Lu Xun - And That's That
And That's That (而已集)
Essay Collection by Lu Xun (鲁迅)
Period: 1927
Section 1
[And That's That]
[Epigraph]
In this half year I have again seen much blood and many tears, yet all I have are merely miscellaneous jottings.
The tears wiped away, the blood gone; the butchers roam free, ever free, those with steel blades, those with soft knives. Yet all I have are merely 'miscellaneous jottings.'
When even the 'miscellaneous jottings' were 'put where they belong,' all I had left was 'and that's that' - and that's that!
The eight lines above were written on the night of October 14, 1926, at the end of the collection completed up to that date. I now take them as the epigraph for the 1927 collection. October 30, 1928, Lu Xun, noted upon completion of proofreading.
Section 2
[Epigraph]
In this half year I have again seen much blood and many tears, yet all I have are merely miscellaneous jottings.
The tears wiped away, the blood gone; the butchers roam free, ever free, those with steel blades, those with soft knives. Yet all I have are merely 'miscellaneous jottings.'
When even the 'miscellaneous jottings' were 'put where they belong,' all I had left was 'and that's that' - and that's that!
The eight lines above were written on the night of October 14, 1926. I now take them as the epigraph for the 1927 collection. October 30, 1928, Lu Xun.
Source: Chinese original from the Complete Works of Lu Xun