在信中遇見海明威

To 1）Ernest Walsh， 17 August， 1925

I’ve done 48，000 words on a novel， a swell novel. It will be suppressed the day they publish it， but it’s going to be a damn good one. It’s about Paris and Spain. 2）Hadley’s gone off to Paris and I’ve been working here on it. Worked straight through all night several nights. We would have a chunk out of it later on， as work in progress， if you like.

Best always，

Ernest

To 3）Gertrude Stein and 4）Alice B. Toklas， 20 August， 1925

Dear friends，

You certainly must feel good about the 5）proofs and the book. I’m so glad it’s nearly done. I just got back yesterday. Hadley came up a week ago. I have been working very hard and done about 50-some thousand words on a novel. I want to get it finished now and then put it away and come back and work it over. Hadley came up and got the house all cleaned， etc.， and I stayed down and worked and went swimming. Never worked so hard， sometimes ’til four o’clock in the morning from after dinner， and sometimes， like now—it’s about 4：30 am—and I couldn’t sleep， so got up and writing now， and then start. It certainly is funny how your head， I mean my head， can go most of the time like a frozen cabbage， and then it can give you hell when it starts going. Have been so pleased to find it still functions.

致歐內斯特·沃爾什，1925年8月17日

我在寫一部特棒的小說，已經完成了四萬八千字。這本書鐵定一出版就會遭禁，但這會是一本超級棒的書，是關于巴黎和西班牙的。哈德莉回了巴黎，我一直留在這兒寫這本書。已經好幾個晚上寫通宵了。如果你想看的話，我可以一邊寫，一邊先給你看些章節。

祝好

歐內斯特

致格特魯德·斯泰因和愛麗絲·B·托克勒斯，1925年8月20日

親愛的朋友們：

你們想必對校樣和書都感到滿意吧。我很高興這本書快完成了。我昨天才回到巴黎，哈德莉上星期就過來了。我一直在忙著寫一本小說，已經寫了五萬字左右。我想現在就把它寫完，然后放在一邊，回頭再修改。哈德莉過來之后給房子來了個大掃除，還做了其他雜七雜八的事情。我就待下來寫作，時不時游游泳。我從來沒有試過這么賣力地寫作，有時候從吃完晚飯一直寫到凌晨四點，有時候，比如現在這樣——現在是凌晨四點半——我睡不著，所以就爬起來開始寫。有趣的是，你的腦袋，我是指我的腦袋，很多時候會僵滯得跟一棵凍硬了的白菜一樣，可它一旦轉起來也真夠你受的。萬幸的是它還能運轉。