1.

New York City, 14 East Ninety-fifth Street, October 5, 1949. Playwright Helene Hanff sent a letter from New York, USA, to the Max & Cohen bookstore in London, England. This bookstore specializes in out-of-print books, and there were a few books that she couldn't find, so she had to try her luck at this store.

She had great luck. This bookstore could "relieve two-thirds of her troubles." Bookstore manager Frank Derr politely replied that they would pick out books with better quality and send them to her if they could find them. The bookstore would help her keep an eye on books that are currently hard to find, and they would also try their best to find books with good bindings for her. Version.

The book was mailed to Hai Lian. If she had just politely replied "Thank you" and listed the books to be mailed next time, the whole story would probably be just a model of foreign trade English, but she is not a good one at all. A person who doesn't hide his true temperament. She received a book from the bookstore for the first time. She wrote back happily and said that it would be too unfair to put the book on the shelf in the fruit box, so she just kept it in her hands; she was not good at math, and she was between US dollars and pounds. She was tormented by the conversion, so she wrote a letter saying that she hoped that the bookstore would directly convert the book price into US dollars next time; she was not satisfied with the content of a New Testament book sent by the bookstore, and wrote to complain, "Who has the bad idea? The Vulgar Latin Bible is compiled into this picture of virtue, and they all deserve to go to the eighteenth level of hell." She showed her preferences freely while laughing and cursing, and anyone who saw it would laugh. She "wrote a bunch of letters, large and small, from a safe distance of three thousand miles."

If this were just the case, then this correspondence would not have lasted twenty years. At that time, Britain was in the post-war period and supplies were in short supply. When she heard that "each household was only rationed two ounces of meat per week, and each person was only allocated one egg per month," she immediately started sending canned food to the bookstore. , eggs and other supplies. I don’t know if this can be regarded as saving people from danger, but Frank’s reply just said lightly that they “haven’t seen a complete piece of meat for too long.” The narrative background of the story does not overly exaggerate the poverty after the war, and Hailian never regards herself as a helper. Everyone just takes care of each other in a comfortable and appropriate way from a distance.

The correspondence between Helen and Frank slowly expanded to include the owner of the bookstore, Frank's wife and two children, and Frank's neighbor, an old lady who knew how to embroider. Cecily, another employee of the bookstore, was the first person to write to her besides Frank. Cecily told her that "we all love reading your letters" and said that the employees in the bookstore were guessing about her appearance. I wanted to see what she looked like and emphasized, "Don't tell Frank about this." In the subsequent exchange of letters, friends in London more than once revealed their strong desire to entertain her in London. Helian's good friend went to Max and Cohen Bookstore, and as soon as he said he was Helian's good friend, he was surrounded by everyone. "Frank invited us to spend the weekend at his house. The boss, Mr. Marks, came out of the house. He said he must shake hands with 'Miss Hanfy's friends'; all of them looked like they would entertain us well before they could give up. , we almost died in the unforgivable hospitality.”

The last letter was a reply written by Frank’s eldest daughter on behalf of her father in 1969. Frank died of illness before the whole story ended. Hai Lian also failed to go to England in person.

2.

Some people say that the book "84 Charing Cross" tells a love story, but I don't think so. This story clearly shows the unreserved warmth, friendship, trust and tacit understanding that people have never met in the world. All the care and generosity cannot be measured by the word "benefits", nor can they be thought of by the word "trouble". It is very tender.

Hailian is a funny girl who loves to laugh. She writes lively letters and often changes her title. She doesn’t even write the title and goes straight to the topic, just like opening a WeChat dialog box. This is not at all. Doing business is like having a lively and lively chat with friends. Frank did not tell Helene his name at first, but only wrote FPD on the signature. When she sent the supplies, she joked: "I will indicate on the package that it will be forwarded to you - FPD - God knows what your name is. After seeing the names of the bookstore owners Max and Cohen on the bill, she wrote another letter in a hurry and asked: "Are they Jews? Should I send some beef tongue quickly? Please tell me what to do!" Frank hadn't sent her a book for a while, so she urged: "Frank Del! What are you doing? I didn't receive anything! Are you kidding me? I've asked the Easter Bunny to send it to you." 'Egg', I hope it won't see you dead of laziness when it arrives..." She wanted to write a script, so she asked Frank: "In order to pay tribute to you, maybe I should write a murder that happened in an ancient bookstore. How about the crime? Are you going to play the murderer, or the murderer?" Anyway, she just wanted to tease Frank. If the content of the book was not good, she would roll out of bed angrily and could only lie at the foot of the bed and write letters. She hadn’t written to Frank for a long time, and her first sentence was: "Frank? Are you still there?"

Compared with Helene, Frank is a reserved British gentleman, always peaceful. steady. If you want to learn how to write English letters, you can take a look at Frank's reply. His words are calm and polite, and his sentence structure is relatively formal.

He was the official responder communicating with Hailian on behalf of the bookstore, but it was obvious that he valued Hailian as a friend. Once, in order to find books for Hailian, he visited private residences everywhere, and his wife had already welcomed him as a tenant. Frank was on a business trip and had no time to reply to Helene. The other employees were anxious, but they did not dare to write to "Frank's Miss Hanff". He spent four years trying to help Helian find a suitable copy of "The Canterbury Tales." He was very polite, and it was only after he had known Helen for several years that he directly called her by her first name, Helen instead of Miss Hanfu.

Although he is reserved, he is not aloof. In other words, he has the same sense of humor as Hai Lian. For example, when Helene wanted to clean her books, Frank told her the cleaning method in detail. His wife sent Helene a group photo. He also said that the photo did not capture him well, but in fact he looked much better in person than in the photo. Having known Hailian for a long time, he would also tell Hailian when he replied to her letter that he really hoped that the series she wrote could be broadcast in the UK, and that he would also be happy to cheer for the Brooklyn Dodgers in New York. But the way he expressed his concern was quite subtle. After buying a car, he said that he had finally joined the car-owning class, and asked Hailian if she would like to come to the UK to play with them now. Ten years after he met Helen, he wrote in a letter: "Summer is coming again, and it is expected that more American tourists will come to the UK. However, the 'American tourist' we are looking forward to alone still teaches us how to see through the past." "The most emotional sentence was what his wife told Hailian, "He loves reading your letters so much."

Hai Lian has longed to set foot on that land and has always missed the kindhearted person who sold her books. She watched a lot of movies about Britain, perhaps in order to find some comfort and excitement. Although the spiritual communication had already transcended the limitations of space, it was a pity that she was not able to meet these people in the end.

3.

In other words, she has actually met these people a long time ago.

There is a saying called "Seeing the words is like seeing the face", and other similar sayings are "Seeing the words is like meeting", which means that seeing my letter is like seeing me in person. Heilongjiang Satellite TV launched a program in which celebrities were invited to read past letters. It was said to have been well-received. The English name of the program was Letters Alive, which in Chinese means: Seeing the words is like the face.

Reading Lin Juemin's "Letter to My Wife", I was thinking about the address in the letter for a long time before I even read the content. "It's like meeting each other", these six simple words are like weighing a thousand pounds. Zhong: My dear wife Chen Yiying, when you read this letter, it’s like you’ve met me.

In the past, carriages and horses were very slow, and so were mails. When writing, each stroke is filled with your heart. The time difference between the two embodies cherished expectations. Waiting is also a kind of promise. I agree with what Mr. Chen Jianming said: "I like the process of being calm and patient, thinking about each sentence, and writing each word because it cannot be conveyed immediately. I also cherish reading the other party's previous letter and thinking about the scene when the other party reads the letter a few days later. and emotions."

Mr. Chen Jianming, the translator of "84 Charing Cross Street", once worked for Eslite Bookstore.

The pictures are all from the Internet