Over the years Lottie had urged Bess to prepare for her old age. Over the years Bess had lived each day as if there were no other. Now they were both past sixty, the time for summing up. Lottie had a bank account that had never grown lean. Bess had the clothes on her back, and the rest of her worldly possessions in a battered suitcase.
年年歲歲珞蒂總勸碧絲要為年老之后做點準備。歲歲年年碧絲天天過得盡興，彷佛沒有明天。如今她們都六十出頭，到了人生算總帳的時候了。珞蒂有本銀行存摺，只增不減的。碧絲則是一身穿著好衣裳，今生今世其它值錢的東西也盡在一只破皮箱中。
Lottie had hated being a child, hearing her parents’ skimping and scraping. Bess had never seemed to notice. All she ever wanted was to go outside and play. She learned to skate on borrowed skates. She rode a borrowed bicycle. Lottie couldn’t wait to grow up and buy herself the best of everything.
珞蒂自小恨透了爹娘嘮嘮叨叨要省吃儉用的話和青黃不接的日子。碧絲卻好像從來沒有注意到，只一味想到屋外頭去要。她用借來的溜冰鞋學會溜冰。她騎著借來的腳踏車。珞蒂渴望快快長大，賺錢買所有最好的東西。
As soon as anyone would hire her, Lottie put herself to work. She minded babies; she ran errands for the old.
一有人肯雇用，珞蒂就上工了。她替人看娃娃，替老年人跑腿。
She never touched a penny of her money though her child’s mouth watered for ice cream and candy. But she could not bear to share with Bess, who never had anything to share with her. When the dimes began to add up to dollars, she lost her taste for sweets.
雖然她還是小孩子免不了嘴饞，想吃冰淇淋、糖果的；但她賺的錢卻一個也不碰它。她不甘心買了東西要和碧絲分享，因為碧絲不會有東西分給她。一毛錢一毛錢積成了一塊錢一塊錢，這時候可惜她對糖果也失去了胃口。
By the time she was twelve, she was clerking after school in a small variety store. Saturdays she worked as long as she was wanted. She decided to keep her money for clothes. When she entered high school, she would wear a wardrobe that neither she nor anyone else would be able to match.
她才十二歲，放了學后，就到一家雜貨店當店員。每個禮拜六，店里要她工作多久她就工作多久。她決定她的錢要留著以后買衣服。一上高中她穿的那一柜子衣服一定是她或別人從來怎樣也配不好的。
But her freshman year found her unable to indulge so frivolous a whim, particularly when her admiring instructors advised her to think seriously of college. No one in her family had ever gone to college, and certainly Bess would never get there. She would show them all what she could do if she put her mind to it. She began to bank her money, and her bankbook became her most private and precious possession.
但是上高一那年她便發現她不能真的去搞那淺薄的把戲，特別因為好些老師賞識她，勸她認真考慮大學的事。他們家從來沒有人上過大學，碧絲當然更不會去上大學，她要讓全家人看看她只要下定決心什么事都能做到。她開始把錢存到銀行，銀行簿變成了她拙撖密和珍貴的所有物。
In her third year of high school she found a job in a small but expanding restaurant where she cashiered from the busy hour until closing. In her last year of high school the business increased so rapidly that Lottie was faced with the choice of staying in school or working full time.
高中三年級時，她在一家規模雖小但生意蒸蒸日上的餐館找到一份工作，從生意最忙的時間幫忙出納工作一直到打烊。高中最后一年，餐館生意直線上升，珞蒂如果要工作就不能上課，面臨了學業與職業的抉擇。
She made her choice easily. A job in hand was worth two in the future.
她不費力地做了選擇。一職在身勝過兩個職業在望。
Bess had a beau in the school band who had no other ambition except to play a horn. Lottie expected to be settled with a home and family while Bess was still waiting for Harry to earn enough to buy a marriage license.
碧絲的男朋友在學校的樂隊，他惟一的雄心就是吹法國號。珞蒂想的是將來要好好成家立業，碧絲則等哈里賺夠錢買一張結婚證書。
That Bess married Harry straight out of high school was not surprising. That Lottie never married at all was not really surprising either. Two or three times she was halfway persuaded, but to give up a job that paid well for a home making job that paid nothing was a risk she was incapable of taking.
因此碧絲高中一畢業就嫁了哈里不足為奇；珞蒂終身未嫁也一樣的沒什么可怪。其實有兩、三次她都給說動了一半了，但一想到放下賺錢的工作不干，去搞那賠錢的結婚成家什么的，她總覺得這種險她冒不起。
Bess’s married life was nothing for Lottie to envy . She and Harry lived like gypsies. Harry playing in second-rate bands all over the country, even getting himself and Bess stranded in Europe. They were of ten in rags and never in riches.
碧絲的結婚生活沒什么值得珞蒂羨幕的：她和哈里過的日子簡直和吉普賽人沒兩樣。哈里在各地的二流樂隊里兼差，甚至和碧絲兩人流落在歐洲過。他們挨餓受凍的日子多，豐衣足食的日子從不曾有。
Bess grieved because she had no child, not having sense enough to know she was better off without one. Lottie was certainly better off without nieces and nephews to feel sorry for. Very likely Bass would have dumped them on her doorstep.
碧絲自怨自艾說自己沒有孩子……竟然不懂得慶幸沒有孩子才是她前世修來的，日子可以過得比較好。珞蒂好多了，不必看著苦兮兮的外甥們，替他們可憐。碧絲很可能會把孩子們往她門口一丟的扔給她的。
That Lottie had a doorstep they might have been left on was only because her boss, having bought a second house, offered Lottie his first house at a price so low and terms so reasonable that it would have been like losing money to refuse.
珞蒂今天有這么個門口好讓碧絲丟下孩子，說來也是因為她老板買了第二幢房子，第一幢房子就以很便宜的價格和合理的條件要珞蒂租下，珞蒂認為如果拒絕，和損失金錢一樣。
She shut off the rooms she didn’t use, letting them go to rack and ruin. Since she ate her meals out, she had no food at home, and did not encourage callers, who always expected a cup of tea.
她把不用的房間關閉起來，隨它們斑剝腐朽。她在外面吃飯，所以家里沒有食物。她不鼓勵別人到她家，因為訪客總認為該給他一杯茶喝。
Her way of life was mean and miserly, but she did not know it. She thought she lived frugally in her middle years so that she could live in comfort and ease when she most needed peace of mind.
她的生活寒愴吝嗇，而她不自知。她以為她中年過的日子節儉，到她最需要安安逸逸不多操心的時候，她就能過得舒舒服服的。
The years, after forty, began to race. Suddenly Lottie was sixty, and retired from her job by her boss’s son, who had no sentimental feeling about keeping her on until she was ready to quit.
歲月在她過了四十以后就開始飛逝。一眨眼，珞蒂已經六十歲，老板的兒子不講什么情份，沒等她提出，就請她退休。
She made several attempts to find other employment, but her dowdy appearance made her look old and inefficient. For the first time in her life Lottie would gladly have worked for nothing to have some place to go, something to do with her day.
她找了幾次工作，但是她邋遢的外表使她看起來又老又沒用。珞蒂生平第一次愿意不計報酬只要有個工作，有一個地方可去，有事情可以打發她的日子。
Harry died abroad, in a third-rate hotel, with Bess weeping as hard as if he had left her a fortune. He had left her nothing but his horn. There wasn’t even money for her passage home.
哈里死在外國，在一家三流的旅館里，碧絲哭得像他留給她多大一筆遺產似的。他什么也沒留給她，除了那只法國號。她甚至連回國的路費都沒有。
Lottie, trapped by the blood tie, knew she would not only have to send for her sister but take her in when she returned. It didn’t seem fair that Bess should reap the harvest of Lottie’s life-time of self-denial.
珞蒂知道既是同胞手足，她逃不掉得把妹妹給接回國，等她回國后還得收容她。想起她一生克勤克儉，碧絲卻來坐享其成，覺得很不公平。
It took Lottie a week to get a bedroom ready, a week of hard work and hard cash. There was everything to do, everything to replace or paint. When she was through the room looked so fresh and new that Lottie felt she deserved it more than Bess.
珞蒂費了一個禮拜的時間才整理好一間臥室，一個禮拜的辛苦日和辛苦錢。每樣都得做，每樣東西都得換新或油漆。等她把一切都弄好之后，那間臥房看起來又新又舒適，珞蒂覺得自己比妹妹更配住這樣的一間房。
She would let Bess have her room, but the mattress was so lumpy, the carpet so worn, the curtains so threadbare that Lottie’s conscience pricked her. She supposed she would have to redo that room, too, and went about doing it with an eagerness that she mistook for haste.
把她自己的臥室給碧絲住好了。但是床墊垮得太厲害，地毯太破舊，窗簾太襤褸，珞蒂有些于心不安。她想她的臥房也該翻修一下，于是便動手去做，其實是干勁十足，她卻自以為是倉促行事。
When she was through upstairs, she was shocked to see how dismal downstairs looked by comparison. She tried to ignore it, but with nowhere to go to escape it, the contrast grew more intolerable.
忙完了樓上，一比，樓下的那般破爛使她愣住了。她假裝沒看到，但是沒有地方可以躲避，樓上樓下的對照越來越不能忍受。
She worked her way from kitchen to parlor, persuading herself she was only putting the rooms to right to give herself something to do. At night she slept like a child after a long and happy day of playing house. She was having more fun than she had ever had in her life. She was living each hour for itself.
她從廚房收拾到客廳，心里說服自己，這樣忙里忙外整理房子只是給自己找點事情做做而已。晚上她睡得像小孩一樣熟，因為白天她扮家家酒似，快樂的忙了一整天，她一生從來不曾這樣快樂過。她每一小時都生活得很充實。
There was only a day now before Bess would arrive. Passing her gleaming mirrors, at first with vague awareness, then with painful clarity, Lottie saw herself as others saw her, and could not stand the sight. She went on a spending spree from the specialty shops to the beauty salon, emerging transformed into a woman who believed in miracles.
還有一天碧絲就要到家了。珞蒂走過一面擦亮的鏡子，起先隱隱約約的，后來清清楚楚痛苦無比地，她看見別人眼中的自己，實在無法忍受自己的模樣。她突然花錢如流水地從一間一間專賣店到美容院，搖身一變，成了一名相信奇蹟的女人。
She was in the kitchen basting a turkey when Bess rang the bell. Her heart raced, and she wondered if the heat from the oven was responsible.
她在廚房給正在烤炙中的火雞上奶油時，碧絲按了門鈴。她的心狂跳起來，她懷疑是烤箱的熱度影響了心跳。
She went to the door, and Bess stood before her. Stiffly she suffered Bess’s embrace, her heart racing harder, her eyes suddenly smarting from the onrush of cold air.
她走到門口，碧絲站在她前面。她僵硬地接受了碧絲的擁抱，她的心跳得更快了，她的眼睛因為冷氣的沖突忽然刺痛起來。
"Oh, Lottie, it’s good to see you," Bess said, but saying nothing about Lottie’s splendid appearance. Upstairs Bess, putting down her shabby suit case, said, "I’ll sleep like a rock tonight," without a word of praise for her lovely room. At the lavish table, top heavy with turkey, Bess said, "I’ll take light and dark both," with no marveling at the size of the bird, or that there was turkey for two elderly women, one of them too poor to buy her own bread.
「啊，珞蒂，見到你真好。」碧絲說，卻一句也沒提珞蒂漂亮的打扮。到樓上，碧絲放下了她寒酸的皮箱說：「今天晚上我會睡得像一塊石頭。」卻一句也沒有贊美她可愛的房間。餐桌上，豐盛地擺著火雞，碧絲說：「雞胸肉、雞腿肉我都要嚐嚐。」卻沒有嘖嘖贊嘆那火雞有多大，沒有說她自己窮得連面包都買不起，而年邁的兩個老婦人還有火雞吃。
With the glow of good food in her stomach, Bess began to spin stories. They were rich with places and people, most of them lowly, all of them magnificent. Her face reflected her telling, the joys and sorrows of her remembering, and above all, the love she lived by that enhanced the poorest place, the humblest person.
胃里佳肴一散熱，碧絲的話匣子就打開了。談了許多地方許多人，大多是低微的，但沒有一個不引人入勝。她的臉反應著她的話，一忽兒喜一忽兒悲，回憶著她的愛美化了的貧窮的地方和卑微的人。
Then it was that Lottie knew why Bess had made no mention of her finery, or the shining room, or the twelve pound turkey. She had not even seen them. Tomorrow she would see the room as it really looked, and Lottie as she really looked, and the warmed-over turkey in its second-day glory. Tonight she saw only what she had come seeking, a place in her sister’s home and heart.
那時珞蒂才明白何以碧絲都不提她美的服飾、漂亮的房間或者那只十二磅重的火雞。因為她根本沒有看見。明天她就會看清楚房間是怎么樣的；珞蒂是什么樣的；再熱過的火雞，隔夜了還有不賴的榮耀的。今天晚上她只看到她來尋求的－她姊姊家里和心中一席之地。
She said, "That’s enough about me. How have the years used you?"
碧絲說：「我的遭遇談夠了。歲月對待你怎么樣呢？」
"It was me who didn’t use them," said Lottie wistfully. "I saved for them. I forgot the best of them would go without my ever spending a day or a dollar enjoying them. That’s my life story in those few words, a life never lived. "Now it’s too near the end to try."
「是我沒有用它們，」珞蒂渴渴地說：「我為歲月節省，但我忘記雖我不花費一天或一塊錢去享受，美好的歲月還是會流逝的。這就是我一生的寫照，沒有真正生活過的一生。而時到現在太接近結尾，要試也來不及了。」
Bess said, "To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live. Don’t count the years that are left us. At our time of life it’s the days that count. You’ve too much catching up to do to waste a minute of a waking hour feeling sorry for yourself."
碧絲說：「明白活到老學到老就是一個開始，學習生活的開始。不要去數已經過去的歲月，我們這個年紀要緊的是每一天每一日。你要迎頭趕上，那還有時間浪費一分一秒去為你自己懊惱遺憾的。」
Lottie grinned, a real wide open grin, "Well, to tell the truth I felt sorry for you. Maybe if I had any sense I’d feel sorry for myself after all. I know I’m too old to kick up my heels, but I’m going to let you show me how. If I land on my head, I guess it won’t matter. I feel giddy already, and I like it."
珞蒂露齒而笑，真正毫不保留的會心一笑：「唉！告訴你實話吧，我本來是為你而感到難過遺憾的。或許我如果還有一點點頭腦的話，應該為自己感到遺憾才對。我知道我這把年紀要又跳又舞的也不簡單了，可是我要你來示范給我看看，就是跌了個頭栽地我想也沒什么關系。我已經覺得樂陶陶眼花潦亂了，可是我很喜歡呢！
