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“在爱情面前，时间没有什么了不起的。”当你看完整本小说之后，会和大家一样含着泪细味这句话吗？在那科幻式的标题下，这是个不折不扣的爱情故事。亨利患有“慢性时空错位症”，在遇到压力时，常常不由自主地在时空中跳跃，跨越过去未来。与在正常时空生活的妻子克莱尔相遇，有时候他是中年人，她才是小孩；有时候他正少年，而她已是八旬老妇……但是大家都知道对方是自己的此生最爱。是这爱让他们生活失序痛苦，也是同样的爱让他们坚强充实！而他们又让时间黯然失色了……
被英国《卫报》评为“生命中不可缺少的100本书”，全球迄今销售超过5千万册，CE向大家隆重推荐自出版以来热评如潮的当代经典——《时间旅行者的妻子》。
Prologue
Claire: It’s hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he’s OK. It’s hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way. Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an 1)eternity. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?
Henry: How does it feel? How does it feel?
Sometimes it feels as though your attention has wandered for just an instant. Then, with a start, you realize that the book you were holding, the red 2)plaid cotton shirt with white buttons, the favorite black jeans and the 3)maroon socks with an almost hole in one heel, the living room, the about-to-whistle tea 4)kettle in the kitchen, all of these have vanished. You are standing, naked as a 5)jaybird, up to your ankles in ice water in a ditch along an unidentified rural route. You wait a minute to see if maybe you’ll just 6)snap right back to your book, your apartment, etc. After about five minutes of swearing and shivering and hoping to hell you can just disappear, you start walking in any direction, which will eventually yield a farmhouse where you have the option of stealing or explaining. Stealing will sometimes land you in jail, but explaining is more 7)tedious and time-consuming and involves lying anyway and also sometimes results in being 8)hauled off to jail, …so what the hell. I appear from nowhere, naked, how can I explain?
I’ve never been able to carry anything with me, no clothes, no money, no ID. I spend most of my 9)sojourns acquiring clothing and trying to hide.
I hate to be where Claire is not. And yet, I am always going and she cannot follow.
Friday, February 2nd, 2007, Claire is 35.
Claire: I sit at Henry’s desk after 10)Alba has gone to bed and I open the drawers. I take out the bundles of letters and papers and I begin to read.
Henry: A letter to be opened in the event of my death. December 10th, 2006.
Dearest Claire,
If you are reading this, I am probably dead. Claire ,I want to tell you again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the 11)labyrinth,, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more density in this world than I do myself, as though it could linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.
I hate to think of you waiting. I know that you’ve been waiting for me all your life, always uncertain of how long this 12)patch of waiting would be: ten minutes, ten days, a month? What an uncertain husband I’ve been, Claire, like a sailor, 13)Odysseus, alone, 14)buffeted by tall waves, sometimes 15)wily and sometimes just a plaything of the gods. Please, Claire, when I’m dead, stop waiting and be free. Of me, put me deep inside you and then go out into the world and live. Love the world and yourself in it. Move through it as though it offers no 16)resistance, as though the world is your natural element. I have given you a life of 17)suspended animation. I don’t mean to say that you have done nothing. You have created beauty and meaning in your art, and Alba, who’s so amazing. And for me … for me, you have been everything. We will see each other again, Claire. Until then, live, fully, present in the world, which is so beautiful.
It’s dark now and I’m very tired. I love you. Always. Time is nothing.
Henry
序 幕
克莱尔：被丢下的感觉真难受。我等着亨利，不知道他在哪儿，不知道他一切可好。做等待的一方，真难。我尽量让自己充实，那样时间会过得快一些。等待中的每个时刻都如一年般长，无穷无尽。为何他去了那处我总无法相随的地方？
亨利：感觉如何？感觉如何？
有时，像是瞬间的走神。接下来，你开始意识到捧在手中的书、钉着白色纽扣的红色棉布格子衬衫、挚爱的黑色牛仔裤、一只鞋跟就要磨破的栗色袜子、起居室和厨房里即将鸣笛的水壶，所有这一切瞬间消失了。只剩下你一丝不挂，独自兀立在乡间无名沟渠的齐踝的冰水中。你等了一分钟，或许还能突然回到书跟前，重返你的家之类的地方。然而经过大约五分钟的咒骂、颤抖和想让自己立即消失的绝望后，你开始漫无目的地前行，而最后总会遇见一座农舍，那时，你可以选择偷窃或选择解释。偷窃有时会让你被捕，解释则更加沉闷无味和浪费时间，而解释又免不了说谎，有时同样会锒铛入狱……所以，管它呢！我莫名其妙地出现，全身赤裸，这叫我如何解释得清楚。
我从来带不上任何东西，没有衣服，没有钱，没有身份证明。时空逗留的大部分时间里，我都在寻找遮羞的衣服，东躲西藏。
我不想呆在没有克莱尔的时空里。我总是不停地离去，而她却无法相随。
2007年2月2日，星期五（克莱尔35岁）
克莱尔：等到爱尔芭睡着了，我坐到亨利的书桌边，拉开抽屉，取出一叠信件和纸，开始阅读。
亨利：等我死后再打开这封信，2006年12月10日
最挚爱的克莱尔：
当你读这封信的时候，我可能已经死了。克莱尔，我想再次告诉你，我爱你。这些年来，我们之间的爱，一直是迷宫里的引绳，是走钢丝表演者身下的安全网，是我怪诞生活中惟一可信的真实。今晚我觉得，在这个世界上，我对你的爱，甚于对我自己的爱：仿佛在我死去之后，我的爱还可以留下来，包围你，照看你，抱紧你。
我最恨去想你对我的等待。我知道，你的一生都在等我，每一次都不知道要等多久，十分钟，十天，还是一个月？克莱尔，一直以来，我是个飘泊不定的丈夫，像个海员，像是那独自一人去远航的奥德修斯，在汹涌的海浪里饱受蹂躏，有时还算灵巧，但有时只是众神手里的玩物。克莱尔，我请求你，当我死去以后，别再等我，自由地生活吧。至于我，就把我放进你的内心深处，然后到外面的世界生活吧。爱这个世界，爱活在这个世界里的自己。请你自由地穿梭，仿佛毫无阻隔，仿佛这个世界和你原来就同为一体。我给你的都是无着无落的生活。我并不是说你什么都没做，你在艺术上创造出美丽，并赋予其意义；还有，你带给我们这么了不起的爱尔芭。而对于我……对于我，你就是我的一切。克莱尔，我们还会再见面的。在那之前，好好地活在这个世界上，它是多么美丽啊。
现在天色暗了，我也倦了。我爱你，永永远远。时间没有什么了不起的。
亨利
被英国《卫报》评为“生命中不可缺少的100本书”，全球迄今销售超过5千万册，CE向大家隆重推荐自出版以来热评如潮的当代经典——《时间旅行者的妻子》。
Prologue
Claire: It’s hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he’s OK. It’s hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way. Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an 1)eternity. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?
Henry: How does it feel? How does it feel?
Sometimes it feels as though your attention has wandered for just an instant. Then, with a start, you realize that the book you were holding, the red 2)plaid cotton shirt with white buttons, the favorite black jeans and the 3)maroon socks with an almost hole in one heel, the living room, the about-to-whistle tea 4)kettle in the kitchen, all of these have vanished. You are standing, naked as a 5)jaybird, up to your ankles in ice water in a ditch along an unidentified rural route. You wait a minute to see if maybe you’ll just 6)snap right back to your book, your apartment, etc. After about five minutes of swearing and shivering and hoping to hell you can just disappear, you start walking in any direction, which will eventually yield a farmhouse where you have the option of stealing or explaining. Stealing will sometimes land you in jail, but explaining is more 7)tedious and time-consuming and involves lying anyway and also sometimes results in being 8)hauled off to jail, …so what the hell. I appear from nowhere, naked, how can I explain?
I’ve never been able to carry anything with me, no clothes, no money, no ID. I spend most of my 9)sojourns acquiring clothing and trying to hide.
I hate to be where Claire is not. And yet, I am always going and she cannot follow.
Friday, February 2nd, 2007, Claire is 35.
Claire: I sit at Henry’s desk after 10)Alba has gone to bed and I open the drawers. I take out the bundles of letters and papers and I begin to read.
Henry: A letter to be opened in the event of my death. December 10th, 2006.
Dearest Claire,
If you are reading this, I am probably dead. Claire ,I want to tell you again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the 11)labyrinth,, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more density in this world than I do myself, as though it could linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.
I hate to think of you waiting. I know that you’ve been waiting for me all your life, always uncertain of how long this 12)patch of waiting would be: ten minutes, ten days, a month? What an uncertain husband I’ve been, Claire, like a sailor, 13)Odysseus, alone, 14)buffeted by tall waves, sometimes 15)wily and sometimes just a plaything of the gods. Please, Claire, when I’m dead, stop waiting and be free. Of me, put me deep inside you and then go out into the world and live. Love the world and yourself in it. Move through it as though it offers no 16)resistance, as though the world is your natural element. I have given you a life of 17)suspended animation. I don’t mean to say that you have done nothing. You have created beauty and meaning in your art, and Alba, who’s so amazing. And for me … for me, you have been everything. We will see each other again, Claire. Until then, live, fully, present in the world, which is so beautiful.
It’s dark now and I’m very tired. I love you. Always. Time is nothing.
Henry
序 幕
克莱尔：被丢下的感觉真难受。我等着亨利，不知道他在哪儿，不知道他一切可好。做等待的一方，真难。我尽量让自己充实，那样时间会过得快一些。等待中的每个时刻都如一年般长，无穷无尽。为何他去了那处我总无法相随的地方？
亨利：感觉如何？感觉如何？
有时，像是瞬间的走神。接下来，你开始意识到捧在手中的书、钉着白色纽扣的红色棉布格子衬衫、挚爱的黑色牛仔裤、一只鞋跟就要磨破的栗色袜子、起居室和厨房里即将鸣笛的水壶，所有这一切瞬间消失了。只剩下你一丝不挂，独自兀立在乡间无名沟渠的齐踝的冰水中。你等了一分钟，或许还能突然回到书跟前，重返你的家之类的地方。然而经过大约五分钟的咒骂、颤抖和想让自己立即消失的绝望后，你开始漫无目的地前行，而最后总会遇见一座农舍，那时，你可以选择偷窃或选择解释。偷窃有时会让你被捕，解释则更加沉闷无味和浪费时间，而解释又免不了说谎，有时同样会锒铛入狱……所以，管它呢！我莫名其妙地出现，全身赤裸，这叫我如何解释得清楚。
我从来带不上任何东西，没有衣服，没有钱，没有身份证明。时空逗留的大部分时间里，我都在寻找遮羞的衣服，东躲西藏。
我不想呆在没有克莱尔的时空里。我总是不停地离去，而她却无法相随。
2007年2月2日，星期五（克莱尔35岁）
克莱尔：等到爱尔芭睡着了，我坐到亨利的书桌边，拉开抽屉，取出一叠信件和纸，开始阅读。
亨利：等我死后再打开这封信，2006年12月10日
最挚爱的克莱尔：
当你读这封信的时候，我可能已经死了。克莱尔，我想再次告诉你，我爱你。这些年来，我们之间的爱，一直是迷宫里的引绳，是走钢丝表演者身下的安全网，是我怪诞生活中惟一可信的真实。今晚我觉得，在这个世界上，我对你的爱，甚于对我自己的爱：仿佛在我死去之后，我的爱还可以留下来，包围你，照看你，抱紧你。
我最恨去想你对我的等待。我知道，你的一生都在等我，每一次都不知道要等多久，十分钟，十天，还是一个月？克莱尔，一直以来，我是个飘泊不定的丈夫，像个海员，像是那独自一人去远航的奥德修斯，在汹涌的海浪里饱受蹂躏，有时还算灵巧，但有时只是众神手里的玩物。克莱尔，我请求你，当我死去以后，别再等我，自由地生活吧。至于我，就把我放进你的内心深处，然后到外面的世界生活吧。爱这个世界，爱活在这个世界里的自己。请你自由地穿梭，仿佛毫无阻隔，仿佛这个世界和你原来就同为一体。我给你的都是无着无落的生活。我并不是说你什么都没做，你在艺术上创造出美丽，并赋予其意义；还有，你带给我们这么了不起的爱尔芭。而对于我……对于我，你就是我的一切。克莱尔，我们还会再见面的。在那之前，好好地活在这个世界上，它是多么美丽啊。
现在天色暗了，我也倦了。我爱你，永永远远。时间没有什么了不起的。
亨利