感人的愛情文章：一封情書
摘錄：比我聰明的人也許會爭辯說，濃情並不能持久。感情與身體就像火焰與蠟燭，火焰最熱烈時，也是蠟燭即將燃盡的時候。所以，要讓兩個人的愛長存，就必須犧牲其一或兩人來使愛永生，或者乾脆讓愛靜變爲友伴之情， 或更糟的是，讓愛在世俗生活的重壓下慢慢枯萎。
I write to you as the evening shadows draw close, with the 1)tang of fog upon my breath, the very first of this season. I feel your arms about me as you left this morning for the airport as I wrap my 2)shawl a little closer. Joey woke up and you patted him back to sleep, and left me warm and tangled in the sheets, already waiting for you to be back.
It has always been like this, though I never let you know of the waiting. The first time I talked to you, on those typed pages, 3)under the cloak of names 4)artfully chosen, moments became minutes and minutes gathered to hours. When we could talk no more, I was yearning, restless, and 5)loath to admit it. I gave you my number, gave it to a complete unknown, and was scared of my lack of 6)trepidation because, amazingly, no logic I could 7)muster would dismiss my 8)conviction that you were for real.
夜幕降臨之時，我正給你寫信，呼吸着這個季節的第一場寒霧。我裹緊圍巾，那感覺猶如你今天早上趕赴機場前摟着我一般。喬伊醒來，你輕拍着哄他再次入睡，把我留在溫暖的被窩裏蜷縮着，那一刻我就已開始等着你回來。
一直如此，雖然我從未讓你知道我在等你。第一次與你交談時，是通過網上傳書，還用了一些精心挑選的網名做掩護，那時候的分分秒秒最終匯聚成漫長的數個小時。實在不能繼續聊了，我會滿懷思慕、焦躁不安，不願承認想你的事實。我把自己的電話號碼給了你——一個完完全全的陌生人。連我自己也嚇了一跳，我居然沒有一絲彷徨不安。奇怪的是，我找不到懷疑你的理由。
As I talked to you for days that 9)spilled into weeks, I was 10)tremulous, unsure, as a spider thread launched into the breeze, and it was as if in you my soul had found an anchor. You would talk to me of this and that, of a 11)pompous colleague or of a cab driver gone 12)amok, of the 13)impending marriage in your neighborhood, of an art exhibition where a watercolor made you think of me. I would laugh: a building, are you serious? I am really not that fat, you know! You would move on to explain, but my mind would wander, I would 14)stroll in front of the mirror and examine myself: have the years of marriage marked time on my face, am I as slim as before Joey came?
1In those months of waiting, whether for the axe to fall or for happiness to strike I do not know, it was your voice and the 15)tug of Joey's fingers that pulled me through. When I see the two of you together, him on your shoulders with a 16)fistful of your hair, your 17)impish grins mirroring each other, I am happy I made the decision to be part of your life and to make you a part of ours.
我們聊着聊着，日子便悄然地由一天天逐漸變成了一週周。我心生顫抖，將信將疑，彷彿一根蛛絲飄蕩在微風中，我的靈魂奔向了你，找到了依靠。你會跟我聊這聊那，聊愛炫耀的同事，聊發瘋的出租車司機，聊你家附近即將舉行的婚禮，聊藝術展，你說在藝術展上看到一幅水彩畫讓你想起了我。我會笑着說，(我像水彩畫中的)建築，說真的嗎?你知道我其實沒有那麼胖啦!你會接着解釋，但我的思緒卻到了別處，我會站到鏡子前審視自己臉上是不是有了婚姻帶來的歲月痕跡?我是否還像喬伊到來之前那樣苗條呢? 我們聊着聊着，日子便悄然地由一天天逐漸變成了一週周。
我心生顫抖，將信將疑，彷彿一根蛛絲飄蕩在微風中，我的靈魂奔向了你，找到了依靠。你會跟我聊這聊那，聊愛炫耀的同事，聊發瘋的出租車司機，聊你家附近即將舉行的婚禮，聊藝術展，你說在藝術展上看到一幅水彩畫讓你想起了我。我會笑着說，(我像水彩畫中的)建築，說真的嗎?你知道我其實沒有那麼胖啦!你會接着解釋，但我的思緒卻到了別處，我會站到鏡子前審視自己臉上是不是有了婚姻帶來的歲月痕跡?我是否還像喬伊到來之前那樣苗條呢?
那些等待的日子是痛苦還是幸福，我無從得知，是你的聲音和喬伊的陪伴使我最終度過了那段艱難的歲月。當我看到你們在一起，他坐在你的肩膀上，撩起你的一撮頭髮，你們頑皮的笑容交相輝映，我很高興自己做出了這樣的決定：讓自己成爲你生活中的一部分並讓你成爲我和喬伊的一部分。
You have become my spirit and my essence, my joy and temptation, the answer to 18)fervent prayers whispered with only half a hope of their fulfillment. I 19)revel in the freedom of the 20)enclosure of your arms, the way I am beautiful to you in the mornings without even running a comb through my hair. And through the times before I married you, what won me over was the way you somehow knew when to hold me close and when to let me be.
你已成爲我的精神支柱和生命中必不可少的元素，成了我的喜悅、歡樂和動力源泉，你是我熱切呢喃的那些祈禱的迴應，儘管當初祈禱時並未抱太大希望。我陶醉在你雙臂繞纏的自由中，陶醉在早晨醒來，即使我亂髮蓬鬆，在你眼中我依然美麗可人。在嫁給你之前，不知何故，你總知道何時該緊緊地抱着我，何時應該讓我一人獨處，這就是你最終贏得我芳心的原因。
People wiser than I would care to argue with often say that extreme emotions cannot be sustained for long. They use the body as the flame does a candle, and the flame is never stronger than when the candle is at its shortest. So for a love of two people to survive, it must be 21)immortalized by the death of one or both, or simply get 22)lulled to companionship, or worse still, slowly 23)wilt under the weight of life's 24)mundane tomorrows.
比我聰明的人也許會爭辯說，濃情並不能持久。感情與身體就像火焰與蠟燭，火焰最熱烈時，也是蠟燭即將燃盡的時候。所以，要讓兩個人的愛長存，就必須犧牲其一或兩人來使愛永生，或者乾脆讓愛靜變爲友伴之情， 或更糟的是，讓愛在世俗生活的重壓下慢慢枯萎。
But you were first a stranger, then a friend, afterwards a lover and now my husband. You are the man who left spaces in our togetherness as pauses in the 25)cadence of a song. I trust as well that each day I pass with you now, one of your arms about my shoulder and the other around Joey as you introduce me to your friends, will remain with me as I grow older.
但是，你起初是一個陌生人，然 後是一個朋友，後來成了我的戀人，而現在，你是我的丈夫。你是那個在我們團聚的時光之間留下空隙的男人，這種空隙就像一首抑揚頓挫的歌中的停頓。我也相信，即便歲月流逝，我現在與你度過的每一天，連同你一隻手搭着我的肩膀，另一隻搭着喬伊，把我介紹給你朋友的每一個時刻，都會與我同在。
As I write to you now, I know that when you are back next week I'll probably tell you how much I love you and this letter may just seem 26)superfluous. Please know that when you read it in the fifth, tenth or thirtieth year of our marriage, I love you then as I love you today when our marriage is a full year old, and we are miles apart on our first wedding anniversary.
此刻，我正在給你寫信，我知道，當你下週回來時，我很可能會親口告訴你我是多麼愛你，這封信也許稍顯多餘。今天，我們的婚姻滿一週年，相隔千里的我們過着人生中的第一個結婚紀念日。請記得，當你在我們第五個、第十個、或第三十個結婚紀念日讀這封信時，那時，我依然像今天這樣愛你。
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