当爱情让你痛苦，就立刻去搭上一只大海轮

1.

《刀锋》(The Razor's Edge)中，毛姆为了安慰刚刚取消婚约的Isbel，他说了这样一段话：

“You know, when one’s in love,” I said, “and things go all wrong, one’s terribly unhappy and one thinks one won’t ever get over it. But you’ll be astounded to learn what the sea will do.”

“What do you mean?” she smiled.

“Well, love isn’t a good sailor and it languishes on a sea voyage. You’ll be surprised when you have the Atlantic between you and Larry to find how slight the pang is that before you sailed seemed intolerable.”

“Do you speak from experience?”

“From the experience of a stormy past. When I suffered from the pangs of unrequited love I immediately got on an ocean liner.”

照顾“一看见英文”就头疼的朋友，附上后半段的翻译（周煦良译），看完了翻译你就知道还是原文读起来顺畅。

爱情是个很不行的水手，你坐一次船，它就憔悴了。当你和拉里之间隔开一座大西洋时，你会意想不到地发现，在启程以前，好象无法忍受的苦痛，也变得轻微了。

这是你的经验之谈吗？

这是一个曾经沧海的人的经验体会。我在爱情上碰了钉子，感到痛苦时，就立刻去搭上一只大海轮。

2.

这段话首先让我想到的是一部叫《重返17岁》（17 Again)的电影中，爸爸对失恋的女儿说：

When you're young everything feels like the end of the world. But it's not; it's just the beginning. You might have to meet a few more jerks, but one day you're gonna meet a boy who treats you the way you deserve to be treated. Like the sun rises and sets with you.

然后是大学时老师送了我一本名著，Herman Melville的Moby Dick，一直都没有读完 -- 那是英文还太差，这本书太长，读到第三章就放弃了。但是一直都记得它的第一段对“水”的描写：

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

罗山川的译文：

3.

十多年之后，Isbel早已嫁做人妇，也有了孩子。当她和Larry重逢，她清楚的知道她还爱着他，她对毛姆说：

At the bottom of my heart I hankered for Larry, but as long as I didn't see him it didn't really bother me. D'you remember saying to me that with three thousand miles of ocean between, the pangs of love become quite tolerable? I thought it a cynical remark then, but of course it's ture.

读到这里心疼了一阵，脑袋里不停闪过那些电影桥段，写了好多字又都删掉。