永恆 Eternity

作者：林清玄

By Lin Qingxuan

有一次，她告訴他一個故事。

She once told him a story.

說是有一對情侶一起去登喜馬拉雅山，恰好遇到雪崩，他被滾落的雪捲走，到一個不知名的地方，而她則站在那滾去的雪堆旁邊，呆在當地。

In the story, a pair of lovers went climb Mount Himalayas and happened to encounter an avalanche; he was whirled by the rolling snow to an unknown place, while she stood beside the snow drift, dumbfounded there.

她回家以後，常常在夢裡出現他在雪中呼喊的影像，她決心去找埋在雪中的他。每一年，她都去喜馬拉雅山出事的地點找他，一年一年過去了，找了二十年，終於在山腳下找到他。

Her dream was often haunted by his image calling in the snow after she returned home, so she decided to look for him buried in the snow. She went to look for him just at the site where the accident occurred in Mount Himalayas every year. Many years passed. At last, after twenty years, she found him at the foot of the mountain.

那個時候，她已經兩鬢飛霜，皺紋滿佈，而他還是雪崩時二十年前的青春容顏。她深深地感覺到時光的力量。

At that time, she was grey-haired with wrinkles all over her face, while he still remained the same young face when the snowslide happened twenty years ago, so she deeply felt the power of time.

說完故事，他們都深深的動容了。

Both of them were deeply moved by this story.

她問他：「感情是可以永恆的吧！」

She asked him, "Maybe love can last forever!"

他說：「這樣就是永恆嗎？」

He replied, "Such a love is eternal?"

後來談起了永恆，那時他們正在熱戀，都真真地體會到感情可以永恆。

They talked about eternity later when they were passionately in love with such a true belief that their love could last forever.

他們到最後也分開了，分開的地點不在喜馬拉雅山，而在台北，但永恆已經像喜馬拉雅山的雪片，紛紛落了一地，一下就溶化了。

In the end, they also broke up not in Mount Himalayas but in Taipei. But ETERNITY, like snowflakes in Mount Himalayas, had fluttered one after another to the ground and melted quickly.

除非有雪崩，但雪崩也不能保證永恆。

Love may last forever except in a snowslide, but even snowslide cannot ensure Eternity