with the strong support of International Culture Publishing Company, this translated manuscript, which has been buried for more than ten years, has been rediscovered, and I would like to express my sincere thanks. Wen Jieruo June 15, 1986 eve of tokyo