【双语】戴厚英·《爱情本应该是轻松的》（上）

爱情本应该是轻松的

Love Should Be Lighthearted

戴厚英

Dai Houying

不少人问我为什么不写爱情小说？我的回答是怕。

Many a time I’ve been asked the question, “Why don’t you write a love story?” My answer is, “I dare not.”

编一些美丽动人的爱情故事，去蛊惑和欺骗一些少男少女，自然没什么可怕。少男少女会长大，会自己找到爱情的真正含义，对付爱情中各种问题，悲悲喜喜，并不要作家负责。可是我写小说的时候已经不是少男少女的年纪，没有那份心情去织造美丽的情网，哈哈嘻嘻哭哭啼啼地在网里钻来钻去了。

There’s nothing terrifying about making up a beautiful love story to fool boys and girls and poison their minds. They will grow up and learn for themselves the real meaning of love. Writers do not have to be responsible for the problems, sorrows and joys that come with love. But I was no longer a little girl when I started writing novels, so I am in no mood to conjure up beautiful meshes of love and thread my way through them with laughs and tears.

爱情本应是轻松的。一男一女，互相愉悦，赏心悦目，生儿育女，既是生存发展的需要，也是心灵滋润的需要。所以，爱情实在是人类生活中最神圣、最美好、最洁净的部分，更是人类文明的伟大创造。生活在爱情中的人们不但是幸福的，而且是美丽的。

Love should be lighthearted. A man and a woman take a liking to each other, enjoy each other, start a family, and raise their children. This is necessary for the continuation of life on earth as well as for the comfort of the soul. Love is therefore the most sacred and the finest and purest part of human life. It is also a momentous creation of civilization. People in love are not only happy but also beautiful.

然而，我所经历所见识的爱情却沉重得令人畏惧。

And yet, the kind of love I have experienced and witnessed is frighteningly heavy.

实际上，只要人们一旦踏上爱情之路，就感到沉重的分量了。首先是害怕失去。哪一对情侣不是信誓旦旦地表白，一定要白头偕老，海枯石烂？可是很不幸，变异确是绝对的。

In fact, as soon as one falls in love, he or she is often made to feel a burden. First is the fear of losing the other. No lovers would mean to forgo their vows to “live to a ripe old age in conjugal felicity’ and “be true to you even if the seas dry up and the rocks turn to dust.” Unfortunately, changes of heart occur all too frequently. 

（Yang Shuhui and Yang Yunqin 译）