The Life Is Filled with Tender Feelings
柴可夫斯基致冯·梅克夫人
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to Mme von Meck
柴可夫斯基（1840—1893），世界上最伟大的音乐家之一。他于1976年底开始与冯·梅克夫人长达13年的神秘交往。他收到冯·梅克夫人的信后，很受感动，随后诚恳地写了回信。
It is impossible to say how glad I was to see your handwriting and to know we were again in communication. Jurgenson forgot to tell me that the piano arrangement of our symphony had at last been published, so your letter was the first news I had of it. I am tremendously elated that you are satisfied with the arrangement, which in truth is well and skillfully done.
As for the music itself, I knew beforehand that you would like it; how could it have been otherwise? I wrote it with you constantly in mind. At that time, I was not nearly so intimate with you as now, but already I sensed vaguely that no one in the world could respond more keenly to the deepest and most secret gropings of my soul. No musical dedication has ever been more seriously meant. It was spoken not only on my part but on yours; the symphony was not, in truth, mine but ours. Forever it will remain my favorite work, as the monument of a time when upon a deep, insidiously growing mental disease, upon a whole series of unbearable sufferings, grief and despair, suddenly, hope dawned and the sun of happiness began to shine, and that sun was embodied in the person to whom the symphony was dedicated.
I tremble to think what might have happened if fate had not sent you to me. I owe you everything: life, the chance to pursue freedom that hitherto unattainable ambition, and such abundance of good fortune as had never occurred to me even in dreams. I read your letter with gratitude and love too strong for expression in any medium but music. May I be able some time to express it thus!
Dear friend, may you keep well. I wish it for you more than for myself. Reading how our symphony caused you sleepless nights, I felt my heart constricted. (I want my music henceforth to be a source of joy and consolation, and with all my strength I desire for you a spirit well and calm.)
Yours,
P. Tchaikovsky
Grankino
Oct. 10, 1879
看到你的笔迹，知道我们又在通信，我内心的喜悦无以言表。朱根生忘了告诉我一件事，就是由我们的交响乐改编的钢琴曲终于出版了，因此，你是第一个写信告诉我这个消息的人。你很满意这支改编的钢琴曲，我听了简直欣喜万分。说实话，改编得确实不错，而且很精致。
至于交响乐本身，我事先就知道你会喜欢的，难道还会有别的可能吗？我谱曲的时候，心里无时无刻不挂念着你。那时，我不像现在和你这样亲密，但我已经隐约意识到：对我灵魂深处那些极其深刻而隐秘的探索，这世上再没有人的反应比你更敏锐了。从来没有一部音乐作品的献词比我的更严肃了，它不仅传达了我的心意，也传达了你的；实际上，这部交响乐不只属于我，而是属于我们。它将永远是我最得意的作品，因为它是我人生中一个时期的里程碑——当时我正承受着深重的苦难、不断加重的精神困扰和一连串难以忍受的痛苦、忧虑和绝望。突然间，希望的曙光和幸福的阳光开始闪现——那太阳就是我这交响乐所献之人的化身。
如果命运之神没有把你派到我这里来，那将是什么样子呢？我想到这不禁不寒而栗。你赐予了我一切：生命、追求自由的机会（那至今还没有实现的宏愿）以及那连做梦都不曾遇到的接二连三的好运气。我怀着深厚的感激和爱慕之情阅读这封来信，除了音乐之外，没有其他任何形式能够表达我的感情。希望有一天我能够用这种形式来表达！
亲爱的朋友，请多多保重。我祝你身体健康的心愿，比祝福我自己更加深切。你信中说，我们的交响乐让你彻夜难眠，听了这话我很心痛。我希望我的音乐从此能成为你快乐和慰藉的源泉，全身心地祝你精神愉快、安宁。
你的P.柴可夫斯基
1879年10月10日
于葛兰契诺
beforehand [bif:h鎛d] adv. 预先；事先地；提前
Have you warned beforehand?
你事先打招呼了吗？
intimate [intimt] adj. 亲密的；密切的；个人隐私的
They are intimate friends.
他们是密友。
insidiously [insidisli] adv.不知不觉地；暗中为害地
He had insidiously wormed his way into her affections.
他已神不知鬼不觉地赢得了她的爱情。
henceforth [hensf:] adv. 此后；从此以后；从今以后
He has promised to behave better henceforth.
他答应从今以后要表现得好些。
突然间，希望的曙光和幸福的阳光开始闪现——那太阳就是我这交响曲所献之人的化身。
我怀着深厚的感激和爱慕之情阅读这封信，除了音乐之外，没有其他任何形式能够表达我的感情。
我希望我的音乐从此能成为你快乐和慰藉的源泉，全身心地祝你精神愉快、安宁。
...our symphony had at last been published...
at last：最后；终于
I am tremendously elated that you are satisfied with the arrangement.
be satisfied with：满意
罗伯特·骚塞致夏洛蒂·勃朗特
Robert Southey to Charlotte Bronte
罗伯特·骚塞（1774—1843），英国散文家，浪漫主义诗人，“湖畔派”诗人之一。1813年被封为“桂冠诗人”。骚塞的诗当时备受推崇，而如今他的诗很少有人读，流传于世的主要是他的散文作品。他的散文作品文笔清新，其中有些长期为读者所传诵，如《纳尔逊传》、《英国来信》等。
夏洛蒂·勃朗特（1816—1855）在1847年发表《简·爱》之前是个名不见经传的女孩。她20岁时，大着胆子把自己的几首短诗寄给当时的桂冠诗人骚塞。本篇就是骚塞给她的回信。
MADAM,
You will probably, ere this, have given up all expectation of receiving an answer to your letter of December 29. I was on the borders of Cornwall when that letter was written; it found me a fortnight afterwards in Hampsuire. During my subsequent movements in different parts of the country, and a tarriance of three busy weeks in London, I had no leisure for replying to it; and now that I am once more at home, and am clearing off the arrears of business which had accumulated during a long absence, it has lain unanswered till the last of a numerous file, not from disrespect of indifference to its contents, but because, in truth, it is not an easy task to answer it, nor a pleasant one to cast a damp over the high spirits and the generous desires of youth.
What you are I can only infer from your letter, which appears to be written in sincerity; though I may suspect that you have used a fictitious signature. Be that as it may, the letter and the verses bear the same stamp; and I can well understand the state of mind which they indicate. What I am you might have learnt by such of my publications as have come into your hands; and, had you happened to be acquainted with me, a little personal knowledge would have tempered your enthusiasm. You might have had your ardour in some degree abated by seeing a poet in the decline of life, and witnessing the effect which age produces upon our hopes and aspirations; yet I am neither a disappointed man nor a discontented one, and you would never have heard from me any chilling sermons upon the text, "All is vanity".
