Bill Clinton was hard to miss in the autumn of 1970. He arrived at Yale Law School looking more like a Viking than a Rhodes scholar returning from two years at Oxford. He was tall and handsome somewhere beneath that reddish brown beard and curly hair. As I walked by Yale Law School's student lounge, I heard him say "... and not only that, we grow the biggest watermelons in the world!" I asked a friend, "Who is that?" "Oh, that's Bill Clinton," he said. "He's from Arkansas, and that's all he ever talks about." We didn't really talk to each other until the last day of classes in the spring of 1971. We happened to walk out of the same course at the same time. Bill asked me where I was going. I was on the way to the registrar's office to sign up for the next semester's classes. He told me he was heading there too. As we walked, he complimented my long flower-patterned skirt. We waited in line until we got to the registrar. She looked up and said, "Bill, what are you doing here? You've already registered." I laughed when he confessed that he just wanted to spend time with me, and we went for a long walk that turned into our first date. When we first met as students, I loved watching him turn the pages of a book. Now his hands are showing signs of age after thousands of handshakes and golf swings and miles of signatures. They are, like their owner, weathered but still expressive, attractive and flexible.

1970年秋的比爾·克林頓很難被人忽視。 那年他從牛津大學兩年學成歸來，剛進耶魯法學院，可他的模樣與其說有羅德學者般的氣質，不如說更像維京大盜。 他體形高大，長相在紅棕色胡須與一頭卷曲濃密的頭發襯托下還算英俊。 當我經過法學院的學生休息室時，聽到他說：“不只那樣，我們家鄉種了全世界最大的西瓜!”我問朋友：“他是誰啊?”“哦，他是比爾·克林頓。”朋友說，“從阿肯色州來，他只說過這些。” 直到1971年春季最后一天上課，我們才有機會交談。 上完課后我們同時走出教室。 比爾問我要去哪里， 我說要到注冊辦公室注冊下學期的課， 他說他也正要去。 兩人同行時，他贊美我穿的花色長裙。 兩人到了注冊辦公室，排了好久的隊才輪到我們， 注冊員抬頭看了一下，然后說：“比爾，你在這里干嘛?你已經注冊過了。” 他坦言只是想跟我在一起，我笑了，接著便一塊走了很久，就這樣開始了第一次約會。 自從我們從學生時初識，我便喜歡看他翻書的樣子。 這雙手至今已握過數以千計的手，揮桿不下千余次，簽過的名連起來也有好幾英里長。 如今經過歲月磨煉，這雙手跟它的主人一樣幾經風霜，但它的表現力、魅力與靈活度不減當年。

Afterwards, Bill went to visit my parents, but I was nervous because my dad was so uninhibited in his criticism of my boyfriends. I wondered what he would say to a Southern Democrat with Elvis sideburns. My mother appreciated Bill's good manners and willingness to help with the dishes. But Bill really won her over when he found her reading a philosophy book from one of her college courses and spent the next hour or so discussing it with her. It was slow going at first with my father, but he warmed up over games of cards, and in front of the television watching football bowl games. My friends liked him too. After I introduced him to Betsy Johnson, her mother, cornered me on the way out of their house and said, "I don't care what you do, but don't let this one go. He's the only one I've ever seen make you laugh!"

后來比爾去見我的父母，但我還是有些緊張，因為父親對我的男友一向是不加遮攔地批判。 這次不知父親又會給這位蓄著和貓王一樣的絡腮胡子的民主黨南方佬出什么難題。 母親欣賞比爾教養好，又肯主動幫助洗碗， 但真正讓母親打心底喜歡他的是：他看到母親埋首閱讀大學課程里的一本哲學書，于是花了整整一個多小時和母親討論其內容。 父親屬于慢熱型，所幸在玩撲克牌、看電視轉播橄欖球賽的過程中，也慢慢熱情起來。 朋友們也都喜歡他。 我帶他到貝琪·約翰遜家，離去時，貝琪的母親把我拉到一角對我說：“我不管你用什么辦法，絕對要留住他，我見過這么多人，他是惟一能讓你笑得起來的。”

After completing law school in the spring of 1973, at twilight in the beautiful Lake District of England, we found ourselves on the shores of Lake Ennerdale, where Bill asked me to marry him. I was desperately in love with him but utterly confused about my life and future. So I said, "No, not now." What I meant was, "Give me time." My mother had suffered from her parents' divorce, and her sad and lonely childhood was imprinted on my heart. I knew that when I decided to marry, I wanted it to be for life. Bill Clinton is nothing if not persistent. He sets goals, and I was one of them. He asked me to marry him again, and again, and I always said no. Eventually he said, "Well, I'm not going to ask you to marry me any more, and if you ever decide you want to marry me then you have to tell me."

1973年春，我從耶魯法學院畢業，我們來到英格蘭湖區，在微光中，比爾在艾納戴爾湖畔向我求婚。 我深深地愛著他，但我完全不清楚自己的生活與未來， 所以我說：“不行，現在還不行。”言下之意是：“給我一點時間。” 外公與外婆離婚讓母親吃了不少苦，加上母親悲苦、寂寞的童年深深印在我心中， 所以我下定決心，一旦結婚，一定要和丈夫白頭偕老。 比爾若不執著，那就不是比爾·克林頓了。 他已經定下好些目標，而我就是其中之一。 他一再向我求婚，我也一再拒絕他。 最后他說：“我不會再向你求婚了，如果哪天你決定要嫁給我，請你務必告訴我。”

I first met Bill's mother, Virginia, in New Haven during a visit she made to see Bill in the spring of 1972. Before Virginia arrived, I didn't use makeup and wore jeans and shirts most of the time. I was no Miss Arkansas and certainly not the kind of girl Virginia expected her son to fall in love with. No matter what else was going on in her life, Virginia got up early, glued on her false eyelashes and put on bright red lipstick. My style baffled her, and she didn't like my strange Yankee ideas either. I had a much easier time relating to Virginia's third husband, Jeff Dwire, who became a supportive ally. He was kind to me from the first day we met and encouraging of my continuing efforts to build a relationship with Bill's mother. "Oh, don't worry about Virginia," he would tell me. "She just has to get used to the idea. It's hard for two strong women to get along."

比爾的母親弗吉尼婭1972年春到紐黑文探視比爾，那是我們首次見面。 弗吉尼婭來之前，我不化妝，不重打扮，常是牛仔褲、T恤衫一套就出門了。 我既不是“阿肯色小姐”，當然也不是弗吉尼婭期望她兒子愛上的那類姑娘。 不管發生什么天大的事，弗吉尼婭出門前必定起個大早，仔細梳妝打扮，粘上假睫毛，抹上大紅唇膏。 我的作風顯然令她不解，一些北方人古怪的想法也令她不悅。 弗吉尼婭的第三任丈夫杰夫·德懷爾反倒和我較合得來，常幫我加油打氣。 從我們初次見面的那一天起，他就對我很好，不斷鼓勵我與弗吉尼婭建立良好的關系。 “噢，別擔心弗吉尼婭，”他說，“時間久了，她自然會習慣。兩個女強人在一起，本來就難以相處。”

At the end of the school year I decided to take a long trip back to Chicago and the East Coast to visit friends and people who had offered me jobs. I still wasn't sure what to do with my life. On the way to the airport, Bill and I passed a red brick house near the university with a for sale sign out front. I casually mentioned that it was a sweet-looking little house and never gave it a second thought. After a few weeks of traveling and thinking, I decided I wanted to return to my life in Arkansas and to Bill. As Bill picked me up, he asked, "Do you remember that house you liked? Well, I bought it, so now you'd better marry me because I can't live in it by myself." Bill proudly drove up the driveway and ushered me inside. This time I said "Yes."

學年結束，我決定飛到芝加哥與東岸探親訪友，拜會曾賜我工作的上司。 那時我對未來仍不能確定。 比爾開車送我到機場的途中，我們看到大學附近一間紅磚房子豎著“出售”的招牌， 我不經意地說道，這是一間可愛的小房子，然后就忘了。 經過數周的旅行與思考，我決定回到阿肯色與比爾一起生活。 比爾來接我，他說：“你記得那間你喜歡的房子嗎?我已經買下了，現在你最好嫁給我，因為我不想一個人住進去。” 比爾驕傲地開進房子前的車道，拉我進去參觀。 這次我回答：“好的。”

After all that has happened since, I'm often asked why Bill and I have stayed together. It's not a question I welcome, but given the public nature of our lives, it's one I know will be asked again and again. What can I say to explain a love that has persisted for decades and has grown through our shared experiences of parenting a daughter, burying our parents and tending our extended families, a lifetime's worth of friends, a common faith and an abiding commitment to our country? All I know is that no one understands me better and no one can make me laugh the way Bill does. Even after all these years, he is still the most interesting, energizing and fully alive person I have ever met.

婚后經歷這么多風雨，不斷有人問我：為何還和比爾在一起? 我雖然不喜歡被問及這個問題，但身為公眾人物，我知道這事會被一提再提。 我們兩人相愛了數十年，共同撫養一女，經歷父母亡故，都得擔負起照顧家人的責任，共有一群終身至交，加上信仰相同，一心想為國家盡心盡力———我究竟怎么說才能解釋這些? 此外，沒有人比比爾更了解我，也沒有人能像比爾那樣讓我開懷大笑。 即使過了這么多年，他仍舊是我見過的最風趣、最有干勁、最富生氣的一個人。