personal letter

chinese--------------twilight

excited

Q: This is going to sound insanely curious but… do the vampires bathe? Given that you said the hunting is messy (no clean puncture wounds), I’m assuming that they get dirty… or at least bloody. So do they take showers? Do they comb their hair? Brush their teeth?

问：这听上去一定离奇得很不正常但是…吸血鬼要洗澡吗？来自于你曾经说过狩猎会弄得很脏乱（没有干净的小孔形伤口），我假设他们会弄脏…或者至少会沾到血迹。所以他们需要洗澡吗？他们也梳头发吗？刷牙呢？

A: Vampires do shower, but they don’t get dirty the same way we do. Outside dirt, yes–blood and mud and whatnot (though most vampires don’t get a spot on themselves when they eat–its all a matter of practice), but not sweat or body oils. They would never have B.O., ha ha. One girl asked me why Alice had a bathroom and if vampires have to pee. No, they don’t (they use all the blood, creating no waste), but they do shower. (And of course they have to have bathrooms–houses are just built that way, and when they want to move, it would look a little weird on the real estate listing: eight bedrooms, no baths.)

答：吸血鬼要洗澡的，但是他们和我们弄脏的方式并不同。表面上的污垢，没错——会有血迹和污泥还有诸如此类的东西（尽管大多数吸血鬼在捕食时都不会沾上半点污渍—这纯粹是练习的问题），但是并没有汗液或是身体上的油份。他们是不可能有体臭的，哈哈。有个女孩问过我为什么爱丽丝会有浴室还有吸血鬼要不要上厕所。不，他们并不需要（他们会用光所有的血液，不会有一丁点的浪费），但是他们要洗澡。（当然他们必须得有浴室——建房子时都有配套的，不然当他们要搬走时，房地产上市目录若注明：八间卧室，无浴室，这看起来挺奇怪的。）

They do wash the dust and rain out of their hair, too. And Rosalie particularly spends a lot of time doing hers. (Hair is dead cells–the vampire transformation doesn’t affect it. If you’ve got split ends, sorry! Not getting better. Ha ha).

他们也要把头发上的灰尘和雨水洗掉。特别是罗莎莉会花更多的时间。（头发是已经死掉的细胞——吸血鬼的改造不会对它产生影响。如果你发尾有分叉，对不起！那是不会自动修复的。哈哈）

Q: Now here’s a question that came to mind while discussing the book with another friend. She’s a vampire romance novel -aholic and she wondered why Bella didn’t just prick her finger and let Edward drink from her every now and then. Personally, I thought that was a bit sadistic – like she would tease him with it. (I’m picturing Bella with a cut finger, waving it back and forth in front of Edward teasingly saying, “Come and get it!”) Especially since we know how difficult it was for him to stop drinking from her the one time he had to. But still, what would happen, do you suppose, if Bella had a cut on her finger? Natural instinct is to put the cut to your mouth – at least it is for me. Edward tasted her tears in one scene. Would he be tempted to taste from a wound?

问：现在这个问题是和另一个朋友在讨论书中内容时突然想到的。她是个吸血鬼爱情小说狂，她想知道为什么贝拉不干脆戳破手指头让爱德华时不时地吸她一下呢？我个人认为是有点虐待倾向——好像她要勾引他一样。（我正想象贝拉在爱德华面前招引着受伤的手指，用挑逗的语气说，“来吸它吧！”）特别是自从那一次之后我们明白到，强忍住不去吸她的血对于他来说是多么的困难。但是，你能想象一下会发生什么事，如果贝拉割到了手指？本能会把伤口放到口中吧——至少我是这么想的。其中就有一幕写到爱德华尝过她的眼泪。他会被伤口所诱惑吗？

A: You picked up on the key to this question–why Bella doesn’t just let Edward have a sip now and then–in the difficulty he has stopping when he’s sucking out the venom at the end of Twilight. As Alice said, vampires frenzy like sharks when there’s blood “in the water,” so to speak. (That’s why Edward was ditching Biology on the day they were blood typing. A normal vampire can’t handle being in a room with flowing blood. Carlisle is a one-of-a-kind exception to that rule. Edward is better than an average vampire, and he could probably resist a lot of finger pricks (Jasper could not handle that), but why risk it, right? The Cullens play it safe.) When Edward is drinking blood, he’s much wilder and less human than usual. That’s why Bella can’t go on a hunting trip with him. Once the blood gets flowing, all the Cullens (besides Carlisle, of course) become more like “real” vampires.

答：你问到点上了——为什么贝拉不直接让爱德华不时抿上一口就好了——想想看在《暮色》的结尾部分，当吸出毒液时，他强使自己停下来的那种艰难。正如爱丽丝所说，吸血鬼的嗜血可以说就像鲨鱼看到血出现在“水中”会发狂一样。（这就是为什么验血型那天爱德华要逃掉生物课的原因。）一个正常的吸血鬼是不可能和一屋子流血的人待在同一个房间里而还能控制住自己的。卡莱尔是这个常例中独一无二的例外。爱德华比一般的吸血鬼做得更好，他大概能抵挡很多根刺破的手指吧（贾斯帕就不能了），不过为什么要冒这个险呢，对吧？卡伦一家一直都很谨慎行事。）爱德华在吸血的时候，他会变得更野蛮也比平时更缺少人性。这就是为什么他不能带上贝拉一起去狩猎远足的原因。血一旦开始流出来，卡伦家所有人（当然除了卡莱尔）都会变得更像“真正的”吸血鬼。

Edward can’t be around Bella when she’s bleeding without being in intense temptation–to the point of pain. A few drops would only make it worse. Like a few drops of water when you’ve been wandering in the desert for days… You’d totally suck down the whole gallon of Evian.

当贝拉流血的时候，没能经受住强烈的诱惑——甚至是痛苦，爱德华是无法待在她身边的。只需几滴就能使事情变得更糟。就像你迷失在沙漠中好几天后的几滴甘露……一加仑的依云矿泉水都会被你全部灌下去的。

Several girls wanted to know if Edward would have a more difficult time being around Bella when she’s having her period. Answer: Yes, a little bit, but he would never say anything about it–much too much of a gentleman. And Bella would be way to embarrassed to ask. (It’s not the same as a cut, though. It’s sort of “dead” blood, if you get my meaning).

有几个女孩想知道如果贝拉生理期来时，爱德华在她身边会不会感到更难受。答案是：没错，是会有一点，但是他从来不会对此说什么——比绅士还绅士。对于这个问题贝拉大概也羞于启齿吧。（毕竟这和割伤不一样。那是种“没有生命”的血，如果你明白我意思的话）。

Q: Will you be publishing your version of Edward’s story? And if so, when might that be?

问：你会发行爱德华版本的故事吗？如果会，将是什么时候？

A: I have no idea if I am going to publish Edward’s version. I guess I will if the publisher wants it. I’d kind of like to have it printed up as a companion–a pretty little set. I’m not sure if the publisher will want Edward’s version. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book like that. The closest I can think of is Ender’s Shadow (Orson Scott Card’s companion to Ender’s Game), but that book tells the same story from a really minor character’s point of view, so it’s a very, very different book with huge sections that appear nowhere in the original. Edward is such a central part of Twilight that I’m locked in to following the original story extremely closely. Too closely? Is it too boring to print separately? Too much the same thing? These are the questions in my head. If the publisher doesn’t want it, I will post it all on my website. See, when I think about that though, I know that tons of people will be printing it off in its entirety. It doesn’t cost that much for a publisher to print up a small lot of books, especially if they don’t have to pay anything in marketing–I can’t imagine they wouldn’t want to print it if it would sell, whether it’s too derivative or not.

答：我自己也不知道要不要出版爱德华版本。如果出版商想的话我猜我会的。（那时还未发生泄稿事件吧，我的午夜阳光啊~哭~~）我属意要把它印成手册——精美小巧的一套。我不确定出版商是否想要出爱德华版本。我也没看过有哪一本书是这样的。我能想到最接近的就是《安德的影子》（奥森·斯科特·卡德《安德的游戏》系列丛书），但这部书是用次要人物的视角来重新讲述相同的故事。[加插一段简介帮助理解：这是安德系列的第五集，与前几部不同，它并不是《安德的游戏》的续集而是平行作品，“豆”(Bean)有着惊人的才华却甘愿在安德身后出谋划策，成为安德背后的影子。而这一部就是换成“豆”的角度来讲述之前续集讲过的故事。可以百度一下，并联系午夜阳光一同理解。] 所以这是一本非常，非常不同以往并具有很大一部分独创性的书。爱德华是暮光的核心部分，所以我会极度严密地锁定原故事情节的。严密过头了？会不会因为太无趣所以不能独立出版？重复的内容太多了？这是我脑中一直在想的问题。如果出版商不想出，我会把它全部发表到我的网站上的。瞧，尽管我在考虑这个的时候就已经知道将有成千上万的人会它全体一并打印出来。出版商要印制出版一小套书并不会花费太多成本，特别是如果他们不必花钱做任何市场营销——如果能卖没有道理他们不去印它的，管它是不是一点创意都没有。

So for the answer: I don’t have a clue. And it’s going slow, so I’m not sure how much I’ll get finished before I have to focus on Eclipse BUT, I will get that first chapter up on my site regardless.

所以答案是：我不知道。现在进度很慢，所以我不确定在把精力投放到《月食》的创作之前我能完成多少但是，不管怎样我都会把第一章发布grip到我的网站上来的。

Q: Jasper is the one character I feel like I have no grip on. He’s like a void for some reason.

问：贾斯帕是唯一一个让我觉得无法把握的人物，不知道为什么总觉得他很空洞。

A: Okay, Jasper things. I love me some Jasper. Firstly, the reason Jasper has the most trouble with the Cullen diet is that he has been around since the Civil War and he has consumed a LOT of human blood. He has formed really bad habits. Also, my boy is a fighting machine (and I’m not talking about Civil War/human fights here, though he was a major in the Confederate army when he was human). The Cullen lifestyle is like an almost incomprehensibly peaceful retirement for him.

答：Okay，贾斯帕的事。我喜欢贾斯帕胜过我自己（这么说怪怪的，就当作“我很喜欢贾斯帕”来理解吧）。首先，贾斯帕难以适应卡伦式素食习惯的原因是因为从内战以来他一直随意杀戮并消耗了大量的人类血液。（《月食》第十三章讲到他的个人历史） 他形成了一个真的很坏的习惯。加上我的孩子是一个战斗机器（在这里我不会谈及内战或人类的战争，虽然他还是人类的时候曾是南部联盟军的一名少校）。对于他来说卡伦家的生活方式就像一种平静到几乎不能理解的退休生活。

Secondly, he’s really mostly doing this for Alice. Alice is Jasper’s entire life. She is the most important thing in the universe to him, and he would do absolutely anything for her. For Jasper, there would be no limit to who or what he would destroy for Alice. Not that she wants him destroying anything. She’s the light side of their relationship–she makes him laugh (and he wasn’t much of a laugher before Alice). Jasper is the most “vampire-y” of the Cullens, and, while he’s fond of them all, he’s not bonded to them the way the rest of them are. The way Alice most definitely is. The whole high school thing really freaks him out. He’s trying to get better at being around humans, but it’s an uphill struggle.

其次，他这么做的很大一部分都是为了爱丽丝。爱丽丝就是贾斯帕生命的全部。她是全宇宙最最重要的，他绝对可以为她做任何事。对于贾斯帕来说，为了爱丽丝他能摧毁任何人或任何事而在所不惜。并不是说她要让他摧毁一切。（果然是梅尔啊，能用一段话来说她绝不会用一句话带过的~）在他们之间，爱丽丝是光明的一方——负责逗贾斯帕开心（在遇到爱丽丝之前他总是不苟言笑）。贾斯帕是卡伦一家里最“吸血鬼的”，而且，他喜欢他们所有人的同时，对其余下的行事方式却喜欢不起来，偏偏这又是爱丽丝最认定的方式。有关高中生活的一切真的把他搞疯了。虽然他正尝试和人类更好地共处，但这是一个艰难的挣扎。