这个节点的时机很重要。个人认为平和红线的关键词就是“时间”,作为英国文学爱好者,其中的剧情总让我想到Andrew Marvell的名诗:
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think whichway
To walk, and pass our long love’sday.
平和关系显然就是这种假设中的情况:他们太自信了,明白彼此之间有“无限的天地和时间”,因此可以尽情地享受过程,延宕告白,毫无顾忌地滥用时间:
An hundred years should go topraise
Thine eyes, and on thy foreheadgaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show yourheart.
但是红叶正好相反,时间不站在她这边,因此十分珍贵。对她而言,与平次重逢是十年后的偶然,是上天给她的宝贵机会,可能一生仅有这一次。因此,无论结果如何,她要尽力利用好相处的每一分每一秒,及时行乐,不留遗憾。这是一种认清了世界和爱欲的本质之后,以极大的勇气和审慎做出的决断,也是那首诗里诗人要表达的意思:
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chappedpower.