INTRODUCTION BY S. E. HINTON

S. E. 辛顿作序

A romance. A ghost story. A love so fierce and intense it could be mistaken for a nightmare. I’ve read a few books that seem to sink into my subconscious, to remain there. Wuthering Heights, however, seems to have been there all along. Emily Brontë took a chisel to granite (as her sister Charlotte once said) and carved a masterpiece that somehow feels like a memory.

一部爱情小说。一部鬼故事。一种如此炽烈而深沉的爱，以至于让人误以为是噩梦。我读过几本书，它们似乎渗入了我的潜意识，并长久驻留其中。然而，《呼啸山庄》却仿佛一直都在那里。艾米莉·勃朗特（正如她姐姐夏洛特曾说的那样）手持凿子在花岗岩上雕琢，创作出一部令人恍如记忆般的杰作。

I have to admit I had difficulty getting through Wuthering Heights when I first read it as a teenager. There weren’t any ‘young adult’ novels at that time; I was through with the horse books and had to go on to more mature reading if I didn’t want to waste my brain on Mary Sue Goes to the Prom.

我得承认，十几岁时第一次读《呼啸山庄》时，我读得相当吃力。那时还没有所谓的“青少年小说”；我已经读腻了那些关于马的书，如果不想把脑子浪费在《玛丽·苏参加舞会》这类书上，就不得不转向更成熟的读物。

Wuthering Heights was my first experience of an unreliable narrator. Black Beauty, well, he pretty much told it like it was. But Lockwood, the first narrator of Wuthering Heights (more about the second one later), is a soft man from a soft place, unable to recognize or understand any of the harsh realities of the land he has chosen for his self-imposed exile. (While holidaying at the seaside, he flirts with a girl until she flirts back, and then he runs as far away as he can.) In fact, within a few pages I was thinking, ‘Is this guy an idiot?’ and the answer is yes.

《呼啸山庄》是我第一次接触“不可靠叙述者”的体验。《黑骏马》嘛，那书里的叙述者基本上都是如实相告。但洛克伍德——《呼啸山庄》的第一位叙述者（关于第二位叙述者稍后再谈）——却是个来自温室的软弱男子，完全无法认清或理解他为自我放逐而选择的这片土地上任何残酷的现实。（他在海边度假时，曾与一位姑娘调情，直到对方也回应他的调情，他才逃得越远越好。）事实上，读了不过几页，我就暗自思忖：“这家伙是个傻瓜吗？”答案是肯定的。

Lockwood misreads character – his take on everyone he meets between Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights is wrong. He guesses wrong at relationships. He mistakes guard dogs for pets, and is stupid enough to make faces at them after he’s been rescued from being torn limb from limb (resulting in the need for another rescue). He mistakes dead rabbits for kittens; there’s no need for cuddly things on the moors, but there is a need for food and warmth – it is a matter of life and death.

洛克伍德总是误判他人——从特鲁斯克罗斯庄园到呼啸山庄，他对所遇之人的看法无一例外都是错的。他对人际关系的判断总是失准。他把看门狗当成宠物，甚至蠢到在被撕成碎片后获救时，还对着它们做鬼脸（结果又得被人救一次）。他把死兔子当成小猫；荒原上不需要什么毛茸茸的玩意儿，但需要食物和温暖——这是关乎生死的大事。

Location, location, location. This story could not have happened anywhere else. The desolate and dangerous moors (where the wind-warped trees bend ‘as if craving alms of the sun’) strengthen those who respect them, but seem to leech the life of those who shun them. Lockwood blithely assumes that he can navigate this wilderness like it’s a city park, and it almost costs him his life.

地段，地段，地段。这故事若发生在别处，绝无可能。那片荒凉而危险的荒原（那里被狂风扭曲的树木“仿佛在乞求阳光的施舍”），能让敬畏它的人变得更加坚强，却似乎会吸走那些躲避它之人的生命力。洛克伍德天真地以为自己能像在城市公园里散步那样穿行于这片荒野，结果差点为此丢了性命。

I love the outdoors, but coming from Oklahoma I don’t always consider nature a source of comfort. In fact, there is nothing more natural than a rattlesnake curled up on a piece of poison ivy. In Wuthering Heights it is the people who respect nature who deserve to live amongst it. It is when the free-roaming children of the moors, Cathy and Heathcliff, leave them, that their slow disintegration begins.

我热爱户外活动，但作为一名来自俄克拉荷马州的人，我并不总是把大自然视为一种慰藉。事实上，没有什么比一条盘踞在毒藤上的响尾蛇更“自然”的了。在《呼啸山庄》中，唯有那些尊重大自然的人，才配得上生活在大自然之中。正是当在荒原上自由奔跑的凯瑟琳和希斯克利夫离开那里时，那片土地的衰败才悄然开始。

Wuthering Heights is haunted: by a ghost, by memories, by scenes of violence and despair. Even Lockwood, insensitive as he is, realizes it. Partly curious, partly bored, he coaxes the story of the Earnshaws, the Lintons and the dark ‘gipsy brat’, Heathcliff, from Nelly Dean.

《呼啸山庄》笼罩着一股阴森的气息：有幽灵，有往事，还有暴力与绝望的场景。就连洛克伍德这样心肠冷漠的人，也察觉到了这一点。他既出于好奇，又因百无聊赖，便从内莉·迪恩口中套出了厄恩肖家、林顿家以及那个阴郁的“吉普赛小鬼”希斯克利夫的故事。

Nelly Dean, the servant who grew up at Wuthering Heights, is a great choice for the other narrator. Honest, though tending to gloss over her own transgressions (her betrayals cost Cathy Earnshaw both her love and her life), Nelly Dean is the domestic anchor that holds this storm-tossed story in reality. The use of the domestic to keep a foothold in reality is something I can relate to, as a writer and as a person. It is said that Emily Brontë was a great baker and loved a clean house, and she was rumoured to be a good shot. And yet, as she did these things, she held a whole other universe in her head, moving from one to the other with the ease of stepping from one room to the next because to her they coexisted. So the thundering passion, the treachery, the revenge visited on the next generation, all take place in a setting where fires are essential, pans are scoured clean, the kitchen smells of cooking food. Necessity and imagination coexist.

在内尔莉·迪恩——这位在《呼啸山庄》长大的女仆——身上，我们找到了另一位叙述者的绝佳人选。她为人诚实，尽管有时会淡化自己的过错（她的背叛让凯瑟琳·恩肖既失去了爱情，也失去了生命），但内尔莉·迪恩正是将这个饱经风浪的故事锚定在现实中的家庭支柱。作为一名作家，也作为一个人，我深有同感：正是通过家庭生活的描绘，故事才得以在现实中扎根。据说艾米莉·勃朗特是位出色的烘焙师，热爱整洁的家居环境，还有传闻说她枪法很准。然而，当她做这些家务时，脑海中却盘踞着另一个完全不同的世界，她能在两个世界间自如穿梭，如同从一个房间走到另一个房间般轻松，因为在她看来，这两个世界本就共存。因此，那雷霆万钧的激情、背叛，以及降临在下一代身上的复仇，全都发生在一个炉火不可或缺、锅碗瓢盆被擦洗得干干净净、厨房里飘散着烹饪香气的环境中。现实需求与想象力在此并存。

Nelly, who witnessed it all, calmly tells of Catherine Earnshaw, the ‘wild, wicked slip’ of a girl, and dangerous, sadistic Heathcliff (surely the darkest of heroes) and their passion for each other that destroyed themselves, many who came between them and, almost, those who came after.

目睹这一切的内莉平静地讲述了凯瑟琳·恩肖——那个“野性、放荡”的姑娘，以及危险且残忍的希斯克利夫（无疑是最阴暗的英雄）——他们之间那份摧毁了彼此、毁灭了众多介入者、甚至几乎波及后代的炽热情感。

Nelly Dean is a little flabbergasted (like the rest of us) that Catherine is miffed because her husband is resentful of her lover, and because her lover detests her husband, but she relates it cheerfully and without question. She never runs screaming, ‘Enough of these crazy people!’ – her acceptance of this story fuels our acceptance.

内莉·迪恩（Nelly Dean）对此感到有些目瞪口呆（就像我们其他人一样）——凯瑟琳之所以不高兴，是因为她的丈夫对她的情人怀有怨恨，而她的情人又厌恶她的丈夫，但她却开朗地讲述着这一切，丝毫没有质疑。她从未尖叫着逃走，喊着“受够了这些疯子！”——她对这个故事的接纳，促使我们也接纳了它。

Extraordinary stories can take place in ordinary places, the wilderness can breed wild passions, and mild observers can witness the clash of Titans.

非凡的故事可能发生在平凡之处，荒野能孕育狂野的激情，而温和的旁观者也能目睹巨人的碰撞。

There are quite a few books on my favourites list, but Wuthering Heights is the only one I wish I had written. I would like to believe I once had that kind of courage. But I didn’t.

我的最爱书单上不乏佳作，但《呼啸山庄》是唯一一本我希望自己写出来的书。我多希望自己曾拥有那样的勇气。但事实并非如此。