"Has anybody ever told you that you're a very pretty girl?" With these words to his co-star Elizabeth Taylor on the set of the 1963 movie Cleopatra, Richard Burton began one of the most passionate and stormy romances in the history of Hollywood.
1963年，在电影《埃及艳后》中，理查德·伯顿对伊丽莎白·泰勒说出这句台词：“有没有人曾经告诉你，你很漂亮？”理查德·伯顿随后成为好莱坞电影屏幕上最富激情的魅力男人形象之一。

"Richard was magnificent in every sense of the word," Taylor later told Vanity Fair magazine. "From those first moments in Rome (on the set of Cleopatra) we were always madly and powerfully in love."
泰勒最后在接受《名利场》杂志访问时说：“理查德在任何方面都绝妙无敌，在罗马刚开始拍《埃及艳后》时我们就疯狂地坠入爱河。”

In 2010, Taylor published many of the love letters she exchanged with Burton over their tumultuous 20-year long relationship. Burton died in 1984 of a brain hemorrhage. He was 58.
2010年，泰勒公开了很多两人在二十年的恋爱过程中相互往来的情书。理查德在1984年死于脑溢血，死时58岁。

The letters cast a harsh light on the explosive relationship between the two stars, and detail their violent disputes, passionate reunions, their two marriages... and the ups and downs of their two divorces.
这些书信暴露了两位明星波澜起伏的感情历程，激烈的争执、和好，两次婚姻中的跌跌撞撞。

"You must know, of course, how much I love you," Burton writes in one letter.
理查德在一封信中写道：“你明白我究竟有多爱你。”

"You must know, of course, how badly I treat you. But the fundamental and most vicious, swinish, murderous, and unchangeable fact is that we totally misunderstand each other -- we operate on alien wave lengths."
“当然你也明白，我对你的态度有多糟糕。但是最基本、最无情也无法改变的事实就是，我们完全误解了彼此——我们根本没有正确理解对方的意思。”

Adds Burton: "If you leave me I shall have to kill myself. There is no life without you."
他补充道：“你若离开我，我将不得不自杀，没有你活着就没有意思。”

Taylor and Burton were by far the most famous celebrity relationship of the 1960s and 1970s. Hollywood press chronicled every twist in their lives, every turn in their mood.
这两人是上世纪六十年代到七十年代间最出名的明星恋人。好莱坞新闻不会错过他们生活和感情中的每一个变故和起伏。

Their complicated relationship did wonders for their jobs on the big screen, bringing real life experience to two masterpieces, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and The Taming of the Shrew (1967).
他们的感情也为彼此的事业带来了帮助，电影《灵欲春宵》和《驯悍记》中无疑带有明显的现实情感色彩。

The late 1960s were the couple's heyday. Burton gave his beloved some of the finest jewels in the world, including a famous pear-shaped diamond purchased from Cartier in 1969 and costing the still-astronomical price of one million dollars. It quickly became known as the "Taylor-Burton diamond."
上世纪六十年代末期是两人的辉煌时期。理查德送了一些非常珍贵的珍宝给自己心爱的女人，包括1969年购买的一颗梨形卡地亚钻石，一百万美元的价格就算是今天也相当惊人。这颗钻石最后被称为“泰勒-波顿”钻石。

Taylor sold the rock 10 years later to finance a hospital in Botswana.
十年后，泰勒卖了这颗钻石，捐款给了博茨瓦纳的一家医院。

Their relationship however became more difficult in the 1970s. Both drank far too much, and a "new" Hollywood that was rising as an antidote to movies of the past had no use for actors of the previous generation.
七十年代，他们的关系出现了紧张，两人都开始酗酒，好莱坞的电影制作也出现了新潮流，他们这样的影星要过气了。

Burton -- nominated seven times for an Oscar -- saw his chances of winning the coveted Academy Award slip as he aged and his handsome looks faded.
风采不复当年的理查德曾七次提名奥斯卡，而眼下似乎再无赢得小金人的希望。

Taylor however had already won two Oscars.
泰勒却已经得过两次奥斯卡奖。

"You are probably the best actress in the world, which, combined with your extraordinary beauty, makes you unique," Burton wrote.
理查德在一封信中写道：“你可能是世上最优秀的女演员，你的美貌让你更加独一无二。”

"I find it very difficult to allow my whole life to rest on the existence of another creature. I find it equally difficult, because of my innate arrogance, to believe in the idea of love.”
“我发现我无法与你这样优秀的人在一起，我太过傲慢，甚至连爱情本身都不愿相信。”

"There is no such thing, I say to myself. There is lust, of course, and usage, and jealousy, and desire and spent powers, but no such thing as the idiocy of love.”
“我对自己说，色欲、利用、嫉妒、渴求这些都是存在的，但是爱情，多么愚蠢的东西，怎么可能存在。”

"Who invented that concept? I have wracked my shabby brains and can find no answer."
“我苦思冥想，也不明白爱情这个概念是怎么提出来的。”

The couple divorced in 1974, then re-married in 1975, only to divorce again in 1976. And despite the acrimony, the passion, the jealousy, the bitterness, and the boozing, they continued seeing each other.
1974年两人离婚，1975年又再婚，1976年第二次离婚。争执、嫉妒、苦涩包围之下的感情仍然不曾熄灭，他们一直保持着接触。

In his final, unpublished letter, Burton assured his ex-wife that the happiest days of his life were spent with her. And he wondered if they could start a new life again together.
在理查德最后一封未曾公开的信里，他承认自己一生中最幸福的时光是和泰勒一起度过的，他也真的希望两人可以重新开始。