Lolita

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ep4y1X7iz
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap¹, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten² in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.

sign on the dotted line

informal to sign a document to show that you have agreed to buy sth or do sth 在签字处签上姓名（表示同意）；签名同意
Just sign on the dotted line and the car is yours.

Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did.

虚拟语气
had I not loved = if I had not loved

In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved , one summer, a certain initial³ girl-child⁴. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer.

Note

She read as many books as she could. [=she read the largest number of books possible]
她尽可能多地读了一些书。
She read three times as many books as he did. [=she read three times more books than he did]
她读的书是他的三倍多。
We saw three plays in as many days. [=we saw three plays in three days]
我们三天时间里看了三场剧。
She wrote five books in as many years.
她五年时间里写了五本书。
changing his mind for the third time in as many months.
在3个月内他第三次改变了主意。
It’s the second time in as many weeks that someone has asked me to play a zombie in a film or show.
The firm backed down and decided to give the pub its third name in as many weeks.
This is the fourth time in just about as many months that the glass has been smashed by vandals.
Vale kept up the pressure and two goals in as many minutes put them firmly in the driving seat. It is the second time a poll on the matter has been called for in as many months.
There were as many of them as there were of us and for a while it seemed pretty laid back.
From Cnidos you could tick off three of the wonders of the world in almost as many days.
This is the third time we have met in as many months, but there is always a lot to talk about.
It is the third time in as many years that ownership of the prime precinct has changed.

Link to original

当年那个时间距离 Lolita 出生的时间的长度，就和我当年爱上 Annabel 的年龄一样大。
大概 跟 我那个夏天的岁数 在洛丽塔出生之前 年数一样数

You can always count on a murderer for a fancy⁵ prose style.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit⁶ number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns .

As many years as he may have left, it will never be close.

Footnotes

1. a speech sound which is produced by striking the tongue quickly and lightly against the part of the mouth behind the upper front teeth. The ‘t’ in later in American English and the ‘r’ in very in some British accents are examples of taps. 轻拍音 ↩

2. ‘How tall are you?’ ‘Five foot nine’ (= five feet and nine inches). ↩

3. happening at the beginning; first ↩

4.  The girl-child has the right to education. ↩

5. with a lot of decorations or bright colours 精致的；有精美装饰的；绚丽的；花哨的；华丽的 a fancy dress ↩

6. a thing that is used in court to prove that sb is guilty or not guilty （在法庭上出示的）物证，证据The first exhibit was a knife which the prosecution claimed was the murder weapon. 当庭出示的第一件物证就是原告称为杀人凶器的一把刀。 ↩