Early summer in the ancient city of Shimazaki Tōson

Among my colleagues, there is a bachelor of science who undertakes courses such as physics and chemistry.

After school that day, I passed by the classroom of the old bachelor and looked at the door of the classroom. I just finished my bachelor's course. However, he still stood in front of the podium, explaining something to the students. There are marble fragments, hydrochloric acid bottles, test cups and glass tubes on the podium, and candles are still burning. The bachelor slowly tilted the cup in his hand, carbon dioxide escaped from between the cup and the glass cover, and the flame of the candle went out like water.

Naive students gathered around the bachelor's platform and looked at all this with wide eyes. They have different shapes, some with smiles, some with arms around their chests, and some with their hands on their cheeks. A student heard that putting a bird or mouse into this cup would kill him immediately. He suddenly stood up.

"Teacher, can't bugs live?"

"Yes, don't bugs need oxygen just like birds?"

The student who asked questions suddenly left the classroom. In a blink of an eye, his figure has appeared beside the peach tree outside the window.

"Oh, he went to catch bugs." A student looked out of the window and said.

The students who ran to the yard came down and looked for them under the dense shade of cherry trees. After a while, he seemed to catch something, returned to the classroom and handed it to the bachelor.

"Is it a bee?" The bachelor asked angrily.

"Well, it's a temper-be careful of stinging people! Be careful! "

In front of the students, the bachelor leans back and acts like he doesn't want to be stung. When he put the bees in the test cup, the students laughed for no reason. Someone shouted, "Dead! Dead! " Some people also scold: "useless things!" As if to prove the truth, the bees bumped around in the test cup, twisted and suffocated.

"Doesn't it work?" The bachelor also smiled.

On that day, headed by the principal, all colleagues went to Huaigu Garden to bow and shoot arrows. On that shady land, like-minded colleagues drew an archery range of about 15. I also accepted the invitation of the bachelor, left school and walked to the ruins of the old city not far away.

When I first met the bachelor, I only thought he was an old scholar who retired from the countryside, but I didn't expect him to be so approachable. We-except for three colleagues-are strangers with no fixed address, and some of them have suffered a lot like bachelors. The undergraduate pays great attention to clothes, but listens carefully. At first, because he often didn't even wipe the chalk dust off his old suit, people in the town deliberately alienated him. Because it is also the view of ordinary people to determine their own value from clothing and monthly salary. However, parents of students gradually have to admit the kindness, integrity and valuable character of bachelors. I seldom meet people who are what they seem. Unconsciously, I became intimate friends with the old bachelor, as if listening to my relatives, as if I could hear the uncontrollable sigh and heartfelt resentment.

Everyone set off together. Listening to all this, I can't help but imagine the glorious past of being a bachelor. In this casual style, it seems that bachelors have not lost their former chic. The tie was strangely tied on his chest, and the unusual pin shone there. Whenever I see this, I can't help laughing like a child.

Persimmon flowers, white and yellow, have been scattered everywhere, releasing bursts of fragrance. Bachelor's carrying a bow and arrow bag and a leather bag containing turpentine, walked and said:

"Hey, there is such a screw. My second son is very good at sumo among children. Recently, he praised my bowstring. Sumo wrestlers have a strange name. I asked him what his name was, and he said his name was' sea bream'. "

I can't help laughing. Bachelor of irrepressible smile, and then said:

"When my brother had a name, I asked him what his name was. He said that my father likes archery, and I hope my father can shoot arrows, so he shoots arrows. Hey, it's called an arrow! Children's things are really interesting. "

Listening to the old man's gossip, I came to the gate of the ancient city. A doctor on horseback greeted us and went over. Bachelor looked at him and said:

"The gentleman, raising chickens, walking horses, feeding birds and planting morning glory, is a man who plays with everything. When it is time to plant chrysanthemums, plant chrysanthemums. No matter which country, there is such a doctor, a strange person. What? Other guys are not doctors, they are all selling medicines, which is really not worth mentioning. " It's really cocky. However, he is a very interesting person. In a remote village, when the patient has no money to buy medicine, he will say: anything from other places is ok. Bring green onions when they grow well. Therefore, in the eyes of rural people, he is very popular ... "

This doctor is not the only one. Among the old gentry, in order to pass the idle days, some went fishing by the Qu Qian River and pretended to be hermits, while others lived with their sisters at the gate, helped the village office and brought water to Huaigu Garden. There are many strange people among the old gentry, and the times have shaped them into strange people.

If you pass by the ruins of the gentry's homestead in this area, see the mulberry fields with only barren earth walls and columns, hear the tragic history of many separated families, and look back at the luxury of this town and the merchants in Alamaqi, you will strongly feel the daunting footprint of "time". However, most of the new figures who have made their mark in other places are educated aristocrats.

Now the bachelor, carrying a bow and arrow, walks on the slope of the ruined ancient city. He used to be a vassal. The headmaster is a samurai directly under General Edo, a captain of the gendarmerie who has been ill for a long time, that is, a gentleman who is both a school official and a teacher of Chinese studies, and was born in Xiaozhufan. Bachelor/kloc-participated in the war or something when he was 0/9 years old.

I visited the old site of this ancient city and saw the beautiful scenery you can't imagine. It is a wonderful feeling to overlook the silvery mountains from the shadow of dense green leaves. From here, the snow in the Japanese Alps is like a white wall.

In the Huaigu Garden, vines, magnolias, azaleas, peonies and other flowers and trees complement each other for a while, emitting a strong fragrance, and adding new green fragrance for a while. If you don't get on God's platform, you can't see the Quqian River, so you can know the depth of the valley. There is an ocean-like slope in the shallow mountainous area, among the dark green pine trees. The sky in June turned into a straight line overhead. The pasture at the foot of Mount Ebush that I told you about, and Jingen Village where Mr. B lives, are just opposite the pine forest out of our sight. From the high stone wall, you can overlook the lush beeches and maples directly below our archery range.

In that area, there is a teahouse with pleasant scenery. After taking out the bow and arrow stored there, I walked down the mossy stone steps with the bachelor. There was silence on the archery range, where I met people outside the school.

"Since I practiced the longbow, it will be a year tomorrow."

"Although I practiced for a year, when I stopped, I missed. What a joke. "

"That's amazing, these are two feet! Please everyone! "

"Bang-"

"This can't be done-"

This conversation took place between Mr. Guo Xue, who pulled the strong bow, and the gymnastics teacher. Bachelor of Science is the softest archer, but he practices carefully and shoots accurately.

Speaking of the ruins of the ancient city, you must imagine it as a place where no one lives at all. I have introduced you to the gatekeeper by the city gate and the teahouse in the garden. In addition, there is a chicken farmer. This man is ill and very upset. In order to pass the boring time, he came to our archery range to watch the fun. When we drew the bow together and the arrow feather brushed our cheeks, he started a strange criticism behind us and joked, "What's the matter, sir, are you tired of bows and arrows?" And then raise birds in this archery range or something. On that day, all this will be mine ... but I'm afraid this arrow will take a long time. "Some people listened to his jokes, and finally they were exhausted, so naturally they couldn't draw the bow.

For a bachelor who lives in seclusion in Zhu Xiao, this shade is the deepest home. At the moment when his precious eagle arrow flew to the white target, the bachelor seemed to forget everything.

Suddenly, warm raindrops fell, followed by thunder, and shallow mountains were hidden in gray rain fog until the foothills. Under the wind, several clouds floated from our heads to the mountains. The rain seems to have stopped, but it rained in a hurry.

"It seems to be really raining." The bachelor chattered away at dismantling his new seven-inch arrow target.

Others are working in the mulberry fields of the old city ruins in the rain. Everyone was watching the clouds move, but the early summer sun suddenly shone through the green leaves, and the archers began to shoot again. After a while, it rained again. Everyone died at last and walked to the teahouse.

When I was walking with a bachelor under a deserted high stone wall, a black rainbow appeared in the eastern sky. A bachelor walks very slowly, very slowly.

(Translated by Xu Jinlong)

Precautions:

Room: length unit, 1 is about 1. 818m.

Edo: The old name of Tokyo.

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Early Summer in the Ancient City is an early essay by Japanese writer Shimazaki Tōson, which is included in the Collection of Prose of Thousand Songs. This article records the author's life when Zhu Xiao was a teacher.

Shimazaki Tōson had established his position in Japanese literature before he became a primary school teacher. He is recognized as a lyric poet in Japanese literary world. He set off a romantic movement and consolidated his position in Japanese poetry circles through poetry collections such as A Leaf Boat, Summer Grass and Plum Blossom, and was known as the "father of modern poetry" in Japan. However, what really won Shimazaki Tōson the reputation in Japanese literary world was his novel creation. As we all know, Fujimura's novel Breaking the Ring, published by 1906 at his own expense, is regarded as the pioneering work of Japanese naturalism literature and a symbol of the maturity of modern Japanese literature.

From the early romantic poetry creation to the prose and novel creation with naturalism and realism in the later period, Shimazaki Tōson's literary road has taken an obvious turning point. Fujimura's life and creation in Zhu Xiao from 1899 to 1905 is obviously a transitional stage.

During his several years in Zhu Xiao, Fujimura made a qualitative leap in his thoughts by carefully observing nature, studying customs and observing people from all walks of life, especially those close to farmers, which became the way for Fujimura to turn from poetry creation to novel creation. He observed Cloud (1900) written by Nature, Green Leaves Collection (1906) written by Custom, and his later prose, Biography of Qian Qu (19 12). During this period, he began to adopt a literary attitude of "sketching" and began to turn from romanticism to naturalism and realism.

Qu Qian's Biography is the work of Fujimura during his teaching in Zhu Xiao Art School from April 1899 to April 1905. This is also a sign that he turned from a romantic poetry school to essay prose, which is more important for him to become a representative writer of naturalism. He carefully observed the mountain country with the attitude of a painter, describing both natural scenery and people with personality in the background of nature, with meticulous attention to every grass, tree and smile. The combination of the two is vivid and nuanced. Fujimura's pen is simple, light and picturesque.

In the early summer of the ancient city, Fujimura's brushwork was obscene. He described the scene of a bachelor teaching a chemistry experiment class. He used a short paragraph to describe not only the expression of the bachelor, but also the details of how carbon dioxide extinguished the flame he observed from the window. Students show various reactions in class-surprise, naughty, happy, etc. , concise but vivid.

Fujimura also wrote that colleagues went to the ancient city to shoot arrows, deliberately depicting the character of bachelors. There is no special explanation for the bachelor's background, but through Fujimura's intentional or unintentional description, the image of this character is kind, calm and natural.

Fujimura also described the customs and history of the ancient city. Although the ancient city is small and shabby, there are many strange hermits, because the ancient city was once very prosperous and there were many big families. Many people here are educated descendants of the gentry, but now the situation has changed. In order to make a living, these people have to "help the village office and send water to the ancient garden". They look like ordinary people, but they may have had a prominent family background.

The best part is the description of the ancient city and the scenery of Huaigu Garden. Although the text is short, it fully embodies the characteristics of Fujimura in the transitional stage of creation. Because in this picturesque text, you can not only see the traces of naturalism, but also read the poetry and charm of romanticism.

(Hu Zhiyi)