我坐在彼德拉河畔哭泣
這本書給我的閱讀體驗是難以名狀的,它是那么溫暖的柔弱,讓我數次有想哭的沖動;它又是那么勇敢的真切,使我有種如被刺一刀的冷顫。故事其實很簡單很純凈, 但她卻令我此類對真愛如對宗教一樣始終抱有審慎悲觀的人,感到無比的震撼——愛即信,信即愛。所有的猶豫、恐懼都要在付出的同時才能洗去……
本書作者保羅·科埃略是當今拉丁美洲最具影響力的作家之一。作品主要描寫了女主人公皮拉爾與其初戀情人自小一起長大,在分別了十一年之后兩人重逢的故事。皮拉爾隨他一起布道、旅游,互訴愛慕之情。然而,男友要獨自去承擔宗教義務,皮拉爾十分傷心,在彼德拉河畔邊哭泣、邊寫她那凄婉而動人的愛情故事。在她完稿后,男友終于來到河畔,找到了她。愛的力量使他們又重新在一起。皮拉爾在混混沌沌地生活了多年之后,面對男友突然表達的愛,感到的卻是源自自身的重重疑慮和障礙。她在彼德拉河畔留下了淚水,用淚水清洗內心的恐懼,也在逐漸體味一種“全部付出”的愛……
本書令人耳目一新的現代愛情故事,借助戲劇性的故事,將凡間的“真愛”與神靈的“博愛”合二為一,頗具啟迪意味。皮拉爾和她的男友是虛構的人物,不過,他們是我們在尋找自己另一半時所遇各種沖突的縮影。本選段是全書的開篇。首先倒敘了皮拉爾在河邊哭泣的情景。
Thomas Merton once said that the spiritual life is essentially to love. One doesn’t love in order to do what is good or to help or to protect someone. If we act that way, we are perceiving the other as a simple object, and we are seeing ourselves as wise and generous persons. This has nothing to do with love. To love is to be in communion with the other and to discover in that other the spark of God.
May Pilar’s 1)lament on the bank of the river Piedra guide us toward such communion.
—Paulo Coelho
(修士)托馬斯·默頓曾說:“精神生活歸根到底就是愛。行行善事、幫助或保護他人,并不是愛。因為我們如果這樣做,那我們只是在把他人當成簡單的物品看待,自認為自己是明智慷慨之人。而這根本與愛無關。愛是與他人心靈相通,在他人身上發現神的光輝。”
愿皮拉爾在彼德拉河畔流下的淚水引導我們走上這心靈相通的道路。
——保羅·科埃略
By the river Piedra I sat down and wept. There is a legend that everything that falls into the waters of this river—leaves, insects, the feathers of birds—is transformed into the rocks that make the riverbed. If only I could tear out my heart and hurl it into the current, then my pain and longing would be over, and I could finally forget.
By the river Piedra I sat down and wept. The winter air chills the tears on my cheeks, and my tears fall into the cold waters that course past me. Somewhere, this river joins another, then another, until far from my heart and sight all of them merge with the sea.
May my tears run just as far, that my love might never know that one day I cried for him. May my tears run just as far, that I might forget the river Piedra, the 2)monastery, the church in the 3)Pyrenees, the mists, and the paths we walked together.
I shall forget the roads, the mountains, and the fields of my dreams; the dreams that will never come true.
I remember my “magic moment” that instant when a “yes” or a “no” can change one’s life forever. It seems so long ago now. It is hard to believe that it was only last week that I had found my love once again, and then lost him.
