A LETTER TO THE YEAR 2100
Dearyou,
Are you wearing 1)pajamas? I do not mean tobegin this letter by getting personal. I was just wondering if you people leavethe house anymore-something that seems to be increasingly unnecessary thesedays, a hundred years ago.
Are you six-feet-six? Are you fly-fishingon Mars? Are you talking on a cell phone? We are, usually.
As lovers leaving lovers say, By the timeyou read this, I'll be gone. Or possibly I won't. Given the way life is beingprolonged these days, I - with my pig's liver, 2)titanium hips and knees,artificialheart, transplanted kidney and reconstructed DNA - could write thisletter in my century and pick it up in yours.
I write you in the dead of winter from asummer village by the Atlantic Ocean. The last of the houseflies beats its bodyagainst the window, through which I watch the 3)tremors of a 4)berry bush andthe shorn stoic trees. Afternoon lowers on evening; the sky is the color of5)unpolished silver. A Cole Porter song, In the Still of the Night, goesthrough my head. I do not know why.
We are generally content, generally atpeace,generally optimistic, and with good reason. We are generally rich; more peoplehave homes of their own. We are generally healthy, thanks largely to remarkableadvances in medicine. People who died of certain diseases even 30 years ago areroutinely saved today.
In short, we are generally OK in spite ofnotable low spots and areas of significant concern. Our movies are mostlysilly. Our books? Mostly small. The quality of our cultural criticism isgenerally so low that one cannot tell how good or bad any artist is, but inliterature, at least, it is highly unlikely that any writer touted as aheavyweight in our era will make it to the ring in yours. Movies that once werejudged by normal artistic criteria are now valued by the amount of money theymake over a weekend. For your horrified amusement, see if you can dig up aprint of something called 6)Screamor The Blair Witch Project.
We enlarge and expand. We have recentlyfound out that the entire universe is expanding more than we had 7)initiallybelieved. We build, invent and discover at a pace that is 8)dizzying for us,perhaps turtle footed for you.
I wonder how far you have progressed. Iwonder if you have figured out how to make the best use of the past. I see youlooking back at us. You see us looking out at you. Because we can imagine oneanother, we constitute each other's dreams.
Outside, the air is cold and deep. Themoon hangs in a fingernail of light. The clouds conspire and retreat to revealyour stars and ours. Come. Walk with me in the 9)chill still of the night.
Yours,
Roger Rosenblat
一封致2100年的信
亲爱的你：
你已经穿上睡衣了吗？我无意把信的开头写得过于私人化。我只是想知道，一百年后你们是否还到户外去-今天，那已经变得越来越没有必要了。
你们是否身高六尺六？是否在火星上钓鱼？是否用手机谈话？我们通常如此。
正如情侣在分离时说的一样：当你读到这时，我已经不在了。我也有可能还在。凭着如今延长寿命的方式-换猪肝、钛制臀部和膝盖、人工心脏、移植肾脏、重建DNA-我也就能够在你的世纪里收到这封在我的世纪写下的信了。
我身处大西洋岸边的避暑山庄，给你写这信时，正值隆冬季节。最后的家蝇撞击着窗户，透过窗我看到摇曳的果树与修剪过的忍冬树。下午渐去，薄暮来临；天空是暗银色。不知何故，我的脑海中浮想起了科尔·波特的歌《静夜》。
我们通常是满足的，通常是平和的，通常是乐观的，我们这样做有着很好的理由。我们通常是富裕的；更多的人拥有了自己的家。非常感谢医药的巨大进步，令我们保持身体的健康。30年前的一些不治之症如今都找到了治疗方法。
简言之，我们总的来说还好，除了在一些重大地方有明显不足以外。许多电影拍得傻里傻气。书？多是小本的。文化评论的质量一般都很低劣，令人分不清哪些艺术家好哪些艺术家不好，不过在文学方面，至少我们的时代里似乎还没有能称为泰斗的哪位作家，可以到你们那时依然享有盛名。过去电影是通过正常的艺术水准来加以评判，如今却以一个周末所赚到的金钱作为衡量。如果你想自我惊吓娱乐一番，试试能否挖到《尖声惊叫》或《噩夜丛林》的电影拷贝吧。
我们扩大并扩展着。最近我们发现，整个宇宙比起初时我们所知道的膨胀得还要多。我们以令自己惊讶的速度建设着、发明着、发现着，也许对于你来说那只是一小步。
我想知道你们发展到了什么程度。我想知道你们是否已经知道怎样去充分利用历史经验。我看到你们在朝我们回顾。你们看到我们在向你们展望。我们相互想像着，编织彼此的梦。
屋外寒气正起，暮色深重。月光迷离。云朵缭绕过你我的群星。来吧，和我一起走进这夜晚冷冷的寂静中去。
此致
敬礼
罗杰·罗森布拉特
1) pajamas n. 睡衣，宽长裤
2) titanium n. （化学）钛注释：
3) tremor n. 震动，颤动
4) berry n. 浆果
5) unpolished a. 无光泽的
6) Scream和TheBlair Witch Project是美国近年最卖座的恐怖影片。注释：
7) initially adv. 最初，开头
8) dizzying a. 令人昏乱的9) chill a. 寒冷的，扫兴的