古罗马诗人维吉尔曾说过：即使是悲伤，我们也将用欢乐记取。不是吗？窗外的阳光依旧灿烂，人们关切的目光依然温暖。

　　A couple of weeks ago, I had a letter from Mr. Li

　　Pengyi, President of the Foreign Language

　　Teaching and Research Press, Beijing. He asked me to prepare some formal documents and send them to him as soon as possible. The process was easy enough, but it was slow. Everything had to be done in the right order, at different offices around London.3 At the beginning, I imagined I could complete the task in a couple of days. Quite quickly, I found that this was impossible. I learned that this sort of business has its own pace, which I had to accept.4

　　It has been hot in London lately, that bright summer weather that starts with fresh sunny mornings, beautiful evenings and nights too warm for sleep. Day by day, the air over the Thames gets heavier.5 The wind blows dust and leaves around. People go to work feeling tired, thinking it would be nice to have a bit of rain. Dull work in offices is even duller than usual in weather like this.

　　On 17 June, I reached the last part of my paper-chase.6 I was on the doorstep of the Legal Section at the Chinese Consulate as soon as the office opened.7 After a few more delays, I arrived at the desk of the senior official and pushed my pile of documents through the hole in the glass screen8. He glanced through the documents, checking them against the Declaration9 I had made that morning. Without much interest, he asked me a few routine questions and wrote in Chinese on the forms in front of him. He read my statement about the nature of my business10.

　　'Ah, copyrights? These papers are about copyrights?' he enquired, making a rapid note as he spoke.

　　'They are for our Chinese publisher in Beijing11,' I explained.

　　He went on scanning the documents and making notes. I saw him write the name, 'Alexander', in Chinese. He looked up, suddenly a very bright individual, no longer just a bored senior official.12

　　'Are you13 the author?' he asked.

　　'No,' I replied. 'The author was my husband, L.G. Alexander. He died. On 17th June. He died a year ago today.'14

　　He turned to his colleagues, firing off15 a statement in Chinese. They all paused in their work and turned to me, smiling kindly and all speaking together. I couldn't hear them very well because of the glass screen. Then the official spoke quietly but very clearly.

　　'We did not know that Mr. Alexander had died,' he said. 'We are very sorry to hear it, very sorry indeed. But you must cheer up. Mr. Alexander is very popular in China. I learned English from New Concept English. My colleagues here,' he gestured with a smile to his colleagues16 who were all smiling too. 'My colleagues learned English from New Concept English. Now my daughter is learning from New Concept English as well. So for us he has not died. Please cheer up. Please be happy. We all want you to be happy.'

　　Coming out into the glare of Portland Place, I felt Louis take my hand.17 Sharing this moment with him, I remembered a line from the Roman poet, Virgil, writing about grief: Et haec meminisse iuvabit: Even these things we will remember with pleasure.18

　　Virgil knew...-

　　1. Virgil：维吉尔(70-19BC)，古罗马诗人，代表作有史诗《埃涅阿斯纪》(Aeneid)，其作品对欧洲文艺复兴和古典主义文学产生了巨大影响。

　　2.本文作者是已故著名英语教育专家Louis George Alexander教授的夫人。在中国英语学习和爱好者中具有广泛影响的《新概念英语》就是由L.G. Alexander教授编写的。外语教学与研究出版社社长李朋义先生与Alexander教授在多年的合作中结下了深厚的友情。今年的6月17日(教授周年忌日)，作者在前往中国驻伦敦大使馆领事部时遇到了一件令她十分感动的事，所以写了本文并通过E-mail发送给了李朋义社长。

　　3.(我得跑)伦敦的好几个办事处，每件事情都得按部就班地来。

　　4.我明白了这类事情自有它的节奏，除了接受别无他法。pace：(进展的)速度，节奏。

　　5.日复一日，泰晤士河上的空气越来越滞重。heavy：阴沉的，低压的。这里用空气的厚重衬托出作者内心的烦闷。

　　6. 6月17日那天，我挨到了这场公文追逐的最后一段。paper-chase：<俚>(官僚主义的)文档追索。

　　7.中国大使馆领事部的法律处开门的时候，我已经站在了门外的台阶上。

　　8. glass screen：玻璃幕墙。

　　9. declaration：声明书，申报表(单)。这里用大写，是指使馆专用的一种申报表。

　　10. nature of business：职业，行业。

　　11.在北京的中方出版人，这里指外研社。

　　12.他抬起头，脸上神采奕奕地像换了一个人，再不只是一位了无生趣的高级官员了。

　　13. you在这里用斜体表强调，表示说话人感到非常意外和难以置信。

　　14.这里用了四个非常简短的句子，表现出说话者内心的伤感。

　　15. fire off：原义是"一炮，发射火箭"，这里指"脱口而出"。

　　16.他微笑着转头示意了一下他的同事们。

　　17.走到户外，在波特兰区耀眼的阳光下我仿佛觉得路易斯正拉着我的手。Portland Place：波特兰区，伦敦市内地名。

　　18.在与他执手共度的这一刻，我想起了古罗马诗人维吉尔写的关于悲伤的一句诗：即使是这样的事情(即悲伤)，我们也将用欢乐记取。Et haec meminisse iuvabit为拉丁语。