Kokoro (Natsume Soseki(夏目漱石))

No collection of Japanese literature is complete without Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, his most famous novel and the last he completed before his death.  Written in 1914, Kokoro—meaning "heart"—is the story of a subtle and poignant friendship between two unnamed characters, a young man and an enigmatic elder whom he calls "Sensei."  Haunted by tragic secrets that have cast a long shadow over his life, Sensei slowly opens up to his young disciple, confessing indiscretions from his own student days that have left him reeling with guilt, and revealing, in the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between his moral anguish and his student's struggle to understand it, the profound cultural shift from one generation to the next that characterized Japan in the early twentieth century.
 
《時代雜誌》評選為塑造二十世紀亞洲最重要的五本書之一。日本近代最偉大作家夏目漱石代表作。日本大文豪夏目漱石，1914年在〈朝日新聞〉發表本書，不僅關照生與死，內在與誘惑，更反映當時世界動亂的局勢、探索世代推移的意義，同時尋求內心孤寂感的解脫。本書自從發表以來，一直被視為漱石文學的代表作品。漱石曾經親自寫道：「推薦此書給渴盼探求內心世界的人。」《時代雜誌》將《心》選做塑造二十世紀亞洲最重要的五大著作之一。