英美文化赏析：His bride died young

A couple of years ago, his beautiful bride died at an early age, but she kept visiting him every night. As the first rays of sunlight shone through the paper-screen windows, she would leave again. How he wished to be together with her all day long! The young man thought long and hard about what he could do to stop her from leaving every morning. At long last, the idea came to him of shutting out the sunlight from his room. He at once ordered a tailor to make a large, thick curtain that would prevent any sunlight from penetrating the window.

But even so, he failed to keep his bride at home. A strong gust of wind blew over a candle that was burning near the curtain, igniting not only it but also the paper-screen window and, finally, everything in the room. There was no time for the husband and his bride to put on their clothes; they ran away so fast that no one could catch up with them, and they vanished without a trace. As the fire kept burning, the house was consumed by flames and reduced to dust.

Neither of them were ever seen again. Some people said they had gone straight to heaven, while others thought they had gone to hell. No one came up with any plausible idea, except that everyone was sure both of them turned into ghosts and gone far away from the village they used to live. One old man declared it was the bride's ghost who asked her husband to go to heaven with her so that they would be able to live a happy life together in paradise for all eternity. Another felt it was the husband who was jealous of her happy life and therefore lit the fire on purpose. Still another suggested that the bride had a ghost for a boyfriend, who was lovesick with missing her every night and found a way to be united with her. And there was yet another who thought that, perhaps, the bride was not really happy with her husband and lit the fire to kill him.

Whatever happened in reality, it's not up to us to prove whose idea is right or wrong. Ghosts are the product of human imagination, and no one has ever managed to catch one.