An Ingenious Love Letter

There once lived a lad who was deeply in love with a girl, but disliked by the girl’s father, who didn’t want to see any further development of their love. The lad was eager to write to the girl, yet he was quite sure that the father would read it first. So he wrote such a letter to the girl:

My love for you I once expressed

no longer lasts, instead, my distaste for you

is growing with each passing day. Next time I see you, I even won’t like that look yours.

I’ll do nothing but look away from you. You can never expect I’ll

marry you. The last chat we had was so dull and dry that you shouldn’t think it

made me eager to see you again.

If we get married, I firmly believe I’ll

live a hard life, I can never

live happily with you, I’ll devote myself

but not

to you. No one else is more

harsh and selfish and least

solicitous and considerate than you.

I sincerely want to let you know

what I said is true. Please do me a favor by

ending our relations and refrain from

writing me a reply. Your letter is always full of

things which displease me. You have no

sincere care for me. So long! Please believe

I don’t love you any longer. Don’t think

I still have a love of you!

Having read the letter, the father felt relieved and gave it to his daughter with a light heart. The girl also felt quite pleased after she read it carefully, her lad still had a deep love for her.

Do you know why? In fact, she felt very sad when she read the letter for the first time. But she read it for a few more times and at last, she found the key – only every other line should be read, that is the first line, the third, the fifth … and so on to the end.

注解：

ingenious ①（指物件）设计独特而精巧的

               ②（指主意）别出心裁的，奇妙的

          ③（指人）善于用新的或简单的方法解决复杂问题的；心灵手巧的

distaste n.不喜欢，厌恶

harsh   ①粗燥而使人不舒服的；（尤指）刺激人感官的

②严酷的，无情的，严厉的

solicitous 为（某人的福利、安康等）操心的，焦虑的

sincerely   真诚的感谢某人

            your ～ 谨启（用于信件署名前）

relieved    （感到或显出）宽慰的，放心的

             宽慰的笑容、样子、表情等