第四期

来源：新闻中心

Love  in  a Fallen  City

作者：张爱玲

Then one night, after tossing and turning in bed for hours before finally drifting off, the telephone suddenly rang.

这一天，在深夜里，她已经上了床多时，只是翻来覆去，好容易朦胧了一会，床头的电话铃突然朗朗响了起来。

It was Liuyuan's voice. "I love you," he said. And hung up.

她一听，却是柳原的声音，道："我爱你。"就挂断了。

Liusu held the receiver in her hand and stared into space, her heart pounding. Softly she put it back in the cradle. No sooner had she hung up than it rang again.

流苏心跳得扑通扑通，握住了耳机，发了一会楞，方才轻轻的把它放回原处，谁知才搁上去，又是铃声大作。

Again she raised the receiver. Liuyuan said, "I forgot to ask-do you love me?"

她再度拿起听筒，柳原在那边问道："我忘了问你一声，你爱我么？"

Liusu coughed. When at last she spoke her throat was still dry and raspy.

流苏咳嗽了一声再开口，喉咙还是沙哑的。

"You must have known long ago," she said in a low voice. "Why else did I come to Hong Kong?"

她低声道："你早该知道了，我为什么上香港来？"

……

Liuyuan didn't say anything. Then, after a long while, he said "In The Book of Songs there's a verse—

"柳原不语，良久方道："诗经上有一首诗──"

"I don't understand that sort of thing," Liusu cut in.

流苏忙道："我不懂这些。"

"I know you don't understand," Liuyuan said impatiently. "If you understood, I wouldn't need to explain! So listen:

柳原不耐烦道："知道你不懂，若你懂，也用不着我讲了！我念你听：

"Facing life, death, distance

Here is my promise to thee—I take thy hand in mine:

We will grow old together.

死生契阔──与子相悦，执子之手，与子偕老。

"My Chinese isn't very good, and I don't know if I've got it right, but I think this is a very mournful poem which says that life and death and parting are enormous things, well beyond human control.

我的中文根本不行，可不知道解释得对不对。我看那是最悲哀的一首诗，生与死与离别，都是大事，不由我们支配的。

Compared to the great forces in the world, we people are so very, very small.

比起外界的力量，我们人是多么小，多么小！

But still we say I will stay with you forever, we will never, in this lifetime, leave each other as if we really could decide these things!"

可是我们偏要说：我永远和你在一起；我们一生一世都别离开。──好像我们自己做得了主似的！"

……

But the night was so still that even from a distance she could hear Liuyuan's perfectly calm voice saying "Liusu, from your window, can you see the moon?"

可是四周太静了，虽是离了这么远，她也听得见柳原的声音在那里心平气和地说："流苏，你的窗子里看得见月亮么？"

She didn't know why, but suddenly she was sobbing. The moon shone bright and blurry through her tears, silver, with a slightly greenish tint.

流苏不知道为什么，忽然哽咽起来。泪眼中的月亮大而模糊，银色的，有着绿的光棱。

"In my window," said Liuyuan, "there is a flowering vine that blocks half the view. Maybe it's a rose. Or maybe not."

柳原道："我这边，窗子上面吊下一枝藤花，挡住了一半。也许是玫瑰，也许不是。

▎原著：张爱玲

BGM：Acknowledgement——Story of a City

▎背景介绍

《倾城之恋》是张爱玲最脍炙人口的短篇小说之一。是一篇探讨爱情、婚姻和人性在战乱及其前后，怎样生存和挣扎的作品。

故事发生在香港，上海来的白家小姐白流苏，经历了一次失败的婚姻，身无分文，在亲戚间备受冷嘲热讽，看尽世态炎凉。

偶然认识了多金潇洒的单身汉范柳原，便拿自己当做赌注，远赴香港，博取范柳原的爱情，要争取一个合法的婚姻地位。

两个情场高手斗法的场地在浅水湾饭店，原本白流苏似是服输了，但在范柳原即将离开香港时，日军开始轰炸浅水湾，范柳原折回保护白流苏。

狂轰滥炸，生死交关，牵绊了范柳原，流苏欣喜中不无悲哀，如此患难，大概足以做十年夫妻。想象一片黑暗的山洞中，两个人擎火相遇，只得携手走下去。

但故事动听之处更在于，他们在相互争斗中萌生了爱情。小说的结局看似圆满，实则浸透着苍凉。张爱玲1945年自己写了篇《关于〈倾城之恋〉的老实话》，当中说：“我从她（流苏）的观点写这故事，而她始终没有彻底懂得柳原的人。

桂佳，硕士毕业于英国布里斯托大学，专业为TESOL（对外英语教学）。本科期间曾交换至美国学习英国语言文学专业，毕业后曾赴美国新泽西和泰国任教。平日喜欢唱歌，绘画，舞蹈，也酷爱旅游，希望能游遍世界。