我的美国文学讨论课终于进入了浪漫主义时期，我的教授和我说：“要不这周五你和学生讨论《安娜贝尔。李》吧。”

 

安娜贝尔李：艾伦坡虚构的情人，我读的第一首英文诗。对于他，这是一个在遥远海滨国度的女子，对于我，这是初二时让我着迷的一段配乐诗朗诵。

 

《安娜贝尔李》是我读的第一首英文诗，也是让我最初爱上英语的原因，尽管初二时，我并不完全理解这首诗的含义。当然，我当时也完全不会想到，12年后，我会到一个遥远的国度，一个离艾伦坡故乡不远的地方，给我异国的学生朗读《安娜贝尔李》。

 

初恋重逢的感觉：此时已不觉得彼此是最好，甚至已经淡忘，却仍然记得当时的感动。

 

于是，我很认真地在班里朗读了这首诗，好像圆了一个梦。可惜，我的朗读，没有当年磁带里大海的声音，也许我的学生们也不能从字里行间听出大海的声音了。艾伦坡说：读着安娜贝尔李，你会闻到大海的味道，感觉到它的呼吸……

 

很巧，最近是艾伦坡诞辰200周年。说到坡，人们会想到神经质，酗酒，癫狂，忘年恋，离奇死亡。说到坡的作品，人们脑海中会浮现：吸血鬼爱好者，壁橱藏尸，魔幻现实，变态，精神分裂，屠杀动物……我的教授在上课时这样介绍：There's no doubt that Poe is crazy.

 

但我还是喜欢POE的～他只是心里住着一个好奇，喜欢放纵幻想恶作剧，又极度缺乏安全感的一个小孩。

 

Annabel Lee 
       ---by Edgar Allan Poe

 
  It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

 

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

 

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

 

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

 

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

 

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.