Erti Kebahagiaan Buat Virginia Woolf

To the Lighthouse  oleh Virginia Woolf ialah projek terjemahan yang saya sedang jalankan. Sesiapa yang mengikuti blog ini pasti tahu bahawa saya mempunyai hubungan erat bukan sahaja dengan To the Lighthouse, tetapi juga kehidupan Virginia Woolf. Barangkali saya mengenali Woolf lebih daripada saya mengenali diri sendiri. Novel ini sangat penting buat Woolf kerana rumah musim panas di St. Ives adalah memori paling berharga bersama keluarganya ketika membesar. Woolf mula berkunjung ke rumah tersebut bersama keluarganya dari umur 6 hingga 13 tahun. Beliau menulis gambaran yang sangat indah mengenai memori tersebut:

"If life has a base that it stands upon, if it is a bowl that one fills and fills and fills - then my bowl without doubt stands upon this memory. It is of lying half asleep, half awake, in bed in the nursery at St. Ives. It is hearing the waves breaking, one, two, one, two, and sending a splash of water over the beach; and then breaking, one, two, one, two, behind a yellow blind. It is of hearing the blind draw its little acorn across the floor as the wind blew the blind out. It is of lying and hearing this splash and seeing this light, and feeling, it is almost impossible that I should be here; of feeling the purest ecstasy I can conceive."