They Love Life

There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. Such fools we are, she thought, crossing Victoria Street. For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriest frumps, the most dejected of miseries sitting on doorsteps (drink their downfall) do the same; can't be dealt with, she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life.

                                                                                                         -Virginia Woolf 《Mrs. Dalloway》


這段文字出自吳爾芙的小說《達洛威夫人》，描寫女主角Clarissa走在倫敦街頭，聽到大笨鐘敲響後的心理變化。傳到耳際，起初，帶有音樂性的提醒，震擊 ; 接著，不可逆的時間。人們對於時間的執著，如同我們在任性的生命之流中混戰; 每一秒，如此新鮮。儘管是最為平庸、最為失意的，在門階灌著灰心喪志的他們，這樣邊緣的人吶，想利用法案將他們處理掉？別傻了，她樂觀的想。因為，他們是如此熱愛生命。