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第一次订货的完美

让Helene Hanff激动且兴奋

幽默的她也让严肃的Frank Doel

不得不称呼她为"Miss"

84, Charing Cross Road 3

他们逐渐熟悉起来

14 East 95th St.

November 18, 1949

纽约市

东九十五大街14号

1949年11月18日

WHAT KIND OF A BLACK PROTESTANT BIBLE IS THIS?

这算哪门子的新约圣经啊！

Kindly inform the Church of England they have loused up the most beautiful prose ever written, whoever told them to tinker with the Vulgate Latin? They'll burn for it, you mark my words.

好心替我转告英国圣公会诸公，他们平白糟蹋了有史以来最优美的文字。是哪个家伙出馊主意把通俗拉丁文圣经整成这副德性？他们准会把他来活活烧死，不信记住我说的话。

It's nothing to me, I'm Jewish myself. But I have a Catho-Hc sister-in-law, a Methodist sister-in-law, a whole raft of Pres-byterian cousins (through my Great-Uncle Abraham who con-verted ) and an aunt who's a Christian Science healer, and I like to think none of them would countenance this Anglican Latin Bible if they knew it existed. (As it happens, they don't know Latin existed.)

其实我犯不着火冒三丈，我本身是犹太人。不过我的嫂子是天主教徒；弟媳是卫理公会的；还有一票皈依长老教派的表亲(全是被我的亚伯拉罕叔公拉去改宗的)；还有一个到处宣扬基督信仰疗法的姑妈。他们要是知道有这么一本英国人搞出来的不三不四的拉丁文圣经，个个不暴跳如雷才怪！(话说回来，他们搞不好根本不晓得现在还有拉丁文哩。)

Well, the hell with it. I've been using my Latin teacher's Vulgate, what I imagine I'll do is just not give it back till you find me one of my own.

哼，去他的！我手边还有一本从我的拉丁文老师那儿借来的圣经，暂且先不还他就是了，等你们找一本卖给我再说。

I enclose $4 to cover the $3.88 due you, buy yourself a cup of coffee with the 12^. There's no post office near here and I am not running all the way down to Rockefeller Plaza to stand in line for a $3.88 money order. If I wait till I get down there for something else, I won't have the $3.88 any more. I have implicit faith in the U.S. Airmail and His Majesty's Postal Service.

寄去四元支付我欠你们的三元八角八分，你就拿多出来的一角二去买杯咖啡喝吧！我住的地方附近没有邮局，我才不要为了汇三元八角八分，大老远跑到洛克菲勒广场去大摆长龙呢。何况，如果要等到我哪天有空顺道去办事，口袋里的三元八角早就被我花得一毛不剩了。我对美国邮政和皇家邮政有十足的信心。

Have you got a copy of Landor's Imaginary Conversa-tions? I think there are several volumes, the one I want is the one with the Greek conversations. If it contains a dialogue between Aesop and Rhodope, that'll be the volume I want.

你们有兰多的《假想对话录》吗？我想全套应该不止一本，我想读的是“希腊对话录”，如果里面有伊索和萝多彼的对话，就是那一本没错。

Helene Hanff

海莲·汉芙

MARKS & CO., Booksellers

84, Charing Cross Road

London, W.C.2

马克斯与科恩书店

伦敦中西二区查令十字街84号

26th November, 1949

1949年11月26日

Miss Helena HanfF

14 East 95th Street

New York 28, New York

U.S.A.

海莲·汉芙小姐

美国

纽约州，纽约市28

东九十五大街14号

Dear Miss HanfF,

敬爱的汉芙小姐：

Your four dollars arrived safely and we have credited the 12 cents to your account.

您的书款已安全寄达，我们会将多出的一角二分计入您在敝店的专属账户中。

We happen to have in stock Volume II of the Works &Life of Walter Savage Landor which contains the Greek dia-logues including the one mentioned in your letter, as well as the

Roman dialogues. It is an old edition published in 1876, not very handsome but well bound and a good clean copy, and we are sending it off to you today with invoice enclosed.

很凑巧，敝店正好有收录“希腊对话录”的《沃尔特·萨维奇·兰多作品暨传记全集》中的第二卷，“罗马对话录”亦收录其中。本书由于是一八七六年出版的旧版本，并不是非常漂亮，但装订完好，书亦称干净。我们今日会将书与账单一并为您寄上。

I am sorry we made the mistake with the Latin Bible and will try to find a Vulgate for you. Not forgetting Leigh Hunt.

我在此为那本让您深感不满的拉丁文圣经向您致歉，我们将重新为您找一本正宗《通俗拉丁文圣经》；利·亨特的书仍持续密切留意中。

Yours faithfully,

FPD

For MARKS & CO.

马克斯与科恩书店

FPD敬上

“二十年间缘悭一面，

相隔万里莫逆于心。”

84, Charing Cross Road

《查令十字街84号》

每晚21点

与你不见不散