一封絕妙的情書
There once lived a lad who was deeply in love with a girl, but disliked by the girl’s father, who didn’t want to see any further development of their love. The lad was eager to write to the girl, yet he was quite sure that the father would read it first. So he wrote such a letter to the girl:
My love for you I once expressed
no longer lasts, instead, my distaste for you
is growing with each passing day. Next time I see you,
I even won’t like that look yours.
I’ll do nothing but
look away from you. You can never expect I’ll
marry you. The last chat we had
was so dull and dry that you shouldn’t think it
made me eager to see you again.
If we get married, I firmly believe I’ll
live a hard life, I can never
live happily with you, I’ll devote myself
but not
to you. No one else is more
harsh and selfish and least
solicitous and considerate than you.
I sincerely want to let you know
what I said is true. Please do me a favor by
ending our relations and refrain from
writing me a reply. Your letter is always full of
things which displease me. You have no
sincere care for me. So long! Please believe
I don’t love you any longer. Don’t think
I still have a love of you!
Having read the letter, the father felt relieved and gave it to his daughter with a light heart.
The girl also felt quite pleased after she read it carefully, her lad still had a deep love for her.
Do you know why? In fact, she felt very sad when she read the letter for the first time. But she read it for a few more times and , at last, she found the key – only every other line should be read, that is the first line, the third, the fifth … and so on to the end.
一個小伙子非常愛一位姑娘，但姑娘的父親卻不喜歡他，也不讓他們的愛情發展下去。小伙子很想給姑娘寫封情書，然而他知道姑娘的父親會先看，于是他給姑娘寫了這樣一封信：
我對你表達過的愛已經消逝。我對你的厭惡與日俱增。當我看到你時我甚至不喜歡你的那副樣子。我想做的一件事就是把目光移往別處，我永遠不會和你結婚。我們的最近一次談話枯燥乏味，因此無法使我渴望再與你想見。假如我們結婚，我深信我將生活得非常艱難，我也無法愉快地和你生活在一起，我要把我的心奉獻出來，但決不是奉獻給你。沒有人能比你更苛求和自私，也沒有人比你更關心我幫助我。我真摯地要你明白，我講的是真話，請你助我一臂之力結束我們之間的關系，別嘗試答復此信，你的信充滿著使我興趣索然的事情，懷有對我的真誠關心。再見，請相信我並不喜歡你，請你不要以為我仍然愛著你!
姑娘的父親看了這封信以後，非常高興地把信給了姑娘。姑娘看罷信也非常快樂，小伙子依然愛著她。你知道她為什麽高興嗎?其實，她初讀時非常憂傷，但她怎麽也不相信那是他的真心話，于是她又默讀了幾遍，終于，她清楚了該怎樣讀法。隻能一、三、五行如此類推，直到信的結尾.