科學家費曼致妻子阿琳的一封情書 October 17, 1946 1946年10月17日 D’Arline, 阿琳： I adore you, sweetheart. 我的心上人！你是我崇愛的女神！ I know how much you like to hear that — but I don’t only write it because you like it — I write it because it makes me warm all over inside to write it to you. 我知道你有多愛聽我這么說，但我的表白不只是為了你愛聽。我之所以寫信給你，還因為這讓我的內心深處充滿了溫情。 It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you — almost two years but I know you’ll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic; and I thought there was no sense to writing. 上次給你寫信已經是很久以前的事了——就快兩年了，我才再次動筆，但我確信你會原諒我的，因為你了解我為人處事的方式，既固執(zhí)又現(xiàn)實；而且在此期間，我覺得寫信沒什么意義。 But now I know my darling wife that it is right to do what I have delayed in doing, and that I have done so much in the past. I want to tell you I love you. I want to love you. I always will love you. 不過，我的愛妻，如今我意識到，還是應該去做已經被我拖延了很久的事情——給你寫信，況且我在已往的日子里，給你寫過好多封信。我想告訴你的是，我深愛著你！我渴望去愛護你，直到永遠、直到地老天荒… I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you — I want to do little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we do? We started to learn to make clothes together — or learn Chinese — or getting a movie projector. Can’t I do something now? No. I am alone without you and you were the “idea-woman” and general instigator of all our wild adventures. 自從你撒手人寰以后，在我的心中難以參悟的是，對你的愛戀究竟意味著什么。但我依舊想要帶給你慰籍，照顧你的起居，我也渴求得到你的愛和關懷。我想找些問題和你一起探討，也就是說，我想和你一起做些小“項目”。我以前未曾想過，直至片刻之前才意識到，我們其實是可以如此這般地生活的。我們應該做什么呢？我們不妨從學做裁縫入手，或者學**中文，或者買臺放映機在家中看電影。現(xiàn)在我自己就不能找點事情做嗎？我做不到了——沒有了你，我倍感孤獨和無助。你，是我們共同擁有的所有那些無拘無束、異乎尋常、激動人心的經歷的“女創(chuàng)意師”和總策劃人。 When you were sick you worried because you could not give me something that you wanted to and thought I needed. You needn’t have worried. Just as I told you then there was no real need because I loved you in so many ways so much. And now it is clearly even more true — you can give me nothing now yet I love you so that you stand in my way of loving anyone else — but I want you to stand there. You, dead, are so much better than anyone else alive. 在你生病期間，你總是心神不寧，因為你無法再給我那些你想要給我的東西，以及那些你相信我會需要的東西。其實你沒必要為我擔心，正如我當時告訴你的那樣，我其實什么都不需要，原因就在于我愛你，以好多種方式深愛著你！如今這一切變得更加明白無誤了——你現(xiàn)在什么都給不了我，而我對你的愛卻刻骨銘心，以至于我無法再愛上別人。但是我渴望把你永遠珍藏在心底——雖然你的生命之火已經熄滅，但你依然是我的至愛，天下無雙！ I know you will assure me that I am foolish and that you want me to have full happiness and don’t want to be in my way. I’ll bet you are surprised that I don’t even have a girlfriend (except you, sweetheart) after two years. But you can’t help it, darling, nor can I — I don’t understand it, for I have met many girls and very nice ones and I don’t want to remain alone — but in two or three meetings they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real. 我知道，你肯定會嗔怪我傻得可笑，你肯定會希望我幸福美滿，你肯定不想成為我的心理負擔。我確信,你一定會感到十分意外：你去世兩年了，我卻連個女朋友都沒有（除了你，我的心上人）！可是，親愛的，你幫不了我的，我本人也無能為力。我不明白這是為什么，因為我其實認識了很多女孩，非常漂亮的女孩，而且我也不想孑然一身，孤單下去。但約會過兩三次以后，她們在我眼里都失去了魅力。光彩依舊的只有你，你是我的唯一，從未離我而去。 My darling wife, I do adore you. 愛妻，你是我的女神！ I love my wife. My wife is dead. 愛妻，我愛你！ 愛妻，你為什么悄無聲息？ Rich. 理查德 PS: Please excuse my not mailing this — but I don’t know your new address. 又及：請原諒我沒有把這封信寄給你——我想寄，可是我不知道你住在哪里。