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.
[中文譯文]
勞倫斯·斯特恩致L小姐
不錯，我即將悄然離開這世界，任何饒舌鬼也說不出我在何處。即使那回聲也說不出我的藏身之處。您愛怎么想就怎么想吧：或許你會把它說成是山間的小屋，那兒充滿了浪漫的歡樂和金色的陽光。您以為我會把愛情和友誼拋棄嗎?決不!它們是我孤獨中的伴侶，因為無論我起坐行止我都會感受到我所愛的溫馨。在撒旦介入那美妙的樂園生活之前，我們會像我們的祖先一樣快樂和天真、無邪。
我們最美好的愛情還會有不斷加深和發展的餘地，如此的愛，瘋狂、嫉妒和非凡之想都會扼殺在萌芽之中。讓人間的暴風驟雨在遠方肆虐吧，讓孤獨把那寂靜隔離在遠遠的地平線上。我的L……看見過夜來香在十二月開放……正好有堵牆擋住了凜冽的寒風。這兒無塵世的干擾，只有甜蜜的花香欣賞。願上帝保佑我們!意想中的前景是多么喜人!我們將自由自在地在這兒安家、耕種……樸實再不會受到奸詐的欺凌。我們將向大自然學會生活……她是我們的鍊金術士，她把生活中一切美好的東西融為和諧的力量。我們居住的地方不再有憂慮和不信任的陰影籠罩，只有仁慈的守護神保衛我們。我們將同聲歌唱，感謝神靈，歡欣鼓舞直到走完人生旅程。
再見了，我的L……
回到盼您的伴侶的身邊來吧，他為了與您相處而熬得憔悴。
名人情書曝光（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.
朱麗葉·德魯埃致維克多·雨果
啊，您想我吧，我最愛的人，好讓我感受到您的甜蜜，好讓你與家人的歡樂、與朋友和愛慕您的人的歡樂不會變為對我嫉妒和令我傷心。您想我吧，因為您就是我的生命和靈魂。想想我對您的愛如此深沉、純潔、專一吧，祝願我能與您相聚在一起吧。我馬上要就寢了，還在為您和您的親人祈求上帝。我相信我的祈禱不會得不到回音，因為我不惜用生命換得您的親人還有您自己的幸福。要是您知道我是如何祝福您，我的愛，那么您也會覺得您愛我的心一點也不亞於我想您知道我是多么愛您。我愛您，我對您的愛超過了人間世上的一切。今夜盡情地為您的成功而歡樂吧，我的維克多，盡情地讚美您的美麗，讚美您的天才吧，為能與歡樂的家人團聚而高興吧!要是您在歡樂的時刻沒有把我忘懷，我定當感到自豪和宰福。不管怎么樣，最重要的是，我不想強求或委屈您，我只想受著您直到瞑目之時。
名人情書曝光（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.
[中文譯文]
雪萊致伊莉莎白·西琴勒
我剛才收到您1號的來信，按我們之間的約定給您覆信，這一約定是不可違背的。你確實說過，在我們早起的時候，大自然總是有不同的面貌。誰能猜想到我上次寫信的境況呢?我心靈的知己，這太可怕，太令人沮喪了。我的心為之一沉，渾身的銳氣消磨殆盡……親愛的心，我又是您的了，這幸福又將壓倒我這短暫的孤芳自賞。然而在這種時候，誰又不會有相同的感受呢? 啊，如果一息尚存而欲對其不聞不問豈非與使第六感覺對這樣一些印象變得遲鈍同樣的不顧後果了嗎?最親愛的朋友，能寬恕我嗎? 我把整個心都掏給您了。幾度舉筆，筆不從心。但我理智的情感終於又湧現上我的心頭，您的信也深深地影響著我。我從不認為我
們之間的交往會永遠終止，您與我的交往給我帶來了生命的曙光，是灑在我冰涼而漫長的人生旅途上的期待的溫暖陽光。偏見可能要求人們以犧牲為代價，那只不過是幽靈，您我都不會向這個幽靈屈服。世俗可能要我們做出犧牲，輿論也會提出要求；但遙望飄過遠方山嶺的雲彩，不是也樂在其中，有益於我們的身心嗎?這決不可能，只要一息尚存，決不屈服，決不低頭；即使時光把我們列入告別的名單中，毫無疑問，我們這般友情在天國中也一同相聚。何調愛情?何謂友情?是一些實在的東西嗎?是球、蘋果、玩偶……可以信手拈來、隨意給人的實物嗎?是不能深化、不能交流的嗎?Kaimes勳爵給愛情下的定義是，愛情是一般激情的特殊體現，但這是肉慾之愛、情慾之愛……是荒謬絕倫的逢場作戲，是尋歡作樂的愛，不是幸福的愛。這是一種自私自利的愛，它只求利已，是嫉妒之源，其目的在於壟斷追求的玩物，其本質是私心、壟斷。這種愛的表現也是對愛的褻瀆，使脆如纖草的愛泯滅殆盡。但我們崇拜的愛，象徵美德、天意和無私，一句話，真情……它既能感知，又與遠方山頭上的雲朵息息相通。它追求大家的幸福……首先是對方的幸福，不是因為對方給予歡樂，有愧於心，因為它有力量，有情感，並能無私奉獻，因為美德的可愛而受美德……不是因為怕下地獄或升天堂而為他人求得幸福，而是出於純樸無華的美德。你不久又會收到我的倍。再見了，我最親愛的朋友。請你繼續相信這一點：我什麼時候對閣下不忠，我便將不復存在。
名人情書曝光（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.
[中文譯文]
拿破崙致約瑟芬
我收到了你的信，我祟拜的心上人。你的信使我充滿了歡樂……自從與你分手以後，我一直悶悶不樂，愁眉不展。我唯一的幸福就是伴隨著你。你的吻給了我無限的思索和回味，還有你的淚水和甜蜜的嫉妒。我迷人的約瑟芬的魅力像一團熾熱的火在心裡燃燒。什麼時候我才能在你身旁度過每分每秒，除了愛你什麼也不需做；除了向你傾訴我對你的愛並向你證明愛的那種愉快，什麼也不用想了?我不敢相信不久前愛上你，自那以後我感到對你的愛更增一千倍。自我與你相識，我一天比一天更崇拜你。這正好證明了La Bruyere說的"愛，突如其來"多么不切合實際。
埃，讓我看你的一些美中不足吧。再少幾分甜美，再少幾分優雅，再少幾分溫柔撫媚，再少幾分姣好吧。但決不要嫉妒，決不要流淚。你的眼淚使我神魂顛倒，你的眼淚使我熱血沸騰。相信我，我每時每刻無不想你，不想你是絕無可能的。沒有一絲意念能不順著你的意願。好好休息，早日康復。回到我的身邊，不管怎么說，在我們謝世之前，我們應當能說："我們曾有多少個幸福的日子啊!"千百萬次吻，甚至吻你的愛犬。
名人情書曝光（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.
[中文譯文]
貝停·布倫塔諾致歌德
你知道我的心；你知道我心裡惟有的願望、思念、預兆和渴求；你生活在幽靈之中，他們給你以神靈的智慧。你一定要給我以"營養"。你已經事先就給了我那些我不懂得去要求的東西。雖說我的才智小，但我的愛情甚深；你一定要平衡這兩方面。在理智跟不上愛情的發展時，愛不能平靜。你知道我有多愛你；你友善、溫存、寬厚。告訴我，什麼時候我的心失去了平衡。我懂得你那無聲的暗示。
你映人我眼帘的凝睇、你印在我唇上的熱吻，向我說明了一切。這一切對於像我這樣的人，對於有過這方面感情經歷的人，看來似乎令人高興。你我天各一方，我給你的凝望和親吻對我已日益陌生。我無法不回想在你懷抱中的溫柔時刻。然後我便開始哭泣，又不知不覺眼淚已哭乾。是的，在深藏的靜謐中他對我一往情深(我如是想)。難道我就不應該借著永不動搖的深情遙通心聲嗎?啊，你不知道我一心要對你說些什麼嗎?我要對你無限地輕聲嘆息，竊竊私語，讓感情沛溢。願我今生今世唯一的幸福就是你對我的無限的柔情。啊，親愛的朋友，只求你給我暗示，你心中只有我。
名人英語情書選