If my ills would admit of any cure, they would certainly be cured here. This is my birthday, and early in the morning I received a packet from Albert. Upon opening it, I found one of the pink ribbons which Lotte wore in her dress the first time I saw her, and which I had several times asked her to give me. With it were two volumes in duodecimo of Wetstein’s Homer, a book I had often wished for, to save me the inconvenience of carrying the large Ernestine edition with me upon my walks. You see how they anticipate my wishes, how well they understand all those little attentions of friendship, so superior to the costly presents of the great, which are humiliating. I kissed the ribbon a thousand times, and in every breath inhaled the remembrance of those happy and irrevocable days which filled me with the keenest joy. Such, Wilhelm, is our fate. I do not murmur at it: the flowers of life are but visionary. How many pass away, and leave no trace behind—how few yield any fruit—and the fruit itself, how rarely does it ripen! And yet there are flowers enough! and is it not strange, my friend, that we should suffer the little that does really ripen, to rot, decay, and perish unenjoyed? Farewell! This is a glorious summer. I often climb into the trees in Lotte’s orchard, and shake down the pears that hang on the highest branches. She stands below, and catches them as they fall.
真的,如果我的病還有希望治好的話,那就唯有他們來醫(yī)治。今天是我的生日,一大早我便收到了阿爾伯特差人送來的一個包裹。打開包裹,一個粉紅色的蝴蝶結(jié)兒立刻躍入我眼簾。這是我初見綠蒂時她曾佩戴在胸前,以后我又多次請求她送給我的那個蝴蝶結(jié)呵!此外,包里還有兩本六十四開的小書,威特施坦袖珍版的《荷馬選集》,也是我久已想買的本子,以免在散步時老馱著埃爾涅斯特版的大部頭。瞧,他們總是不等我開口就滿足了我的愿望,總是想方設法向我作出友誼的表示。對我說來,這些小小的禮品比那種燦爛奪目的禮物貴重一千倍,因為后者只表明贈予者的矜夸,卻貶低了我們的人格。我無數(shù)次地吻著那個蝴蝶結(jié),每吸一口氣,都吸到了對那為數(shù)不多的、一去不復返的日子用來充溢我身心的幸福的回憶。威廉啊,生活就是這樣;而我也不抱怨,生命之花只是過眼煙云而已!多少花朵凋零了,連一點痕跡也不曾留下!能結(jié)果的何其少,果實能成熟的就更少了!不過,盡管如此,世間仍存在足夠的果實;難道,我的兄長,難道我們能輕視這些已成熟的果實,對它不聞不問,不去享受它們,任它們白白腐爛掉么?
再見!此地的夏季很美,我常常坐在綠蒂家的園子里的果樹上,手執(zhí)摘果用的長桿,從樹梢上的鉤梨子。她站在樹下,摘掉我鉤給她的果實。