Chapter 57 "The Nose" Translator's Notes [1]

Translator's Notes [1] Gogol (Nikolai V. Gogol 1809-1852) can almost be said to be the founder of Russian realism; he started by describing Ukrainian strange tales [2], but gradually moved to personnel affairs and added satire.The strange thing is that although he is talking about strange things, he still uses realistic techniques.Looking at it now, the format is a bit old, but it is still loved by modern people. It is also a famous article like "Overcoat" [3]. His great work "The Dead Serf" [4] has translated versions in all the more civilized countries except China, and there are three other versions in Japan, and now his complete works are being published.This article is retranslated from the fourth volume of the Complete Works of Japanese Translation, "Short Story Collection", and the original translator is Toshio Yazumi.However, in case of doubt, we refer to and adopt the German translation of Wilhelm Lange [5] in Reclam's Universal-Bibliothek.

※ ※ ※ 〔1〕The translation accompanying this article was originally published in the first issue of the first volume of the monthly "Yan Wen" in September 1934, signed by Xu Xia. 〔2〕Ukrainian strange stories Gogol wrote stories based on Ukrainian folk legends and anecdotes in his early days, such as "Night Talks Near the Township of Di Kangka". 〔3〕The short story "Overcoat", written by Gogol in 1835, has a translation by Wei Suyuan, and was published by Beijing Weiming Press in September 1926, as one of the "Weiming Series". [4] "Dead Serf" is "Dead Soul".Russians used to call serfs souls.

[5] Wilhelm Lange.