評論
打印
My dearest Mary, it began. I am so tired I can hardly write to you. I have spent what seems like all day censoring letters (there is a howitzer about 100 yds away firing every 2 minutes). The letters are heartrending in their attempt to express what they cannot. Some of the men are illiterate, others almost so. I know that they feel as much as we do, yet they do not have the words to express it. That is your job in the schoolroom to give us generations who can read and write well. They have...
開頭是，我最親愛的瑪麗。我大累了，幾乎無法給你寫信了。我似乎一整天都在刪剪信件 (100碼外每兩分鐘便會有榴彈炮發射出來）。那些信令人心碎，因為他們試圖用信表達出那些他們無法表達的東西。一些人根本不識字，其他人差不多也是。我知道他們和我們的感受一樣，但是他們卻無法用文字表達出來。你的教育工作的意義所在——培養一代代的學生們讀書和寫作的能力。他們已經……
The boy's eye skipped down the page and over the next. He read the last paragraph.
男孩跳過這一頁，翻到下一頁。他看到了最后一段。
Mary I love you as much as ever—more so that we cannot be together. I do not know which is worse, the hurt of this war or being separated from you. Give all my love to Breden and all at home.
瑪麗，我一如既往地愛著你——愛得太深以致我們無法在一起。我不知道哪種情況更糟，是這場戰爭的傷害還是與你的分離。代我向布雷登和家里所有人獻上所有的愛。
It was signed, scribbled with what he took to be John. He folded the paper carefully into its original creases and put it in the envelope. He opened another.
簽名十分潦草，他覺得像是約翰。他小心翼翼地沿著原來的折痕疊起那封信，然后把它放入了信封。他打開了另一封。
