I am delighted to have the opportunity to send greetings to you on the occasion of Yuantao's translation of THE PERSIAN BOY.
我很高兴有机会在远涛的译作《波斯少年》出版之际,向你们致以问候。
One of my prize possessions is my correspondence with Miss Renault. As we got to know each other, unfortunately only through letters, she would send me copies of her novels as they appeared. She inscribed THE PERSIAN BOY as follows:
"To Professor Bernard Dick, who so generously tempers justice with mercy. With kind regards, Mary Renault 15 October 1972." "Justice with mercy?" She honored me; it was a privilege to write about her.
What has always impressed me about her is the way she approached love---discreetly, with an understated eroticism---passion elevated to the heights of the spiritual.
她写爱情的手法一直令我印象深刻:作风含蓄,情欲描写不着痕迹,将激情提升到了灵性的高度。
Consider the end of Chapter 12, when Bagoas approaches Alexander's bed: "The room smelled of sex and cedarwood, with a tang of salt from the sea. Autumn drew on, the night wind blew from the north. I drew the blanket over him; without waking, he moved to me in the great bed, seeking warmth."
In words she has created a picture of the recumbent couple, to which nothing more need be added. The imagination can supply the rest.
她用这些词句描画出这一对躺着的情人,不必再增添什么,想象可以补完全部。
In a letter (3 August 1969), she wrote about THE CHARIOTEER, her last contemporary novel, which was quite daring in its day, dealing as it does with gay England during World War II:
"I'm glad I wrote it; I am still hearing from people who were children at the time it was written, saying it has helped them to hold on to values they believe in."
The protagonist, Laurie, knew he was "different from an early age, but vowed "to be faithful to his humanity, if not to his sex."
故事的主人公罗瑞从小就知道自己与别不同,但他发誓要「忠诚于他的人性,即使不是忠诚于他的性别。」
Andre Gide wrote, "One must dare to be oneself." Miss Renault felt the same. My sincerest hopes for the success of the translation of this brilliant novel, Bernard