Chapter 51 "A Very Short Legend" Translator's Notes (1)

"A Very Short Legend" Translator's Notes (1) Garshin (Vsevolod Michailovitch Garshin1855-1888) was born in southern Russia, the son of an armored cavalry officer (2).He studied medicine when he was young, but dropped out of school because of brain disease.He had a philanthropic disposition, and he had long been interested in literature; when Russia and Turkey went to war, he voluntarily joined the army to suffer the pain of others, and he published his experience and thoughts in novels, which are the famous "Four Days" and " coward".He later came to Petersburg, listened to lectures on literature at the university, and published many novels, one of which was "A Very Short Legend".So he traveled around and interviewed many literati, and was especially influenced by Tolstoy. At that time, the most famous work was "Safflower".However, Garxun's brain disease finally worsened. After entering the madhouse, he threw himself from a tall building and died at the age of thirty-three.This is one of the richest comics in Garshin's writings, but it is still a poignant joke.His ideas of non-war and self-sacrifice are also very clearly written.But it is only the common sense of the world that the hero puts on wooden feet and the person who persuades others to fight does not suffer any damage.As for the spirit of "it is better for one person—oneself—unfortunate than three people to be unlucky" [3], it is often only seen in the writings of Slavic literati [4]. One cannot but be amazed at the greatness of this nation.

Addendum dated November 15, 1921. ※ ※ ※ [1] This article, together with the translation of "A Very Short Legend", was first published in February 1922, Volume 8, No. 2 of the monthly "Women's Magazine". 〔2〕A cavalry officer An officer of a cuirassier regiment. [3] This is what the protagonist of this novel said. The original language is "You will think that the misfortune of three is better than the misfortune of one person." [4] Slavic literati refer to Russian writers, and Russians belong to the East Slavic nation.