難得進唱片行的我，這次在挖寶尋找【AIDA】的過程中，並沒有順利找到百老匯正統的劇場版(Original Cast)，而是買到Elton John的限量中文版，裡頭收錄的可都是像Sting, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson以及Elton John本人這些大牌明星的卡司，比較接近一般的西洋抒情歌曲特輯。

因為沒有真正看過表演，在聆聽時也只能靠想像來試圖連貫劇情，卻又因為這樣的主唱陣容，總覺得很難確定這首歌曲大概在劇中是占有什麼樣的地位？結果整張CD中只剩下兩首歌成了代表這三角戀情中兩位公主的心聲：一首是埃及公主唱的 “Amneris’ Letter”,曲名已點明了主唱者的身份，我聽到的雖是Shania Twain詮釋的版本，但裡頭那兩句 “I wish that our lives could be simple. I don’t want the world, only you”，足夠讓人動容且印象深刻；另一首則是由真正在百老匯Palace Theater中擔綱演出Aida一角的Heather Headley所唱的 “Elaborate Lives”, 歌詞和嗓音一樣膾炙人口，尤其對於同樣不滿於現狀，生活於都市叢林又常常身不由己的現代人而言，聽彼思己，感受更深。

“Elaborate Lives”原歌詞如下：
We all lead such elaborate lives
Wild ambitions in our sights
How an affair of the hearts survives
Days apart and hurried nights
Seems quite unbelievable to me
I don’t want to live like that
Seems quite unbelievable to me
I don’t want to live like that
I just want our time to be
Slower and gentler, wiser, free

We all live in extravagant times
Playing games we can’t all win
Unintended emotional crimes
Take come out, take others in
I’m so tired of all we’re going through
I don’t want to live like that
I’m so tired of all we’re going through
I don’t want to live like that
I just want to be with you
Now and forever, peaceful, true

I wish I had the courage to tell you face to face
But I could wait forever for the perfect time and place

We all live such elaborate lives
We don’t know whose words are true
Strangers, lover, husbands, wives
Hard to know who’s loving who
Too many choices tear us apart
I don’t want to live like that
Too many choices tear us apart
I don’t want to live like that
I just want to touch your heart
May this confession be the start

好玩的是，在這樣的「斷章取義」之下， Amneris公主唱的那首歌中，也有像Aida副歌這兩句同樣的一種「愛在心裡口難開」的心聲──Amneris說的是： “I wish I could tell you this face to face. But there’s never the time, never the place. And this letter will have to do. I love you.”

生活再怎麼複雜，愛情世界的遊戲規則和結局卻是亙古不變。即使是「斷章取義」，我都不認為這只是「巧合」。

圖片原題為 “Some moment lost in time”, from www.photo.net, by R. Cardoso