英文
AUGUST 15.
There can be no doubt that in this world nothing is so indispensable as love. I observe that Lotte could not lose me without a pang, and the very children have but one wish; that is, that I should visit them again tomorrow. I went this afternoon to tune Lotte’s piano. But I could not do it, for the little ones insisted on my telling them a story; and Lotte herself urged me to satisfy them. I waited upon them at tea, and they are now as fully contented with me as with Lotte; and I told them my very best tale of the princess who was waited upon by dwarfs. I improve myself by this exercise, and am quite surprised at the impression my stories create. If I sometimes invent an incident which I forget upon the next narration, they remind one directly that the story was different before; so that I now endeavour to relate with exactness the same anecdote in the same monotonous tone, which never changes. I find by this, how much an author injures his works by altering them, even though they be improved in a poetical point of view. The first impression is readily received. We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things; and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavour to efface them.
中文
八月十五日
显然，在世界上，只有爱才能使一个人变得不可缺少。我从绿蒂的情况感觉出，她非常不愿失去我；孩子们心中更是只有一个想法，就是我明天一定还会去。今天我去为绿蒂的钢琴校音，但老动不了手，因为小家伙们一个劲儿地缠着我，要我给他们讲故事，而绿蒂自己也说，我应该满足他们的愿望。晚餐时，我给他们切面包，他们都高高兴兴地接过去吃起来，就像从绿蒂手中接过去的一样。然后，我给他们讲了那个得到一双神奇的手帮助的公主的故事，这是他们最爱听的。在讲的过程中，请你相信，我学到了许多东西。我感到惊讶，这个故事竟给他们留下了如此深刻的印象。因为每当我把一个细节忘记了，不得不自行编凑时，他们立刻就嚷起来：上次讲的可不是这样呵！弄得我现在只好反复练习，直至能一字不差地用唱歌的调子进行背诵。从这件事我得到一个教训：一位作家把书中的情节修改再版，即使艺术上出色得多了，都必然会给作品带来损害。我们总乐于接受第一个印象；人生来如此，即使最荒诞离奇的事，你都能叫他信以为真，并且一下子便记得牢牢的；而谁想去挖掉这个记忆，抹去这个记忆，谁就自讨苦吃！
