第17封信 - 1950.10.15
“如果你路过书店，请替我献上一吻，因为我亏欠它良多。”
寄语
《84, Charing Cross Road》
从前的日色变得慢
车、马、邮件都慢
一生只够爱一个人
细品每一封信
感受书信的缓慢
感受人类的长情
英文原文
14 East 95th St. October 15, 1950
WELL!!!
All I have to say to YOU, Frank Doel, is we live in depraved, destructive and degenerate times when a bookshop—a BOOKSHOP— starts tearing up beautiful old books to use as wrapping paper. I said to John Henry when he stepped out of it:
“Would you believe a thing like that, Your Eminence?“and he said he wouldn’t. You tore that book up in the middle of a major battle and I don’t even know which war it was.
The Newman arrived almost a week ago and I’m just beginning to recover. I keep it on the table with me all day, every now and then I stop typing and reach over and touch it.Not because it’s a first edition; I just never saw a book so beautiful. I feel vaguely guilty about owning it. All that gleam-ing leather and gold stamping and beautiful type belongs in the pine-panelled library of an English country home; it wants to be read by the fire in a gentleman’s leather easy chair— not on a secondhand studio couch in a one-room hovel in a broken-down brownstone front.
I want the Q anthology. I’m not sure how much it was, I lost your last letter. I think it was about two bucks, I’ll enclose two singles, if I owe you more let me know.
Why don’t you wrap it in pages LCXII and LCXIII so I can at least find out who won the battle and what war it was?
HH
P.S. Have you got Sam Pepys’ diary over there? I need him for long winter evenings.
中文翻译
东九十五大街14号 1950年10月15日
真是的！！！
不是我爱唠叨，弗兰克·德尔！我们是生活在道德败坏、破坏性、退化的时代吗，看到书店竟忍心把这么美的旧书拿内页充当包装纸。我要向被包在里头的约翰·亨利告状：
“主教阁下，斯文如此扫地，君岂信乎哉？”他说他也实在百思不得其解。更可恶的是你把书拆散了，随便抓来几页顺手就包，害我根本搞不清楚上头到底是在打哪一仗哪一役。
纽曼大学这本书大约一个星期前寄达，我正在恢复中。我把它放在桌子上，整天陪着我。我不时停下打字，伸手过去抚摸它。倒不全然因为这是首版书，主要是打出生起我从没见过这么标致的书。拥有这样的书，让我有莫名的罪恶感。它那闪闪发光的皮外套，古雅的烫金书名，秀丽的印刷铅字，它实在应该置身于英国乡间的一幢木造宅邸；由一位优雅的老绅士坐在炉火前的皮制摇椅里，慢条斯理地轻轻展读……而不该委身在一间寒酸破公寓里，让我坐在蹩脚旧沙发上翻阅。
我要买那本Q的文集，可是忘了多少钱，我把你的上一封信搞丢了。好像是两块钱吧？附上两张一元钞票，若是不够就来信告诉我。
下回要寄书来时，拿第五一二页和五一三页来包书怎么样？这样我才晓得最后哪一边打赢了，还有那到底是哪一场战役。
海莲·汉芙
P.S.你们那儿可有《佩皮斯日记》？我需要它来伴我度过漫漫冬夜。
原文图片
结尾
二十年间缘悭一面
相隔万里莫逆于心
致敬经典，《查令十字街84号》
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