八位文学巨匠的临终遗言

“Death, the only immortal, who treats us alike, whose peace and refuge are for all. The soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.”
“死亡，这唯一不朽的永存，它对我们一视同仁，它的安宁和庇护是所有人的归处，无论这人是肮脏还是纯洁，富有还是贫穷，是否被人所爱。”

——MARK TWAIN
(马克·吐温)

After suffering a heart attack in Bermuda, Twain went back to his Connecticut home to recover. Having predicted in 1909 that he would “go out” with Halley’s comet—which appeared in the year of his birth—he died the day after the comet’s closest approach to Earth. According to Albert Bigelow Paine he said “Goodbye”, and Dr Quintard, “who was standing near, thought he added ‘If we meet’—but the words were very faint.”
吐温在百慕大心脏病发作，后回到位于康涅狄格州的家中休养。他曾在1909年预言自己会和哈雷彗星一起“离去”——这颗彗星曾在他出生那年出现过——在彗星达到其最接近地球点的第二天，马克·吐温去世了。据艾伯特·比奇洛·佩因说，吐温说了声“再见”，而昆塔德医生“当时站得很近，认为他后来又说了一句‘如果还能再见的话’——但是这几个词说得很轻。”

“We all reveal… our manifestations… This manifestation is over … That’s all.”
“我们都来这儿……走了一遭……现在已经走到头了……就这样吧。”

——LEO TOLSTOY
(列夫·托尔斯泰)

Tolstoy left his estate, aged 82, to begin a new life as a peasant. Reaching the small town of Astapovo he contracted pneumonia, and died a few days later in the stationmaster’s house. According to the stationmaster, his last words were: “But the peasants … how do the peasants die?” His friend Vladimir Chertkov preferred to remember something from the night before. “He was lying on his back, breathing heavily … and all of a sudden—as if arguing with himself—broke out in a loud voice: ‘We all reveal … our manifestations … This manifestation is over … That’s all.’”
82岁高龄的托尔斯泰离开了自己的庄园，要去做个农夫，开始新的生活。在到达一个名为阿斯塔波沃的小镇时，他身染肺炎，几天后死在了火车站站长的家里。据站长说，托尔斯泰的遗言是：“可是那些农民……农民们是怎样死的呢？”他的朋友弗拉基米尔·切尔科夫却觉得他前一晚所说的一些话更值得被记住。“他仰面躺着，呼吸很重……突然——好像在跟自己争吵一样——他大喊起来：‘我们都来这儿……走了一遭……现在已经走到头了……就这样吧。’”

“I feel certain that I’m going mad again …”
“我觉得我又要发狂了……”

——VIRGINIA WOOLF
(弗吉尼娅·吴尔夫)

Fearing that she was on the brink of the latest in a series of breakdowns, Woolf committed suicide by loading her pockets full of stones and wading into the River Ouse. Her suicide note told her husband that she would rather die than endure another such episode. “I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do … I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.”
吴尔夫担心自己新一轮的精神疾病即将发作，于是在口袋里装满石头，走进欧塞河，结束了自己的生命。在遗书中，她告诉丈夫她宁愿死也不愿再忍受一次折磨了。“我觉得我又要发狂了。我觉得我们已无法再次熬过那些可怕的日子，而且我这次也好不了了。我开始幻听，没办法集中精神。所以我要做的看来是我所能做的最好的事……我不能再毁掉你的生活了。我相信不会再有任何两个人能像我们俩过去那样幸福。弗。”

“Does nobody understand?”
“没有一个人懂吗？”

——JAMES JOYCE
(詹姆斯·乔伊斯)

Joyce died in Zurich, two days after surgery for a perforated ulcer. The Irish government declined his wife’s offer to repatriate his remains. According to Richard Ellmann, a Catholic priest tried to convince his widow that there should be a funeral Mass. She replied: “I couldn’t do that to him.”
在接受了治疗溃疡穿孔的手术两天后，乔伊斯在苏黎世去世。爱尔兰政府拒绝了他的妻子想把他的遗体运送回国的请求。据理查德·埃尔曼所说，一位天主教牧师曾设法说服乔伊斯的遗孀为他举行一场葬礼弥撒。她回答道：“我不能对他这么做。”