See, Charlotte, I do not shudder to take the cold and fatal cup, from which I shall drink the draught of death.
Your hand presents it to me, and I do not tremble. All, all is now concluded: the wishes and the hopes of my existence are fulfilled.
With cold, unflinching (不畏缩的) hand I knock at the brazen portals of Death.
Oh, that I had enjoyed the bliss of dying for you! How gladly would I have sacrificed myself for you; Charlotte!
And could I but restore (恢复) peace and joy to your bosom, with what resolution, with what joy, would I not meet my fate!
But it is the lot of only a chosen few to shed (流出) their blood for their friends, and by their death to augment, a thousand times, the happiness of those by whom they are beloved.
I wish, Charlotte, to be buried in the dress I wear at present: it has been rendered sacred by your touch.
I have begged this favour of your father. My spirit soars (向上飞) above my sepulcher (坟墓). I do not wish my pockets to be searched.
The knot of pink ribbon which you wore on your bosom the first time I saw you, surrounded by the children -- Oh, kiss them a thousand times for me, and tell them the fate of their unhappy friend! {1}
I think I see them playing around me. The dear children!
How warmly have I been attached to you, Charlotte! Since the first hour I saw you, how impossible have I found it to leave you.
This ribbon must be buried with me: it was a present from you on my birthday.
How confused it all appears! Little did I then think that I should journey this road. But peace! I pray you, peace!
"They are loaded -- the clock strikes twelve. I say amen. Charlotte, Charlotte! farewell, farewell!"
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A neighbour saw the flash, and heard the report of the pistol; but, as everything remained quiet, he thought no more of it.
In the morning, at six o'clock, the servant went into Werther's room with a candle.
He found his master stretched upon the floor, weltering in his blood, and the pistols at his side.
He called, he took him in his arms, but received no answer.
Life was not yet quite extinct. The servant ran for a surgeon (外科医生), and then went to fetch Albert.
Charlotte heard the ringing of the bell: a cold shudder seized her. She wakened her husband, and they both rose.
The servant, bathed in tears faltered forth the dreadful news. Charlotte fell senseless at Albert's feet.
When the surgeon came to the unfortunate Werther, he was still lying on the floor; and his pulse beat, but his limbs were cold.
The bullet (子弹), entering the forehead, over the right eye, had penetrated (穿透) the skull (头盖骨).
A vein was opened in his right arm: the blood came, and he still continued to breathe.
From the blood which flowed from the chair, it could be inferred (推断) that he had committed the rash act sitting at his bureau (写字台), and that he afterward fell upon the floor.
He was found lying on his back near the window. He was in full-dress costume.
The house, the neighbourhood, and the whole town were immediately in commotion (骚动).
Albert arrived. They had laid Werther on the bed: his head was bound up, and the paleness (苍白) of death was upon his face.
His limbs were motionless; but he still breathed, at one time strongly, then weaker -- his death was momently expected.
He had drunk only one glass of the wine. "Emilia Galotti" lay open upon his bureau.
I shall say nothing of Albert's distress, or of Charlotte's grief.
The old steward hastened to the house immediately upon hearing the news: he embraced his dying friend amid a flood of tears.
His eldest boys soon followed him on foot. In speechless sorrow they threw themselves on their knees by the bedside, and kissed his hands and face.
The eldest, who was his favourite, hung over him till he expired; and even then he was removed by force.
At twelve o'clock Werther breathed his last.
The presence of the steward, and the precautions (预防措施) he had adopted, prevented a disturbance; and that night, at the hour of eleven, he caused the body to be interred (埋葬) in the place which Werther had selected for himself.
The steward and his sons followed the corpse to the grave. Albert was unable to accompany them. Charlotte's life was despaired of.{2}
The body was carried by labourers. No priest attended.
The Editor to the Reader
It is a matter of extreme regret that we want original evidence of the last remarkable days of our friend; and we are, therefore, obliged to interrupt the progress of his correspondence, and to supply the deficiency by a connected narration.
I have felt it my duty to collect accurate information from the mouths of persons well acquainted with his history.
The story is simple; and all the accounts agree, except in some unimportant particulars.
It is true, that, with respect to the characters of the persons spoken of, opinions and judgments vary.
We have only, then, to relate conscientiously the facts which our diligent labour has enabled us to collect, to give the letters of the deceased, and to pay particular attention to the slightest fragment from his pen, more especially as it is so difficult to discover the real and correct motives of men who are not of the common order.{3}
Sorrow and discontent had taken deep root in Werther's soul, and gradually imparted (把…分给) their character to his whole being.
The harmony of his mind became completely disturbed; a perpetual (不断的) excitement and mental irritation, which weakened his natural powers, produced the saddest effects upon him, and rendered him at length the victim of an exhaustion against which he struggled with still more painful efforts than he had displayed, even in contending with his other misfortunes.{4}
His mental anxiety weakened his various good qualities; and he was soon converted into a gloomy companion, always unhappy and unjust in his ideas, the more wretched he became.
This was, at least, the opinion of Albert's friends.
They assert (声称), moreover, that the character of Albert himself had undergone no change in the meantime: he was still the same being whom Werther had loved, honoured, and respected from the commencement (开始).
His love for Charlotte was unbounded: he was proud of her, and desired that she should be recognised by every one as the noblest of created beings.
Was he, however, to blame for wishing to avert from her every appearance of suspicion?
or for his unwillingness to share his rich prize with another, even for a moment, and in the most innocent manner?
It is asserted that Albert frequently retired from his wife's apartment during Werther's visits; but this did not arise from hatred or aversion to his friend, but only from a feeling that his presence was oppressive (压抑的) to Werther.
Charlotte's father, who was confined to the house by indisposition, was accustomed to send his carriage for her, that she might make excursions in the neighbourhood.
One day the weather had been unusually severe, and the whole country was covered with snow.
Werther went for Charlotte the following morning, in order that, if Albert were absent, he might conduct her home.
The beautiful weather produced but little impression on his troubled spirit.
A heavy weight lay upon his soul, deep melancholy had taken possession of him, and his mind knew no change save from one painful thought to another.
As he now never enjoyed internal peace, the condition of his fellow creatures was to him a perpetual source of trouble and distress.
He believed he had disturbed the happiness of Albert and his wife; and, whilst he censured himself strongly for this, he began to entertain a secret dislike to Albert.
His thoughts were occasionally directed to this point.
"Yes," he would repeat to himself, with ill-concealed dissatisfaction, "yes, this is, after all, the extent of that confiding, dear, tender, and sympathetic love, that calm and eternal fidelity!
What do I behold but satiety and indifference?
Does not every frivolous (琐碎的) engagement attract him more than his charming and lovely wife? Does he know how to prize his happiness?
Can he value her as she deserves? He possesses her, it is true, I know that, as I know much more, and I have become accustomed to the thought that he will drive me mad, or, perhaps, murder me.
Is his friendship toward me unimpaired?
Does he not view my attachment to Charlotte as an infringement (侵犯) upon his rights, and consider my attention to her as a silent rebuke to himself?
I know, and indeed feel, that he dislikes me, that he wishes for my absence, that my presence is hateful to him."
He would often pause when on his way to visit Charlotte, stand still, as though in doubt, and seem desirous of returning, but would nevertheless proceed; and, engaged in such thoughts and soliloquies (自言自语) as we have described, he finally reached the hunting-lodge, with a sort of involuntary (非自愿的) consent.{5}
