We came down here yesterday, after 10 days of fog in London. You see how delicately I tell you the news of the metropolis: were you picking roses and walking about under a Parasol all the time! Here we saw the sun for the first time—at any rate what was left of the sun, as it was just setting. However it rose all right this morning, as healthy as possible.
It is the loveliest place. When you want to build another cottage, build one here. We have Beech trees practically poking their heads in at the front door—at least Adrian says he can smell them in the drawing room, and Forest ponies come when you call them—and Thoby saw a cow chasing a Fox in a field last night in the moonlight. This morning— I don't know that the fox has anything to do with it—he shaved off his moustache—in the hope of looking more like a lawyer. Nessa and I have hired bicycles: my front wheel went off like a pistol this afternoon, and has a great gash in its side. I don't know why I have written such a long letter when you didn't really particularly want it, but there are no books, and when I see a pen and ink, I can't help taking to it, as some people do to gin.
Yours affectionately,
A.V.S
22nd Dec., 1904
Please say what you don't dare to say!
亲爱的奈莉：
我早就想为你的来信而向你表示感谢，它是我收到的第一封对我的文学作品发表看法的信，因此我非常高兴！你想不到作家是一种何等爱慕虚荣的动物——不过妮莎会告诉你的。我想艺术家不会像作家那样强烈地受到虚荣的诱惑，因为，所有他或她的创作都是公开进行的，因此总是遭受到批评；然而，可怜的作家们遭遇的就是另外一种情形了，他们把自己的思想都藏匿在大脑黑暗的角落里，当这些思想被印刷成文字的时候，他们看上去是那样的赤裸颤抖、战战兢兢。因此，对于作家来说，有人喜欢他的作品就是一种很大的鼓舞。这并非说评论文章值得赞扬，我想，写评论肯定是一件十分乏味的事。我憎恨对人妄加批评的态度，因为我知道自己一直在说些骗人的空话。扪心自问，如果我自己都做不好，我又有什么权利来断定何谓好坏！
请你仔细思考一下某个需要人们去写的严肃题材，并在我们下次会面的时候告诉我。现在我是一个四处求职的人——即寻找一个恢弘庞大，能让我奉献生命中10年时间的好题材。我曾经请教过一个这方面的专家，他建议我选择某种历史题材，并且说：“你到70岁时就可以着手把它写在纸上。”可是，说实话，我不敢保证自己到70岁时身体还非常健康，能把它写在纸上，但对于历史题材来说，他似乎并没有考虑到这样一些细节方面的问题。
在伦敦的大雾里待了10天之后，我们已于昨天抵达这里。你看，我多么细致地告诉你这个都市的情况：你每时每刻都得撑着阳伞去采玫瑰花或散步！在这里，我们第一次看见了太阳——至少是太阳的余晖，因为那时太阳刚刚落山。然而，今天早上，太阳顺利地升起来了，阳光明媚。这真是一个非常可爱的地方。如果你还想建造一座小别墅，那就建在这里吧。这里，山毛榉枝条几乎挤进我们的前门——至少艾德里安说他在起居室里就能闻到它们的气味，而且，只要你呼唤一声，森林猎场上的矮种马就会来到你的身边——托比昨晚在月光下看见一头奶牛在野地里追逐一只狐狸。今天早上，他剃去了唇上的小胡子——希望看上去更像一名律师（我不知道那只狐狸是否与此事有关）。我和妮莎各租了一辆自行车。今天下午，我车子的前轮爆了，“啪”的一声，像枪声一样，轮胎的一侧裂开了一个大口子。你或许并不特别想收到我的信，然而，我却不知道为什么给你写了这么长的一封信。这里没有书籍，所以我一见到笔墨，就情不自禁地写个不停，就像有人一见到杜松子酒就会痛饮一番那样。
爱你的艾·维·斯
1904年12月22日
请把你不敢说的话说出来吧！
beast [ bi:st] n. 兽；讨厌的人；粗野凶残的
The tiger is a beast of frey.
老虎是一种捕食的猛兽。
tempt [tempt] v. 引诱或怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；使想要
Nothing could tempt her to evil.
什么也不能引诱她做坏事。
wretch [ret] n. 不幸的人；可怜的人；恶棍
You wretch! You've taken the book I wanted.
你这个坏蛋！你把我想要的书拿走了。
dictate [dikteit] v. 大声讲或读；口授；支配；摆布
He cannot write but he can dictate.
他不会写，但可以口述。
对于作家来说，有人喜欢他的作品就是一种很大的鼓舞。
请你仔细考虑一下某个需要人们去写的严肃题材，并在我们下次会面的时候告诉我。
请把你不敢说的话说出来吧！
Really I can't guarantee that I shall be in a fit state for putting it on paper.
fit for：适于；适合的；恰当的
He shaved off his moustache.
shave off：剃掉
托马斯·哈代致伊凡吉林·史密斯
Thomas Hardy to Evangeline Smith
Dear Miss Smith,
I have read your charming little story with such a keen interest in its writer that my attempted position of frigid critic has been difficult to maintain. However, I will do my best to dismiss all thoughts of where it came from, and to estimate the work on its own merits, as you desire.
The story then, is one which would be called promising by experienced critics. The plot is well conceived, and well developed; but the writing itself shows want of practice in that department, which was probably the reason of its rejection by the editor you mentioned. The early pages show this particularly. I have ventured to make pencillings here and there on the MS. to draw your attention to doubtful portions, that you may reconsider them. The last two pages of Book No. 1 consist of a digression which I should advise you to strike out: and the ill-feeling between Miss P. and the Lygon girls is scarcely veiled enough. Even Alice's repentance afterwards fails to remove this impression. On the other hand I have to congratulate you on your execution of the scene in the Church-porch on Midsummer night, which is really strongly written, and the best bit in the tale: Also, too, on the way in which you have managed to introduce the leading idea of the story, when it is nearly forgotten, by showing the refusal of the carthorses to pass the churchyard with Alice behind them. The weird reason of this comes into the mind in excellent contrast to the general haNow you must not think it harsh of me to say what I am going to say—that if I were you I should rewrite the story from beginning to end, and condense it to about one half, or two thirds, its present length. I do not absolutely advise you to do this, but were the story to turn up among my old manuscripts that is the treatment, which would occur to me as best. As a literary exercise alone it is worth doing, even if you never attempt to print the story. It would be also a good thing if you were to write in a clear round hand in a first MS., though after you become known this does not matter so much.