塞維涅夫人（Madame de Sévigné)書信集

塞維涅夫人（Madame de Sévigné，1626年2月5日─1696年4月17日），法國書信作家。其尺牘生動、風趣，反映了路易十四時代法國的社會風貌，被奉為法國文學的瑰寶。
幼失牯持，在外祖父母家成長，受過良好的教育。18歲出嫁，育有一子一女，26歲喪偶，未有再蘸。奉女兒為掌上名珠，現存書信的大部分均致女兒。生前書信已在友人間流傳，文友包括拉斐特夫人、拉羅什富科。死於天花，享年70歲。

• 『セヴィニェ夫人手紙抄』井上究一郎・翻訳、岩波文庫、1987年版、ISBN 4003256816
• 『セヴィニェ夫人の手紙』吉田郁子・翻訳、大学書林 、1995年、ISBN 4475022657

Journals 1889-1949 (André Gide), pp.293-94, 1917.3日記 英譯者附注的另一版本的翻譯

 
_Love of Life_


You ask me, dear child, if I am still in love with life. I must confess
that I find its sorrows grievous, but my distaste for death is even
stronger. It is sad to think I must finish my life with death, and if it
were possible I would retrace my steps. I find myself embarked on life
without my consent, and am in a perplexing situation. I shall have to
take leave of life, and the fact overwhelms me: for how, or by what
gate, shall I pass away? When will death come, and in what disposition
will it find me? Shall I suffer a thousand pains which will make me die
in despair? Shall I die in a transport of joy? Shall I die of an
accident? How shall I stand before God? What shall I have to offer Him?
Shall I return to Him in fear and necessity, and be conscious of no
other feeling but terror? What can I hope for? Am I worthy of Paradise?
Or worthy only of Hell? What an alternative! What perplexity! Nothing is
so mad as to leave one's safety thus in uncertainty; but nothing is more
natural; and the foolish life I lead is perfectly easy to understand. I
plunge myself into these thoughts; and I find death so terrible, that I
hate life more because it leads to death, than because it leads me
through troublesome places. You will say I wish to live for ever. Not at
all; but if I had been asked, I would willingly have died in my nurse's
arms, for I should thus have avoided many sorrows and would have secured
heaven with certainty and ease.

The World's Greatest Books, Vol X

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