評論
打印
"MISSY," I CALLED to my wife, "did you smear Vaseline on my desk?"
“米西，”我對妻子喊道，“你把凡士林放在我桌子上了嗎?”
"No, honey. Meghan probably did."
“沒有，親愛的，可能是梅根放的。”
Just like that. Calm.
就像這樣。冷靜。
As I'd feared, she had missed the carefully honed, double-edged irony of the question.
正如我擔心的那樣，她沒有仔細推敲這句話的含義。
I knew she hadn't put it there.
我知道不是她放的。
The question was rhetorical;
這是反問；
its only function was to make clear to her that she hadn't done her job:
這句話唯一的作用就是讓她明白，她沒有完成自己的工作：
defend my desk against the aggressor I abandoned the conversation.
保護辦公桌，抵抗“侵略者”，我放棄了談話。
I would deal with Meghan, our 22-month-old daughter, later.
之后我會和22個月大的女兒梅根談一談。
All of that was yesterday.
昨天剛發生這樣的事。
Today I sit here at that same rolltop desk,
今天，我還是坐在那張帶滑輪的桌子前
which I salvaged from a friend's attic two years ago, and stare at the blank sheet inserted in the typewriter.
（兩年前從一個朋友的閣樓上找來的），盯著打字機上的空白頁，
I wait patiently for ideas to come to me, exam questions on Herman Melville for a test I will give my English students.
耐心地等待靈感的到來，想著我的英語課學生赫爾曼·梅爾維爾考試題目。
My wife is off to a reunion somewhere, but I am not alone.
妻子要去某個地方參加聚會，但我并不孤單。
Our two children keep me company.
兩個孩子陪著我。
Ten-month-old Edward cooperates to some degree;
在某種程度上，10個月大的愛德華還算配合;
he spends most of his day poring over a seemingly endless array of cards, tags,
他一天的大部分時間都在盯著一堆似乎沒完沒了的卡片、標簽，
and other assorted pieces of paper, plus a Sears, Roebuck catalog that he tears apart page by page.
還有其他各種各樣的報紙，加上撕碎的一頁頁西爾斯百貨、羅巴克公司的目錄。
Occasionally he leans out and flails madly at the piano, which he can just reach.
偶爾，他會探出身子，瘋狂地敲著鋼琴，他剛好夠著鋼琴。
But it is Meghan whose plans have been destined from all eternity to clash with mine today.
但今日注定梅根的計劃要與我的計劃發生沖突。
