Chapter 121 Preface to Yasushi Inoue's Selected Novels of the Western Regions

Several teachers from the Central University for Nationalities translated Mr. Yasushi Inoue's "Selected Novels of the Western Regions", and asked me to write the preface.I am honored and ashamed.I don't understand Japanese, and I haven't been to the northwest of my motherland, so I can't fully appreciate the scenery in the original book and the joys and sorrows of translation; but Mr. Inoue Yasushi is my close Japanese friend, and it is precisely because I have never been Western Regions, I want to get to know the dreamlike scenery and characters in the Northwest of my country from Mr. Inoue Yasushi’s historical novel.

This is why I am pleased to write the preface and to welcome the publication of this translation with all my heart. I don't remember the year and month when I met Mr. Inoue for the first time.What impressed me most was that in the early 1960s, I visited Japan with a delegation of Chinese writers and was a guest at the home of Mr. Inoue.I saw Mr. Inoue's house full of books.I met the hospitable Mrs. Inoue; and Mr. Inoue's youngest daughter, Ms. Kako.She is lively, intelligent, and very cute, especially the two thick black braids hanging behind her head, which are exactly the same as Chinese girls, and it is hard to forget after seeing her.Mr. Inoue gave me several copies of his masterpiece that day.Knowing that I don't understand Japanese, he gave me an English translation of "Shotgun".

Since then, we have seen each other frequently, and the pictures of the past twenty years flashed across my mind.Some are in Beijing, some are in Tokyo, with the mountains of China in the background and the lakes of Japan in the background.The last picture is my home after illness in 1981. Mr. Inoue and his wife, and Mrs. Nakajima Kenzo, must come to condolences. My guest room is small, and we sat down together with the translators. It was really a "heart-to-heart talk"!That meeting will never be forgotten in my memory. In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, the translated version of Yasushi Inoue's Selected Novels of the Western Regions was published.Mr. Inoue had a deep admiration and longing for Chinese Han and Tang culture and the Western Regions of China in his youth.As Mr. Yamamoto Kenji said in the preface to the original book: "In short, in Mr. Inoue's works about the Western Regions, he entrusted his dream that he had conceived since his youth. That dream is a romantic vision... I really feel that to the passion of the authors who write such novels."

However, when Mr. Inoue wrote this collection of novels, he had not been to the Western Regions. As he said in the preface of this translation, the materials he wrote "some are reflected by historical materials, and some are expressed by historical materials. All of them were written without any field trips, and they were written with a stroke of a pen.” He also said: "Because we have ushered in the glorious era of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, thanks to the kind care of the Chinese side", he went to the Hexi Corridor twice, and the area around the Taklamakan three times, and toured the stage in his own novel.Although the ancient history of the Western Regions has been buried under the quicksand, he was filled with emotion, but he still fell asleep leisurely during the hard journey!He still feels: "Moonlight, sand, dry river, quicksand, from ancient times to the present, are still the same...Only on the stage of the novel that I poured my heart and soul into in my youth, can I sleep so soundly and peacefully."

I very clearly remember that every time Mr. Inoue returned to Beijing from the Northwest to meet us, he talked with us enthusiastically about everything he had seen and heard during his travels.Listening quietly, I admire and move. I am grateful to Mr. Inoue, who made me appreciate the vastness of our country, the long history of our country, and the beauty of our culture. He is the best friend of the Chinese people. He built a beautiful bridge between Chinese and Japanese cultures, and I salute him!September 24, 1982, Xinjiang People's Publishing House, June 1984, the first edition. )