Preface of the last volume of Jean - Christophe
I have written the tragedy of a generation which is nearing its end. I have sought to conceal neither its vices nor its virtues, its profound sadness, its chaotic pride, its heroic efforts, its despondency beneath the overwhelming burden of a superhuman task, the burden of the whole world, the reconstruction of the world's morality, its esthetic principles, its faith, the forging of a new humanity. - Such we have been.
You young men, you men of to-day, march over us, trample us under your feet, and press onward. Be ye greater happier than we.
For myself, I bid the soul that was mine farewell. I cast it from me like an empty shell. Life is a succession of deaths and resurrections. We must die, Christophe, to be born again.
Romain Rolland
October, 1912
-激动得亲自敲了一段!