Are You Lonesome Tonight My Dear? / 親愛的，今夜你寂寞嗎？

天黑了，音響裡傳來男歌手有點哀傷的歌聲，「親愛的，今夜你寂寞嗎？」我低頭思索著要從120枝色鉛筆裡選哪一個顏色搭配圖面，一邊我吸著涼涼的空氣，突然腦海中閃過夏天在慕尼黑待的那一夜：外頭有些濕冷的天氣令人卻步，不過我們早早躲進市郊的旅館，我難得對於哪兒也去不了這件事感到溫暖的安全感，旅館有自行印製的短篇小說集，讓我不禁覺得旅館有了生命和靈魂，我剛好喜歡在就寢之前看書，雖然那一晚大部分的時間我呈現昏厥狀態，可是在我的記憶裡，慕尼黑之夜有著橘黃色的燈光。早上醒來時，太陽還沒升起，我泡起旅館準備的茶，為了不開燈打擾薛吉，我在更衣間外頭鋪了毯子，開起一個人的早晨野餐，繼續我的閱讀。

It’s getting dark. The singer’s melancholy voice wafts from the stereo: are you lonesome tonight my dear? Meanwhile, I am pondering over which color out of 120 will go with my picture. The crisp cold air in the evening reminds me of that summer night in Munich. The chilly weather was rather intimidating, so we hid into the hotel early during the day. I hardly felt such a warm sense of safety about the choice of not going anywhere. The hotel offered a collection of short stories, which is right up my alley since I really take delight in being lullabied to sleep by words and words. This, to me, gave soul and life to the hotel. Though I was unconscious most of the night, in my memory, the night in Munich is full of colors. When I woke up early in the morning, it was still dark outside. Not to disturb Shaggy, I made myself a cup of tea, spread a blanket on the floor outside the closet for my one-man picnic with the book as my quiet companion.

冬天一直是我很害怕的季節，除了要面對太陽早早下山晚晚起床，下降的溫度把我部份的活力帶走，我就在和體重的掙扎當中吃和運動，並且不時地感到罪惡。這個冬天，在上述的課題之外，我觀察到一些新的情緒，可以讓我用來說服自己來喜歡這個季節，例如說，許多夏季的心浮氣躁最近都慢慢沉澱了，我終於可以很客觀地面對生活，不作無謂的多愁善感，有時候這種心境真的是求之不得呢！

Winter has always been my least favorite season. It takes me some efforts to live with the fact that the sun rises later and sets earlier. The drop in temperatures takes away my energy. I am constantly struggling with my weight between eating and exercising, and feeling guilty. However, this winter, I notice something else apart from the above-mentioned, a good reason I can use to convince myself that winter isn’t necessarily so negative. For example, my bubbly feelings have calmed down. I can look at life and people from more objective viewpoints instead of sentimentalizing. Sometimes, this state of mind is to die for while it’s miles out of my reach.

現在的我，臉又圓了一些，剛剪了一個很糟糕的髮型，「熱情的西班牙」系列只作到第四張，我以慢得不能再慢的龜速前進，可是我聽到這首歌時，想回答男歌手：我很好，回頭看看今年，對於發生的每一件事，不管表面看起來是好是壞，我都很高興我有這些經歷，而且，我有著滿滿的關於旅行的回憶，我要說，目前的我不寂寞。

I, at this moment, have a rounder face with a terrible new hairstyle. I’ve only got to drawing No. 4 for my Spanish series, which I carry on at a snail pace. But when I hear the singer, I feel like replying, “I am fine.” Looking back on this year and everything that happened, I am glad that it happened. Besides, I am loaded with rich memories about traveling. I want to say, I am not lonely for the time being.