A certain pair of brothers, whose names I shall conceal for now, were both good friends of mine back during our school days. I have been away for many years, and gradually lost touch with them. A few days ago, I suddenly learned that one of them had come down with a serious illness. I was on my way back to my hometown at the time, so I diverted my route so that I could visit them. However, I only saw one of them, who explained that the sick person was his younger brother. He expressed sympathy for my having come such a long way in order to see his brother, but then informed me that his brother had long since recovered, and had moved away in order to fill a temporary post. He thereupon proceeded to laugh aloud, and produced his brother's two-volume diary. He said that one could ascertain the nature of his brother's illness by reading it, and that there was no harm in showing it to an old friend. Upon taking it home and reading it through, I could tell that his brother had been stricken with something like a "persecution complex". His words were slightly disjointed and incoherent, and there were also a lot of preposterous statements. Furthermore, he did not include any dates. It was only by the differences in ink color and penmanship that one would know that it was not all written at the same time. Nevertheless, parts of the diary did have some amount of consistency. I have excerpted those parts here, so that medical experts may use it for research. I have not altered any of the errors in the text. However, I have altered all of the personal names. Although they are all from the same village as him, none of them are known to the outside world, and none of them are relevant to the overall subject matter. As for the title, he chose it himself, after recovering from his illness. I have not changed it. April 2, 7th year of the Republic (1918)
