我坐在彼德拉河畔哭泣

       这本书给我的阅读体验是难以名状的,它是那么温暖的柔弱,让我数次有想哭的冲动;它又是那么勇敢的真切,使我有种如被刺一刀的冷颤。故事其实很简单很纯净, 但她却令我此类对真爱如对宗教一样始终抱有审慎悲观的人,感到无比的震撼——爱即信,信即爱。所有的犹豫、恐惧都要在付出的同时才能洗去……
　　本书作者保罗·科埃略是当今拉丁美洲最具影响力的作家之一。作品主要描写了女主人公皮拉尔与其初恋情人自小一起长大,在分别了十一年之后两人重逢的故事。皮拉尔随他一起布道、旅游,互诉爱慕之情。然而,男友要独自去承担宗教义务,皮拉尔十分伤心,在彼德拉河畔边哭泣、边写她那凄婉而动人的爱情故事。在她完稿后,男友终于来到河畔,找到了她。爱的力量使他们又重新在一起。皮拉尔在混混沌沌地生活了多年之后,面对男友突然表达的爱,感到的却是源自自身的重重疑虑和障碍。她在彼德拉河畔留下了泪水,用泪水清洗内心的恐惧,也在逐渐体味一种“全部付出”的爱……
　　本书令人耳目一新的现代爱情故事,借助戏剧性的故事,将凡间的“真爱”与神灵的“博爱”合二为一,颇具启迪意味。皮拉尔和她的男友是虚构的人物,不过,他们是我们在寻找自己另一半时所遇各种冲突的缩影。本选段是全书的开篇。首先倒叙了皮拉尔在河边哭泣的情景。
　　Thomas Merton once said that the spiritual life is essentially to love. One doesn’t love in order to do what is good or to help or to protect someone. If we act that way, we are perceiving the other as a simple object, and we are seeing ourselves as wise and generous persons. This has nothing to do with love. To love is to be in communion with the other and to discover in that other the spark of God.
　　May Pilar’s 1)lament on the bank of the river Piedra guide us toward such communion.
　　—Paulo Coelho
　　(修士)托马斯·默顿曾说:“精神生活归根到底就是爱。行行善事、帮助或保护他人,并不是爱。因为我们如果这样做,那我们只是在把他人当成简单的物品看待,自认为自己是明智慷慨之人。而这根本与爱无关。爱是与他人心灵相通,在他人身上发现神的光辉。”
　　愿皮拉尔在彼德拉河畔流下的泪水引导我们走上这心灵相通的道路。
　　——保罗·科埃略
　　
　　By the river Piedra I sat down and wept. There is a legend that everything that falls into the waters of this river—leaves, insects, the feathers of birds—is transformed into the rocks that make the riverbed. If only I could tear out my heart and hurl it into the current, then my pain and longing would be over, and I could finally forget.
　　By the river Piedra I sat down and wept. The winter air chills the tears on my cheeks, and my tears fall into the cold waters that course past me. Somewhere, this river joins another, then another, until far from my heart and sight all of them merge with the sea.
　　May my tears run just as far, that my love might never know that one day I cried for him. May my tears run just as far, that I might forget the river Piedra, the 2)monastery, the church in the 3)Pyrenees, the mists, and the paths we walked together.
　　I shall forget the roads, the mountains, and the fields of my dreams; the dreams that will never come true.
　　I remember my “magic moment” that instant when a “yes” or a “no” can change one’s life forever. It seems so long ago now. It is hard to believe that it was only last week that I had found my love once again, and then lost him.