暖小昕

　　留美博士
　　一个热爱教育的行动派白羊女
　　回国后长期致力于英文阅读的辅导和英文作品的翻译
　　希望能将英文定义为时尚的符号，让更多的年轻人爱上英文，活用英文

　　常青藤语言教学中心

　　长期致力于普及英语学习及英汉双语读物的编撰，在翻译、审校方面兼具专业性。

　　“每天读点好英文”系列为中英双语对照读物，优美的语言、深厚的情感、地道的英文，让读者既能欣赏到原汁原味、凝练生动的英文，又能深层次地品读其语言特色与艺术之美，是英语学习爱好者和文学爱好者的必备读物。《我不爱这世界，我只爱你》选取有关爱情的主题温情美文，让你在情感与理智之间找到爱的真正位置，让你在阅读中，感恩那些你爱的人和爱你的人。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　爱无处不在

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　How to Find True Love

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　佚名 / Anonymous 

　　我对爱情的初识始于12岁，那时，我在一所舞蹈学校上学。记得第一天，我就想自己会疯狂地爱上某个男孩，并和他接吻，在华尔兹中共度一年的校园时光。

　　课上，我坐在女生当中，等着某个男孩来邀我跳舞。令我倍感吃惊的是，我总是最后一个被邀请出列。最初，我以为男生们搞错了。我长得可爱又漂亮，打网球没人能赢我，爬树比一只猫还快。为何他们不争着邀请我呢？

　　一节又一节课，我看着那些穿着蓝色运动服和灰色裤子的男生围着那些打扮得花枝招展的女孩转，而女生们的马尾辫则在脑后有节奏地甩来甩去，让我不解的是，他们的舞步是那样和谐。于是我想，爱情总是垂青那些优雅斯文的女孩，而对于我这样一个上蹿下跳的女孩是遥不可及的。

　　到了13岁，我学会了在没人邀请我时，如何巧妙地昂起头，把眼泪凝聚在眼眶中不让它从脸颊滑落。与此同时，我也发现了“化妆间”的妙用。每次想哭的时候，我就借故跑进灯光柔和的“化妆间”，那是我心灵的避风港。

　　直到我遇上马特，这样的日子才总算告一段落。他很文静，常坐在房间的一角。初次跳舞时，他甚至不敢直视我的眼睛，但他很幽默，给我讲了很多有趣的故事。我们成了要好的朋友和舞伴，直到毕业。我跟他学了有关爱情的最重要一课：爱无处不在，既存在于最明显之处，也会藏在最不起眼的地方。

　　此后数年，我的爱情生活一直像一部悲喜交加的长篇小说。上大学时，我爱上了英语系一个骑摩托车的高个男生。他在我们第六次约会——跳伞时失了约。那天下午，我独自从飞机上跳下，降落在一个停车场。

　　25岁左右，我搬到了纽约，一个难觅真爱的地方，在这里寻找爱情就如同寻找合法的停车位一般艰难。在纽约的第一个情人节，我去西区北部的一间热闹的酒吧赴约，晚餐吃了一半，我的约会对象便借故离席，再没回来。

　　那时，一个漂亮的女孩与我共处一室。追求她的人很多，她收到的花可堆积成山；电话录音机上的灯疯狂地闪个不停，录满了追求者们的留言；大型豪华轿车在门外叫个不停，等候在茶色玻璃窗外接她去赴约。

　　在我看来，爱情就隐藏在茶色玻璃后，若隐若现，难以触及。每当看见幸福的情侣，我就想知道他们是如何找到真爱的，真想跟踪他们以解疑惑。

　　在纽约打拼数年之后，我终于找到了一份理想的工作——为《七日谈》杂志撰写婚礼报道。我的任务是找寻幸福的夫妇，并写下他们的爱情故事。我终于有机会向陌生人提出那个萦绕在我的心中良久的问题了。

　　关于“你怎么知道这是爱”这一问题，我至少找到了一个确定的答案。我当周围的一切，如树叶，天空的光影，一碗草莓，梦幻般闪现出来，你就会明白，这就是爱。

　　当别人微不足道的某一方面在你眼中却变得迷人且难以抗拒时，你就会明白，这就是爱。一位新郎曾告诉我，他爱未婚妻的一切，爱她的字，爱她在公寓乱涂乱画，哪怕是她回家时开门的姿势，他也喜欢。有位新娘跟我说，她之所以爱上未婚夫，是因为“有天晚上，一只飞蛾围着灯泡绕来绕去，他捉住它并从窗口放了出去。于是我就对自己说，‘他就是我要找的人'。”

　　当你与对方滔滔不绝地聊天时，你就会明白，这就是爱。我采访过的每对夫妇几乎都说，他们的第一或第二次约会都是在长时间的聊天中度过的。对有些人而言，恋爱就像走进一间隔音的忏悔室，可以尽情地倾诉一切。

　　寻找真爱，就像在昏暗的公寓旁发现一间光艳舞厅；又如找到一条合身的旧牛仔裤，就好像你一直都穿着它一样。很多女人告诉我，她们确信自己恋爱了，是因为他们会忘记化妆就去见男友，或是穿着法兰绒睡衣在男友面前晃悠也不觉得难堪。现代版灰姑娘爱情故事也如此：当你感到无比惬意时，当那双舞鞋正合你脚时，那就是爱。

　　总之，我想，如果双方在最困难的时刻——如国家收入署查账时，在暴风雪中开着敞篷车时，或是当头发灰白时，双方还能逗对方开怀一笑的话，他们一定是爱着对方的。正如有人跟我讲的那样：爱他/她，百分之九十的含义意味着让他/她的生活轻松愉悦，直至生命的尽头。

　　I began to learn about love in dancing school, at age 12. I remember thinking on the first day I was going to fall madly in love with one of the boys and spend the next years of my life kissing and waltzing.

　　During class, however, I sat among the girls, waiting for a boy to ask me to dance. To my complete shock, I was consistently one of the last to be asked. At first I thought the boys had made a terrible mistake. I was so funny and pretty, and I could beat everyone I knew at tennis and climb trees faster than a cat. Why didn’t they dash toward me?

　　Yet class after class. I watched boys dressed in blue blazers and gray pants head toward girls in flowered shifts whose perfect ponytails swung back and forth like metronomes. They fell easily into step with one another in a way that was completely mysterious to me. I came to believe that love belonged only to those who glided, who never shimmied up trees or even really touched the ground.

　　By the time I was 13, I knew how to subtly tilt my head and make my tears fall back into my eyes, instead of down my cheeks, when no one asked me to dance. I also discovered the “power room”, which became my softly lit, reliable retreat. Whenever I started to cry, I'd excuse myself and run in there,

　　I finally stopped crying when I met Matt, who was quiet and hung out on the edges of the room. When we danced for the first time, he wouldn’t even look me in the eyes. But he was cute, and he told great stories. We became good buddies, dancing every dance together until the end of school. I learned from him my most important early lesson about romance: that the potential for love exists in corners, in the most unlikely as well as the most obvious places.

　　For years my love life continued to be one long tragicomic novel. In college I fell in love with a tall English major who rode a motorcycle. He stood me up on our sixth date—an afternoon of sky diving. I jumped out of the plane alone and landed in a parking lot.

　　In my mid-20s I moved to New York City where love is as hard to find as a legal parking spot. My first Valentine’s Day there, I went on a date to a crowded bar on the Upper West Side. Halfway through dinner, my date excused himself and never returned.

　　At the time, I lived with a beautiful roommate. Flowers piled up at our door like snowdrifts, and the light on the answering machine always blinked in a panicky way, overloaded with messages from her admirers. Limousines purred outside, with dates waiting for her behind tinted windows.

　　In my mind, love was something behind a tinted window, part apparition, part shadow, definitely unreachable. Whenever I spotted happy-looking couples, I’d wonder where they found love, and want to follow them home for the answer.

　　After a few years in the city I got my dream job—writing about weddings for a magazine called 7 Days. I had to find interesting engaged couples and write up their love stories. I got to ask total strangers the things I’d always wanted to know.

　　I found at least one sure answer to the question “How do you know it’s love?” You know when the everyday things surrounding you—the leaves, the shade of light in the sky, a bowl of strawberries—suddenly shimmer with a kind of unreality.

　　You know when the tiny details about another person, ones that are insignificant to most people, seem fascinating and incredible to you. One groom told me he loved everything about his future wife, from her handwriting to the way she scratched on their apartment door, like a cat when she came home. One bride said she fell in love with her fiance because “one night，a moth was flying around a light bulb, and he caught it and let it out the window. I said, ‘That’s it. He’s the guy. ’”

　　You also know it’s love when you can’t stop talking to each other. Almost every couple I’ve ever interviewed said that on their first or second date, they talked for hours and hours. For some, falling in love is like walking into a soundproof confessional booth, a place where you can tell all.

　　Finding love can be like discovering a gilded ballroom on the other side of your dingy apartment, and at the same time like finding a pair of great old blue jeans that are exactly your size and seem as if you've worn them forever. I can’t tell you how many women have told me they knew they were in love because they forgot to wear makeup around their boyfriend. Or because they fell at ease hanging around him in flannel pajamas. There’s some modern truth to Cinderella’s tale—it’s love when you’ve incredibly comfortable, then the shoe fits perfectly.

 　　Finally, I think you’ve in love if you can make each other laugh at the very worst times—when the IRS is auditing you or when you’re driving a convertible in a rainstorm or when your hair is turning gray. As someone once told me, 90 percent of being in love is making each other’s lives funnier and easier, all the way to the deathbed.

　　一生之恋　Forever in Their Eyes

　　汉诺威广场，不见不散　My Darling Wife

　　玫瑰之约　Roses for Rose

　　看不见的线　Love Is Just a Thread7

　　忍耐的报答 　Rice Pudding

　　最后的告白 　Words from the Heart

　　梦想之舟 　Broken Promises

　　爱成就自信　Butterfly Kisses

　　蹉跎的爱　Waiting for Love

　　在树林里　In the Wood

　　黄手帕　Going Home

　　暖暖的河流　Warm River

　　红玫瑰的考验 　Appointment with Love

　　不合身的婚纱带来的称心爱人　The Blessed Dress

　　真正的浪漫　Test of True Love

　　爱的牺牲　A Service of Love

　　壁橱里的秘密　The 175-dollar Bill

　　爱无处不在　How to Find True Love

　　时间是爱的养料　Express Your Love, Don’t Buy It

　　音像店的邂逅　Say“I Love You”

　　爱人，我在等你　A Sometimes Beautiful Thing

　　苹果皮　Apple Skin

　　仲夏之恋　The Love in Summer

　　如意郎君　Mr. Right

　　永远的爱　Forever Meant Being There—Always

　　琳达的情人节　Secret Admirer

　　让我做你的声音　A Silent Love

　　信任的许诺　Trust

　　远方的知己　Soulmate

　　最后一封信　The Last Relationship

　　恋爱中的诗人　Unbosoming Myself

　　浪漫路曲曲折折　Detour to Romance

　　至　爱　Moments of Love