词汇素材：Valentine's Day：情人节你了解多少？（附历史上7封著名的英文情书）.docx

1、Valentines Day：情人节，你了解多少？（附历史上：情人节，你了解多少？（附历史上 7 封著名的英文情书）封著名的英文情书） Valentines Day，瓦伦丁节，又称情人节，是欧美和大洋洲的一些国家的民族节日。 此节日的来源甚多，但一般是以罗马圣教徒瓦伦丁被处死，后被定为“情人节”这个版 本较为通用。 公元 3 世纪，罗马帝国出现全面危机，经济凋敝，统治阶级腐败，社会动荡不安， 人民纷纷反抗。贵族阶级为维护其统治，残暴镇压民众和基督教徒。是时有一位教徒瓦 伦丁，被捕入狱。在狱中，他以坦诚之心打动了典狱长的女儿。他们相互爱慕，并得到 典狱长女儿的照顾。统治阶级下令将他执行死刑。在临

2、刑前，他给典狱长女儿写了一封 长长的遗书，表明自己是无罪的。表明他光明磊落的心迹和对典狱长女儿深深眷恋。 公元 270 年 2 月 14 日，他被处死刑，后来，基督教徒为了纪念瓦伦丁为正义、为 纯洁的爱而牺牲自己，将临刑的这一天定为“圣瓦伦节” ，后人又改成“情人节” 。 我们为什么会相爱？哲学家有话说，情人节来了，希望你喜欢的人也喜欢你。节日 快乐，每一个心里充满爱的人！ ！ ！ Ah, romantic love - beautiful and intoxicating, heartbreaking and soul-crushing, often all at the same time

3、. Why do we choose to put ourselves through its emotional wringer? Does love make our lives meaningful, or is it an escape from our loneliness and suffering? Is love a disguise for our sexual desire, or a trick of biology to make us procreate? Is it all we need? Do we need it at all? If romantic lov

4、e has a purpose, neither science nor psychology has discovered it yet. But over the course of history, some of our most respected philosophers have put forward some intriguing theories. Love makes us whole, again. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato explored the idea that we love in order to become

5、complete. In his Symposium, he wrote about a dinner party, at which Aristophanes, a comic playwright, regales the guests with the following story: humans were once creatures with four arms, four legs, and two faces. One day, they angered the gods, and Zeus sliced them all in two. Since then, every p

6、erson has been missing half of him or herself. Love is the longing to find a soulmate wholl make us feel whole again, or, at least, thats what Plato believed a drunken comedian would say at a party. Love tricks us into having babies. Much, much later, German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer maintaine

7、d that love based in sexual desire was a voluptuous illusion. He suggested that we love because our desires lead us to believe that another person will make us happy, but we are sorely mistaken. Nature is tricking us into procreating, and the loving fusion we seek is consummated in our children. Whe

8、n our sexual desires are satisfied, we are thrown back into our tormented existences, and we succeed only in maintaining the species and perpetuating the cycle of human drudgery. Sounds like somebody needs a hug. Love is escape from our loneliness. According to the Nobel Prize-winning British philos

9、opher Bertrand Russell, we love in order to quench our physical and psychological desires. Humans are designed to procreate, but without the ecstasy of passionate love, sex is unsatisfying. Our fear of the cold, cruel world tempts us to build hard shells to protect and isolate ourselves. Loves delig

10、ht, intimacy, and warmth helps us overcome our fear of the world, escape our lonely shells, and engage more abundantly in life. Love enriches our whole being, making it the best thing in life. Love is a misleading affliction. Siddhrtha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha, or the Enlightened One,

11、 probably would have had some interesting arguments with Russell. Buddha proposed that we love because we are trying to satisfy our base desires. Yet, our passionate cravings are defects, and attachments, even romantic love, are a great source of suffering. Luckily, Buddha discovered the eight-fold

12、path, a sort of program for extinguishing the fires of desire so that we can reach Nirvana, an enlightened state of peace, clarity, wisdom, and compassion. The novelist Cao Xueqin illustrated this Buddhist sentiment that romantic love is folly in one of Chinas greatest classical novels, Dream of the

13、 Red Chamber. In a subplot, Jia Rui falls in love with Xi-feng who tricks and humiliates him. Conflicting emotions of love and hate tear him apart, so a taoist gives him a magic mirror that can cure him as long as he doesnt look at the front of it. But of course, he looks at the front of it. He sees

14、 Xi-feng. His soul enters the mirror and he is dragged away in iron chains to die. Not all Buddhists think this way about romantic and erotic love, but the moral of this story is that such attachments spell tragedy, and should, along with magic mirrors, be avoided. Love lets us reach beyond ourselve

15、s. Lets end on a slightly more positive note. The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir proposed that love is the desire to integrate with another and that it infuses our lives with meaning. However, she was less concerned with why we love and more interested in how we can love better. She saw that

16、the problem with traditional romantic love is it can be so captivating, that we are tempted to make it our only reason for being. Yet, dependence on another to justify our existence easily leads to boredom and power games. To avoid this trap, Beauvoir advised loving authentically, which is more like

17、 a great friendship. Lovers support each other in discovering themselves, reaching beyond themselves, and enriching their lives and the world together. Though we might never know why we fall in love, we can be certain that it will be an emotional rollercoaster ride. Its scary and exhilarating. It ma

18、kes us suffer and makes us soar. Maybe we lose ourselves. Maybe we find ourselves. It might be heartbreaking, or it might just be the best thing in life. Will you dare to find out? 值此温馨佳节之际，下面特为大家分享历史上 7 封著名的英文情书，看看这些历史 名人们如何用写信的方式传递爱意的，让大家在了解情人节来源的同时，通过这些名人 的臻爱之言对“爱”有更深刻的理解。 真正的爱是可以穿越时间与空间的，对吗？ 1 Y

19、earJohnny Cash 约翰尼卡什（1932-2003） ，美国乡村音乐传奇歌手，多次获得格莱美奖。 约翰尼卡什在 1994 年写给 65 岁的妻子琼卡特（June Carter）的情书的节选： “We get old and get used to each other. We think alike. We read each others minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take eac

20、h other for granted. But once in a while, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met.” “我们渐渐变老，也早已习惯了彼此。我们想法一致、灵魂互通。无需询问我们 便知道对方想要什么。偶尔我们也会惹对方不高兴，但那或许是因为我们真正把对方视 作了理所当然的伴侣。有时候比如今天，我沉思之后意识到，能够与你这样一个我所见 过的最伟大的女人共度余生，我是多么的幸运。 ” 一些地道表达： ge

21、t used to：习惯于； read ones minds：读懂某人的心思； irritate：vt. 惹怒； takefor granted：认为是理所当然的； meditate on：沉思 2 Napoleon Bonaparte 拿破仑波拿巴，法兰西第一帝国的缔造者，皇帝。身材矮小的拿破仑，征服了几 乎整个欧洲，令敌人闻风丧胆。 拿破仑于 1976 年写给妻子约瑟芬博阿内斯（Josephine de Beauharnais）的情书选 段： “Since I left you, I have been constantly depressed. My happiness is to be

22、 near you. Incessantly, I live over in my memory your caresses, your tears, your affectionate solicitude. The charms of the incomparable Josephine kindle continually a burning and a glowing flame in my heart.” “自从离开你之后，我一直感到很抑郁。我的快乐是与你相随的。只有不停地回 忆你的抚摸、你的泪水，你亲切的关怀，我才得以活下去。亲爱的约瑟芬啊，你用你那 无与伦比的魅力燃起我心中炙热的

23、火苗。 ” 3 Richard Burton 出生于 1925 年的理查德伯顿是英国著名演员，毕业于牛津大学。在拍摄埃及 艳后时，于伊丽莎白泰勒（Elizabeth Taylor）相恋。 理查德伯顿于 1964 年写给伊丽莎白泰勒的情书选段： “My blind eyes are desperately waiting for the sight of you. You dont realize of course, how fascinatingly beautiful you have always been, and how strangely you have acquired an

24、added and special and dangerous loveliness.” “我那被遮住的双眼只期待与你的眼神相会。 你可能不知道自己有多么的美丽迷人， 你的可爱如此独特与危险，这真是令人惊奇。 ” 4 Beethoven 贝多芬，大作曲家。他的致爱丽丝 、 命运交响曲大家耳熟能详。贝多芬终生 未娶，但传说他有一位“不朽的爱人” （Immortal love） ，因为在他的遗物中发现了很多 他写给这位姑娘的情书，但这位姑娘的真实身份一直是个谜。 “Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved

25、, Be calm-love me-today-yesterday-what tearful longings for you-you-you-my life-my all-farewell. Oh, continue to love me-never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.” “虽然还躺在床上，但我的思绪却始终追随着你，我永远的挚爱。保持冷静，继续 爱我吧，你是我的生命，你是我的全部，再见了。哦，继续爱我吧，那颗最真诚的爱你 的心永远不会迷失。永远属

26、于你，永远属于我，永远是我们的。 ” 5 Ernest Hemingway 美国作家海明威，凭借名著老人与海斩获诺贝尔文学奖。 海明威 1951 年写给演员马琳黛德丽（Marlene Dietrich）的情书节选： “I cant say how every time I ever put my arms around you I felt that I was home. “每次我将你搂在怀中时，我的感觉就像是回到了家中。 ” Winston Churchill 英国的战时首相丘吉尔。政治上一向以“硬汉”形象示人的他，在爱妻面前却是一 个浪漫的男子。 丘吉尔于 1935 年写给妻子克莱芒蒂娜

27、（Clementine）的一封情书的节选： “My darling Clemmie, in your letter you wrote some words very dear to me, about having enriched your life. I cannot tell you what pleasure this gave me, because I always feel so overwhelmingly in your debt, if there can be accounts in love.” “我亲爱的克莱米， 你在来信中提到的那些丰富你生活的话语对我来说非常珍贵

28、。 我无法向你形容这带给我的快乐。如果爱情也有账户，那我已经淹没在这份情债中。 ” 6 Winston Churchill 英国的战时首相丘吉尔。政治上一向以“硬汉”形象示人的他，在爱妻面前却是一 个浪漫的男子。 丘吉尔于 1935 年写给妻子克莱芒蒂娜（Clementine）的一封情书的节选： “My darling Clemmie, in your letter you wrote some words very dear to me, about having enriched your life. I cannot tell you what pleasure this gave me

29、, because I always feel so overwhelmingly in your debt, if there can be accounts in love.” “我亲爱的克莱米， 你在来信中提到的那些丰富你生活的话语对我来说非常珍贵。 我无法向你形容这带给我的快乐。如果爱情也有账户，那我已经淹没在这份情债中。 ” 7 John Keats 约翰济慈，18 世纪末英国著名诗人、作家，在英国文学界与雪莱、拜伦齐名。 济慈于 1819 年写给邻居芬尼布朗（Fanny Brawne）的情书片段： “I cannot exist without youI am forgetful of everything but seeing you againmy Life seems to stop thereI see no further. You have absorbed me.” “如果没有你，我要怎么活呢？看不到你的时候，我记不起任何事情，我的生活 似乎停滞了，我什么也看不到。你吸引了我的全部注意。 ”