Lawrence Sterne to Miss L.
Yes! I will steal from the world, and not a babbling tongue shall tell where I am. Echo shall not so much as whisper my hiding place. Suffer the imagination to permit it as a little sun-light cottage, on the side of a romantic hill. Dost thou think I will leave love and friendship behind me? No! They shall be my companions in solitude, for they will sit down and rise up with me in the amiable form of my L ... We will be as merry and as innocent as our first parents in Paradise, before the arch-fiend entered that indescribable scene.
The kindest affections will have room to shoot and expand in our retirement, and produce such fruit as madness and envy and ambition have always killed in the bud. Let the human tempest and hurricane rage at a distance, the desolation is beyond the horizon of peace. My L... has seen a polyanthus blow in December ... me friendly wall has sheltered it from the biting wind. No planetary influence shall reach us but that which presides and cherishes the sweetest flowers. God preserve us! How delightful this prospect in idea! We will build and we will plant, in our own way ...simplicity shall not be tortured by art. We will learn of nature how to live ... she shall be our alchemist, to mingle all the good of life in one salubrious draught. The gloomy family of care and distrust shall be banished from our dwelling, guarded by the kind and tutelary deity. We will sing our choral songs of gratitude and rejoice to the end of our pilgrimage.
Adieu, my L ...
Return to one who languishes for your society.
[中文译文]
劳伦斯·斯特恩致L小姐
不错，我即将悄然离开这世界，任何饶舌鬼也说不出我在何处。即使那回声也说不出我的藏身之处。您爱怎么想就怎么想吧：或许你会把它说成是山间的小屋，那儿充满了浪漫的欢乐和金色的阳光。您以为我会把爱情和友谊抛弃吗?决不!它们是我孤独中的伴侣，因为无论我起坐行止我都会感受到我所爱的温馨。在撒旦介入那美妙的乐园生活之前，我们会像我们的祖先一样快乐和天真、无邪。
我们最美好的爱情还会有不断加深和发展的余地，如此的爱，疯狂、嫉妒和非凡之想都会扼杀在萌芽之中。让人间的暴风骤雨在远方肆虐吧，让孤独把那寂静隔离在远远的地平线上。我的L……看见过夜来香在十二月开放……正好有堵墙挡住了凛冽的寒风。这儿无尘世的干扰，只有甜蜜的花香欣赏。愿上帝保佑我们!意想中的前景是多么喜人!我们将自由自在地在这儿安家、耕种……朴实再不会受到奸诈的欺凌。我们将向大自然学会生活……她是我们的炼金术士，她把生活中一切美好的东西融为和谐的力量。我们居住的地方不再有忧虑和不信任的阴影笼罩，只有仁慈的守护神保卫我们。我们将同声歌唱，感谢神灵，欢欣鼓舞直到走完人生旅程。
再见了，我的L……
回到盼您的伴侣的身边来吧，他为了与您相处而熬得憔悴。
名人情书曝光（二）
Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo
Oh! Think of me, my sweet beloved, so that I may feel it and so that your joy amid your delightful family, your kind friends and admirers may not be changed into bitterness and grief for me. Think of me. of whom you are the life and soul. Think of my love so profound, so pure, and so devoted, and wish I were with you. I am going to bed praying God for you and yours. I trust my prayers will not be fruitless, as I am asking for their happiness and yours, should it be at the cost of my own life. If you knew how I need to know that you are happy, my beloved, almost as much as to know I am loved by you! I love you, more than anything else in the world. Enjoy your success, this evening, my Victor, your beauty, your genius, and be happy with your delightful family. I will be proud and happy myself, provided amid all this you do not forget me. Above all I do not wish to importune or compromise you. I only want to love you to my last sight.
朱丽叶·德鲁埃致维克多·雨果
啊，您想我吧，我最爱的人，好让我感受到您的甜蜜，好让你与家人的欢乐、与朋友和爱慕您的人的欢乐不会变为对我嫉妒和令我伤心。您想我吧，因为您就是我的生命和灵魂。想想我对您的爱如此深沉、纯洁、专一吧，祝愿我能与您相聚在一起吧。我马上要就寝了，还在为您和您的亲人祈求上帝。我相信我的祈祷不会得不到回音，因为我不惜用生命换得您的亲人还有您自己的幸福。要是您知道我是如何祝福您，我的爱，那么您也会觉得您爱我的心一点也不亚于我想您知道我是多么爱您。我爱您，我对您的爱超过了人间世上的一切。今夜尽情地为您的成功而欢乐吧，我的维克多，尽情地赞美您的美丽，赞美您的天才吧，为能与欢乐的家人团聚而高兴吧!要是您在欢乐的时刻没有把我忘怀，我定当感到自豪和宰福。不管怎么样，最重要的是，我不想强求或委屈您，我只想受着您直到瞑目之时。
名人情书曝光（三）
Shelley to Elizabeth Hitchhiker
Your letter of the 1st hath this moment reached me. I answer it according to our agreement, which shall be inviolable. Truly did you say that, at our arising in the morning, Nature assumes a different aspect. Who could have conjectured the circumstances of my last letter? Friend of my soul, this is terrible, dismaying: it makes one's heart sink, it withers vital energy... dear being, I am thine again; the happiness shall again predominate over this fleeting tribute to self-interest. Yet who would not feel now? Oh'twere as reckless a task to endeavor to annihilate perception while sense existed, as to blunt the sixth sense to such impressions as these! ... Forgive me, dearest friend? I pour out my whole soul to you. I write by fleeting intervals: my pen runs away with my senses. The impassionateness of my sensations grows upon me. Your letter, too, has much affected me. Never, with my consent, shall that intercourse cease which has been the day-dawn of my existence, the sun which has shed warmth on the cold drear length of the anticipated prospect of life. Prejudice might demand the sacrifice, but she is an idol to whom we bow not. The world might demand it; its opinion might require; but the cloud which flees over yon mountain were as important to our happiness, to our usefulness. This must never be, never whilst this existence continues; and when time has enrolled us in the list of the departed, surely this friendship will survive to bear our identity to heaven. What is love, or friendship? Is it something material ... a ball, an apple, a plaything ... which must be taken from one to be given to another? Is it capable of no extension, no communication? Lord Kaimes defines love to be a particularization of the general passion. But this is the love of sensation, of sentiment ... the absurdest of absurd vanities: it is the love of pleasure, not the love of happiness. The one is a love which is selfcentered, selfinterested: It desires its own interest; it is the parent of jealousy. Its object is the plaything which it desires to monopolize. Selfishness, monopoly, is its very soul, and to communicate to others part of this love were to destroy its essence, to annihilate this chain of straw. But love, the love which we worship , ... virtue, heaven, disinterestedness ... in a word, Friendship ... which has as much to do with the senses as with yonder mountains; that which seeks the good of all ... the good of its object first, not because that object is a minister to its Pleasures, not merely because it even contributes to its happiness, but because it is really worthy, because it has powers, sensibilities, is capable of abstracting itself, and loving virtue's own loveliness ... desiring the happiness of others not from the obligation of fearing the happiness of others not from the obligation of fearing hell or desiring heaven: but for pure, simple, unsophisticated virtue. You will soon hear again. Adieu, my dearest friend. Continue to believe that when I am insensible to your excellence, I shall cease to exist.
[中文译文]
雪莱致伊丽莎白·西琴勒
我刚才收到您1号的来信，按我们之间的约定给您复信，这一约定是不可违背的。你确实说过，在我们早起的时候，大自然总是有不同的面貌。谁能猜想到我上次写信的境况呢?我心灵的知己，这太可怕，太令人沮丧了。我的心为之一沉，浑身的锐气消磨殆尽……亲爱的心，我又是您的了，这幸福又将压倒我这短暂的孤芳自赏。然而在这种时候，谁又不会有相同的感受呢? 啊，如果一息尚存而欲对其不闻不问岂非与使第六感觉对这样一些印象变得迟钝同样的不顾后果了吗?最亲爱的朋友，能宽恕我吗? 我把整个心都掏给您了。几度举笔，笔不从心。但我理智的情感终于又涌现上我的心头，您的信也深深地影响着我。我从不认为我
们之间的交往会永远终止，您与我的交往给我带来了生命的曙光，是洒在我冰凉而漫长的人生旅途上的期待的温暖阳光。偏见可能要求人们以牺牲为代价，那只不过是幽灵，您我都不会向这个幽灵屈服。世俗可能要我们做出牺牲，舆论也会提出要求；但遥望飘过远方山岭的云彩，不是也乐在其中，有益于我们的身心吗?这决不可能，只要一息尚存，决不屈服，决不低头；即使时光把我们列入告别的名单中，毫无疑问，我们这般友情在天国中也一同相聚。何调爱情?何谓友情?是一些实在的东西吗?是球、苹果、玩偶……可以信手拈来、随意给人的实物吗?是不能深化、不能交流的吗?Kaimes勋爵给爱情下的定义是，爱情是一般激情的特殊体现，但这是肉欲之爱、情欲之爱……是荒谬绝伦的逢场作戏，是寻欢作乐的爱，不是幸福的爱。这是一种自私自利的爱，它只求利已，是嫉妒之源，其目的在于垄断追求的玩物，其本质是私心、垄断。这种爱的表现也是对爱的亵渎，使脆如纤草的爱泯灭殆尽。但我们崇拜的爱，象征美德、天意和无私，一句话，真情……它既能感知，又与远方山头上的云朵息息相通。它追求大家的幸福……首先是对方的幸福，不是因为对方给予欢乐，有愧于心，因为它有力量，有情感，并能无私奉献，因为美德的可爱而受美德……不是因为怕下地狱或升天堂而为他人求得幸福，而是出于纯朴无华的美德。你不久又会收到我的倍。再见了，我最亲爱的朋友。请你继续相信这一点：我什么时候对阁下不忠，我便将不复存在。
名人情书曝光（四）
Napoleon to Josephine
I have your letter, my adorable love. It has filled my heart with joy... since I left you I have been sad all the time. My only happiness is near you. I go over endlessly in my thought of your kisses, your tears, your delicious jealousy. The charm of my wonderful Josephine kindles a living, blazing fire in-my heart and senses. When shall I be able to pass every minute near you, with nothing to do but to love you and nothing to think of but the pleasure of telling you of it and giving you proof of it? I loved you some time ago; since then I feel that I love you a thousand times better. Ever since I have known you I adore you more every day. That proves how wrong is that saying of La Bruyere "Love comes all of a sudden. " Ah, let me see some of your faults; be less beautiful, less graceful, less tender, less good. But never be jealous and never shed tears. Your tears send me out of my mind ... they set my very blood on fire. Believe me that it is utterly impossible for me to have a single thought that is not yours, a single fancy that is not submissive to your will. Rest well. Restore your health. Come back to me and then at any rate before we die we ought to be able to say: "We were happy for so very many days!" Millions of kisses even to your dog.
[中文译文]
拿破仑致约瑟芬
我收到了你的信，我祟拜的心上人。你的信使我充满了欢乐……自从与你分手以后，我一直闷闷不乐，愁眉不展。我唯一的幸福就是伴随着你。你的吻给了我无限的思索和回味，还有你的泪水和甜蜜的嫉妒。我迷人的约瑟芬的魅力像一团炽热的火在心里燃烧。什么时候我才能在你身旁度过每分每秒，除了爱你什么也不需做；除了向你倾诉我对你的爱并向你证明爱的那种愉快，什么也不用想了?我不敢相信不久前爱上你，自那以后我感到对你的爱更增一千倍。自我与你相识，我一天比一天更崇拜你。这正好证明了La Bruyere说的"爱，突如其来"多么不切合实际。
埃，让我看你的一些美中不足吧。再少几分甜美，再少几分优雅，再少几分温柔抚媚，再少几分姣好吧。但决不要嫉妒，决不要流泪。你的眼泪使我神魂颠倒，你的眼泪使我热血沸腾。相信我，我每时每刻无不想你，不想你是绝无可能的。没有一丝意念能不顺着你的意愿。好好休息，早日康复。回到我的身边，不管怎么说，在我们谢世之前，我们应当能说："我们曾有多少个幸福的日子啊!"千百万次吻，甚至吻你的爱犬。
名人情书曝光（五）
Bettine Brentano to Goethe
You know my heart; you know that all there is desire, thought, boding and longing; you live among spirits and they give you divine wisdom. You must nourish me; you give all that in advance, which I do not understand to ask for. My mind has a small embrace, my love a large one; you must bring them to a balance. Love cannot be quiet till the mind matches its growth; you are matched to my love; you are friendly, kind, and indulgent; let me know when my heart is off the balance. I understand your silent signs.
A look from your eyes into mine, a kiss from you upon my lips, instructs me in all, what might seem delighted to learn, - to one who, like me, had experience from those. I am far from you; mine are become strange to me. I must ever return in thought to that hour when you hold me in the soft fold of your arm. Then I begin to weep, but the tears dry again unawares. Yes, he reaches with his love (thus I think) over to me in this concealed stillness; and should not I, with my eternal undisturbed loving, reach to him in the distance? Ah, conceive what my heart has to say to you; it overflows with soft sighs all whisper to you. Be my only happiness on earth your friendly will to me. O, dear friend, give me but a sign that you are conscious of me.
[中文译文]
贝停·布伦塔诺致歌德
你知道我的心；你知道我心里惟有的愿望、思念、预兆和渴求；你生活在幽灵之中，他们给你以神灵的智慧。你一定要给我以"营养"。你已经事先就给了我那些我不懂得去要求的东西。虽说我的才智小，但我的爱情甚深；你一定要平衡这两方面。在理智跟不上爱情的发展时，爱不能平静。你知道我有多爱你；你友善、温存、宽厚。告诉我，什么时候我的心失去了平衡。我懂得你那无声的暗示。
你映人我眼帘的凝睇、你印在我唇上的热吻，向我说明了一切。这一切对于像我这样的人，对于有过这方面感情经历的人，看来似乎令人高兴。你我天各一方，我给你的凝望和亲吻对我已日益陌生。我无法不回想在你怀抱中的温柔时刻。然后我便开始哭泣，又不知不觉眼泪已哭干。是的，在深藏的静谧中他对我一往情深(我如是想)。难道我就不应该借着永不动摇的深情遥通心声吗?啊，你不知道我一心要对你说些什么吗?我要对你无限地轻声叹息，窃窃私语，让感情沛溢。愿我今生今世唯一的幸福就是你对我的无限的柔情。啊，亲爱的朋友，只求你给我暗示，你心中只有我。
名人英语情书选
