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Then one day I met a friend who was wearing a very beautiful sweater. It was plain in color, but it had a lovely and unusual stitch.
后來有一天，我遇到一位朋友，她穿著一件非常好看的毛線衫，毛線衫的色彩平淡，但是針法卻可愛、別致。
"Did you knit that sweater?" I asked her.
我問她："毛線衫是你織的嗎？"
"No," she answered. "It was done by a woman here in Paris."
她回答："不，是巴黎的一位婦女織的。"
"What an interesting stitch!" I continued.
"針法真棒！"我又說。
My friend had an explanation. "The woman her name is Mrs. Vidian—told me she learned the stitch in Armenia, her native country."
朋友解釋說："這位婦女叫維迪安太太，她跟我說她是在她出生地亞美尼亞學的這種織法。"
Suddenly I pictured a daring design knitted into such a sweater. Then an even more daring idea came to me. Why not open my own house of fashion? Why not design, make and sell clothes from the house of Schiaparelli! I would do it, and I would begin with a sweater.
突然，我想在這件毛線衫上織出一個大膽的圖案，繼而一個更為大膽的設想閃現在我的腦海里。為什么不開辦自己的時裝店呢？為什么不設計、制作和銷售斯基亞帕雷利時裝店的服裝呢？我要這樣做，而且要從毛線衫開始。
I drew a bold black and white butterfly pattern and took it to Mrs. Vidian. She knitted it into a sweater. The result, I thought, was wonderful. Then came the test. I wore the sweater to a luncheon which people in the fashion business would attend. To my great pleasure, the sweater was noticed. In fact, the representative of a large New York store wanted 40 sweaters to be ready in two weeks. I accepted the order and walked out on a cloud of happiness.
我畫了一個醒目的黑白相間的蝴蝶圖案，把它交給維迪安太太，她把這個圖案織到了一件毛線衫上。我認為這件成品很漂亮，接著就是對它的檢驗。我穿上毛線衫，來到一個時裝界人士參加的午餐會，令我十分高興的是，毛線衫引起了眾人的注意。事實上，紐約一家大商店的代理商想在兩周內得到40件這樣的毛線衫。我接受了他的訂貨，興高采烈地走出了餐廳。
My cloud disappeared suddenly, however, when I stood in front of Mrs. Vidian. "But it took me almost a week to knit that one sweater," she said. "Forty sweaters in two weeks? It is not possible!"
然而當我站在維迪安太太面前時，喜悅之情就一掃而光了。她說："我幾乎用一周才織完這樣一件毛線衫，兩周織40件是不可能的！"
I was crushed to be so close to success and then to be blocked! Sadly I walked away. All at once I stopped short. There must be another way. This stitch did take special skill. But surely there must be other Armenian women in Paris who knew how to do it.
我非常失望，離成功僅有半步之遙，竟又被迎頭堵住了！我悲傷地走出維迪安太太的家，突然停下了腳步，一定有別的辦法可以辦到。這種針法確實需要特殊的技巧，然而在巴黎一定還有其他亞美尼亞婦女會這種針法。
I went back to Mrs. Vidian and explained my plan. She really didn't think it would work, but she agreed to help.
我回到維迪安太太的家，向她講述了我的計劃。她真的認為這個計劃行不通，但同意幫我的忙。
