柴可夫斯基致冯?梅克夫人
柴可夫斯基（1840—1893），世界上最伟大的音乐家之一。他于1976年底开始与冯?梅克夫人长达十三年的神秘交往。
他收到冯?梅克夫人的信后，很受感动，随后诚恳地写了回信。
看到你的笔迹，知道我们又在通信，我内心的喜悦无以言表。朱根生忘记告诉我一件事，也就是由我们的交响乐改编的钢琴曲终于出版了，因此，你是第一个写信告诉我这个消息的人。你很满意这支改编的钢琴曲，我听了简直欣喜万分。说实话，改编得确实不错，而且很精致。
至于交响曲本身，我原来就知道你会喜欢的，难道还会是另一种样子吗? 我谱曲的时候，心里无时无刻不挂念着你。那时，我不像现在和你这样亲密，但我已经隐约意识到：对我灵魂深处那些极其深刻而秘密的探索的反应，这世上再没有人比你更敏锐了。从来没有一部音乐作品的献词比我的更严肃了，它不仅传达了我的心意，也传达了你的；实际上，这部交响曲不只属于我，而是属于我们。它将永远是我最得意的作品，因为它是我人生中一个时期的纪念碑——当时我正承受着深重的苦难、不断加重的精神困扰和一连串难以忍受的痛苦、忧虑和绝望。突然间，希望的曙光和幸福的光芒开始闪现——那太阳就是我这交响曲所献之人的化身。
我不寒而栗地想像着，如果你没有被命运之神派到我这里来，我将是什么样子呢?你赐予我一切：生命、追求自由的机会（那至今还没有实现的宏愿）以及那连做梦都不曾遇到的接二连三的好运气。我怀着深厚的感激和爱慕之情来阅读这封来信，除了音乐之外，没有其他任何形式能够表达我的感情。希望有一天我能够用这种形式来表达!
亲爱的朋友，请多多保重。我祝你身体健康的心愿，比祝福我自己更加深切。你信中说，我们的交响曲让你彻夜难眠，听了这话我很心痛。我希望我的音乐从此能成为你快乐和慰藉的源泉，全身心地祝你精神愉快、安宁。
你的P.柴可夫斯基
1879年10月10日
于葛兰契诺
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
To
Grankino
Oct. 10, 1879
It is impossible to say how gComd I was to see your handwriting and to know we were again in communication. Jurgenson forgot to tell me that the piano arrangement of our symphony had at Comst been published, so your letter was the first news I had of it. I am tremendously eComted that you are satisfied with the arrangement, which in truth is well and skillfully done.
As for the music itself, I knew beforehand that you would like it; how could it have been otherwise? I wrote it with you constantly in mind. At that time, I was not nearly so intimate with you as now, but already I sensed vaguely that no one in the world could respond more keenly to the deepest and most secret gropings of my soul. No musical dedication has ever been more seriously meant. It was spoken not only on my part but on yours; the symphony was not, in truth, mine but ours. Forever it will remain my favorite work, as the monument of a time when upon a deep, insidiously growing mental disease, upon a whole series of unbearable sufferings, grief and despair, suddenly, hope dawned and the sun of happiness began to shine—and that sun was embodied in the person to whom the symphony was dedicated.
I tremble to think what might have happened if fate had not sent you to me. I owe you everything: life, the chance to pursue freedom—that hitherto unattainable ambition, and such abundance of good fortune as had never occurred to me even in dreams.I read your letter with gratitude and love too strong for expression in any medium but music. May I be able some time to express it thus!
Dear friend, may you keep well. I wish it for you more than for myself. Reading how our symphony caused you sleepless nights, I felt my heart constricted. I want my music henceforth to be a source of joy and consoComtion, and with all my strength I desire for you a spirit well and calm.
Yours,
P. Tchaikovsky