凋零的真爱－读《安娜卡列尼娜》(w English)

年轻时读的书太少，即便读过名著也是简写版的。最近读了生平第一本托尔斯泰的小说《安娜卡列尼娜》,也是从女儿留下的几箱书里找出来的一本最厚的小说。女儿上高中时学校要求读的小说，为此她还写了一篇模仿托尔斯泰写作风格的“安娜故事”片段。当我捡起这本贴满了标签的小说，读到每一个有标签处就会想起她，一个当年只有十五六岁的女孩，她读懂了多少，这个标签在这里代表什么。

我想，以我的阅历读这本小说，该是读懂了百分之八九十。前后读了整整两个多月。一日跟LD谈起读到之处的感慨，说，自己读完了要写一篇博文。LD嗤之以鼻一笑，说，这么大的一作家，评论多了去了，轮到你评？想想有道理。我肯定是写不出深度的。所以评论不敢，就一些概括、感想，也算是对两个多月的阅读一个总结吧。

托尔斯泰的《安娜卡列尼娜》是以两对恋人的故事为主线, 一对是Levin和Kitty， 另一对是Anna和 Vrosky。前一对是正常年轻人的恋爱，因为Kitty母亲的门当户对观念的干涉，Kitty情感上的摇摆、Levin的自卑沮丧，感情路上有波折有插曲，但是最终有情人终成眷属。后一对里的女主人Anna是婚外情。Anna认识Vrosky时已结婚，她有个政府官员的丈夫和一个八岁的可爱儿子。她和Vrosky两人一见钟情，深涉爱河不能自拔，最后还生下一女。当然，这样的一段感情在当时社会环境下不被祝福也是在情理之中，即便放在今日，又有多少人会认同、理解和支持。所以，最后的结局是个悲剧，Anna卧轨自杀，Vrosky心如死灰，六个星期不说一句话，最后报名去了前线，只想战死沙场。

如果说，Levin和Kitty是真心相爱，那么我想Anna和Vrosky之间的真爱一样无可质疑，这一点不能因为人们的道德观而改变，也不应因为不被世人所接受而打折扣。试想，Anna为了Vrosky, 众叛亲离，忍受与儿子的分离，忍受众人的鄙视和唾弃。而Vrosky为了Anna，抛弃一切世俗观念，不管不顾人们的流言蜚语，顶住母亲的压力；为了她，他放弃自己在军中的前程，不爱江山爱美人；也因为她，扳动手枪企图自杀。如果这不是真爱是什么？然后，就是这样的爱情，面对残酷的现实还是望而生畏，日渐凋零。Anna进退维谷，丈夫不答应离婚，不让她见儿子的面；Vrosky也面临着无法给他女儿名分，将来无法让她继承财产之类的问题。寡寡欲欢的Anna心力憔悴，濒临绝境，她只能夜夜靠吗啡麻醉自己入睡。渐渐地，两人的关系也开始出现缝隙，Vrosky想走出两个人的生活圈，重新步入社会，留Anna一个人在家。Anna在压抑郁闷之际开始怀疑猜忌Vrosky对她的爱，最后精神崩溃，一个人离家出走，葬身在滚滚车轮之下。

没读小说之前就知道Anna的结局，所以一直在想一个问题，也一直在读的过程寻找这样一个答案：Anna的卧轨自杀该责怪谁？谁是背后那双无形的手把她推进死亡深渊的？怪她的丈夫Alex吗？ 小说中的Alex对Anna真是宽容的。当知道妻子红杏出墙，与Vrosky有染，他听之任之，甚至不敢面对。当谣言四起，不得不面对时，他对Anna说，他愿意维持现状，对Anna只有一个要求，就是不要把Vrosky带到家里。他不愿意离婚，一方面是为孩子，一方面为Anna，当然也为他自己的名声。可Anna一意孤行，还是在家里见Vrosky。为此，忍无可忍的Alex请好律师准备离婚。就当离婚在暗中紧锣密鼓地进行时，Anna难产了，生下她和Vrosky的女儿，在病重面临死亡之际，她求得丈夫原谅，愿意与Vrosky断绝关系。丈夫原谅她了，而且对待新出生的女儿视如己出。试问，有多少男人可以做到这些？当然，后来，Alex在一个贵夫人的怂恿下，有点出尔反尔，又不答应离婚，也不让Anna探视儿子，让痛苦中的Anna雪上加霜，对Anna最后的死起到一定程度的推波助澜作用。但是，如果把Anna的死归咎于他丈夫是不公平的。在我看来，一部分是当时社会的压力歧视，最主要还是她本人无法面对各种屈辱，压抑已久的心中夹杂着因Vrosky对她的不理解，不够关心而产生的失望误解。她那种觉得无法摆脱命运，想以死来解脱，报复他人的心理，造成她最后走向绝路。

虽然这是一部爱情小说，然而作者在小说中又花了不少笔墨谈社会问题、农村现状、存在的不合理。他谈人生信仰，谈人的生与死。这些都赋予了小说的社会性、时代性、深度和广度。比如，谈到生死，作者写Levin在哥哥病危时，近距离感受死亡，死亡带给人的恐惧，死的不可避免；又写Anna的好几次想到死，想一了百了。他通过Levin来接示，人生有很多迷，人的死是一个，不可解，不可抗拒。死亡可以离人很近，只有爱可以带人远离绝望，远离死亡的恐惧，从而充满希望的活着。

有意思的是，托尔斯泰通达世俗凡尘。写Levin同胞异母(or异父)兄弟Sergey四十多岁未婚，偶遇一个可爱女子心动时，他喜欢的除了她的青春，单洁，不世俗，还考虑到她孤身一人，结婚后不会带七大姑八大姨的亲戚来烦他。另外，书中在描述男子婚龄时，说到这样一段话，可是会让男人们欢心鼓舞一下。基本上就是说，“在法国，男人五十是黄金阶段，四十岁的男子还是年轻小伙子。”
“There was one consideration against it--his age. But he came of a long-lived family, he had not a single gray hair, no one would have taken him for forty, and he remembered Varenka's saying that it was only in Russia that men of fifty thought themselves old, and in France, a man of fifty considers himself in the "prime time", while a man of forty is " a young man". But what did the mere reckoning of years matter when he felt as young in heart as he had been twenty years ago?"

记住喔，这可是在十九世纪啊，想来当今的医术这么发达，人的寿命的延长，it rings more true now. 

不得不说，托尔斯泰真是个驾驭文字的大家 (读的还是翻译的英气版)，文中的精彩之处比比皆是。作为一个男作家，他对女性心理刻画的如此真实细腻，每一个神情、眼神、动作、景物等等的描写，让人拍案叫绝。一个十九世纪的作家，写出来的作品跨越时空，跨越国界，跨越人种，对人性的刻画入木三分，酣畅淋漓，无愧于闪烁在历史长河中一块光彩夺目、经久不衰的瑰宝。

 

Sifting through boxes of novels left behind by my daughter a couple of months ago, I spotted Anna Karenina buried deep in the box.  Leafing through the book, I saw all the colorful stickers left between the pages. The memories of my daughter, six or seven years ago, sitting in front of her desk, reading and writing the assigned homework of an imagined story of Anna, suddenly flooded all over me.  Fearful of reading small prints of a book of more than 750 pages, I hesitatingly picked it up. But it turned out to be such a worthwhile reading that in the ensuing two months, I engrossed myself in the riveting novel.

 

Written in the nineteenth century by a renowned Russian writer Tolstoy, this novel is a timeless masterpiece.  It is basically a love story, the theme of which is explored explicitly through the tales of two couples.

 

Anna, a charming heroine in the novel, marries a husband she does not love. Life would have gone on if it were not for the appearance of Vrosky, a young, handsome and rich cavalry officer. They fell head over heels in love. The budding love, in defiance of conventional rules and moral, culminates but almost shatters to pieces when Anna was near her death in delivering her baby daughter, and when Vrosky shot himself. But once Anna recovers physically and spiritually, their love revives. She and Vrosky honeymooned abroad, trying to forget the earthly world. However romantic the love is, they must return to face the reality that Anna could not get a divorce from her husband. Neither is she allowed to see her own son. Torn and tormented, Anna relies on morphine to tide over her days. Meanwhile, her misunderstanding and jealousy towards Vrosky escalate that she is under the illusion Vrosky no longer loves her.  Out of despair and revenge, she ends her life by flinging herself in front of a running train.

 

Contrasted by this tragic misfortune, the other couple, Levin and Kitty’s love is much blessed, though at the beginning, Kitty, under the influence of her mother, turns down Levin’s proposal in favor of Vrosky. But their love was rekindled after hiatus, and their marriage is just what one desires in life.

 

The novel Anna Karenina is no doubt a time-tested classic. One would be amazed to find that a man writer like Tolstoy could so adroitly capture women’s mind and psyche and putting them in words. His mastery skill of depicting details with great vividness and accuracy, such as a scene, a facial expression, a gesture, a movement, helps bring everything to life, putting readers in Moscow, in Petersburg, in the countryside, in the situations where heroes and heroines suffer, struggle or rejoice. 

 

Interwoven in the novel are the discussions of life and death, the meaning of being extant, one’s insoluble fate, the philosophy, religion, political movement, all of which renders the novel the depth as well as its social meanings. As a matter of fact, I am still baffled toward the end of the novel as to why the author spent so many chapters dwelling upon the topics of religion and philosophy. But one thing is for sure, i.e., what Tolstoy reveals in his novel is more than “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” It is a novel that explores the human nature, which remains unchanged throughout history and across cultures.  The significance of this revelation transcends time.

 

 

The following paragraph is copied from the book.

"The sight of his brother, and the nearness of death, revived in Levin that sense of horror in face of the insoluble enigma, together with the nearness and inevitability of death, that had come upon him that autumn evening when his brother had come to him. This feeling was now even stronger than before; even less than before did he feel capable of apprehending the meaning of death, and its inevitability rose up before him more terrible than ever. But now, thanks to his wife’s presence, that feeling did not reduce him to despair. In spite of death, he felt that the need of life and love. He felt that love saved him from despair, and that this love, under the menace of despair, had become still stronger and purer.  The one mystery of death, still unsolved, had scarcely passed before his eyes, when another mystery had arisen, as insoluble, urging him to love and to life."