First published in 1897 in the avant-garde journal Jugend, Simmel’s fairy tale tells the story of the emergence of a sense of grievance about differences in the ability to grow roses which became constructed as a ‘terrible inequality’. Although moves were made to address this inequality so that everyone became able to grow roses, differences remained in how well different rose gardens grew, which in turn came to be perceived as an equally oppressive form of inequality. A translator’s note outlines the significance of the text for the sociological analysis of inequality and the pursuit of equality, placing it in the context of related theories of inequality, recognition, distinction, the narcissism of minor differences, and ressentiment.

齐美尔的童话于 1897 年首次发表在先锋派杂志Jugend 上，讲述了人们对玫瑰种植能力差异的不满情绪的出现，这种差异被构建为“可怕的不平等”。尽管已采取措施解决这种不平等问题，以便每个人都能够种植玫瑰，但不同玫瑰园的生长情况仍然存在差异，这反过来又被视为不平等的一种同样具有压迫性的形式。译者注概述了文本对不平等和追求平等的社会学分析的意义，将其置于不平等、承认、区别、微小差异的自恋和怨恨等相关理论的背景下。