Shelly to Elizabeth Hitchener
Chestnut Cottage, Keswick
Tuesday, 12 November 1811 雪莱致伊丽莎白•西琴勒
Chestnut Cottage, Keswick
星期二 1811年11月12日
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; thy happiness shall again predominaute over this fleeting tribute to self-interest. Yet who would not feel now? Oh't were as reckless a task to endeavour 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 mysensations grows upon me. Your letter, too, has much affected me. Never, withmy 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 isa n 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 mustbe taken from one to be given to another? Is it capable of no extension, no communication? Lord Kaimes defines love to a particularization of the generalpassion. 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 self-centered, self-devoted, self-interested: It desires it sown interest; it is the parent of jealousy. Its object is the play thing 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 for virtue's own loveliness--desiring 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.刚才收到你1号的来信，我按我们之前的默契复信。这个默契是不能违背的。我们早上起身时，你确实说过，实际情况已经不一样了。谁能猜得到我上次写信时的境况呢？我心灵的知己，这太可怕，太令人沮丧了。我的心为之一沉，锐气消磨殆尽……亲爱的人儿，我又是你的了，你的幸福又将压倒我这短暂的孤芳自赏。然而在这种时候，谁又不会有同感呢？啊，如果一息尚存而欲其不闻不问岂非与使第六感对这样一些印象变得迟钝同样不顾后果吗？最亲爱的朋友，宽恕我吧，我把整个心都掏给你了。几度提笔，笔不从心。但激情终于涌现，你的信也起了作用。我认为我们之间的交往永远不会终止，这种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温暖阳光。偏见可能要求人们做出牺牲，但我们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；但遥望漂过远方山岭的云朵也乐在其中，有益于身心。只要一息尚存，决不屈服，决不低头；即使大限到来，人间情侣也要天上相聚。何谓爱情，何谓友情？是球、苹果、玩偶－－可以信手拈来、随意给人的实物？是不能深化、不能交流的吗？凯米斯勋爵把爱情定义为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。这是一种以自我为中心的爱，自私自利的爱：它只求利己，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。这种爱的些许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，也不仅因为对方使自己幸福，而是因为这种爱真正无愧于心，因为它有力量，有情感，并能无私奉献，因为美德的可爱而爱美德－－不是因为怕下地狱或想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信。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。
你的最诚挚和至死不渝的Percy S. 珀西•雪莱
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