岁月在她过了四十以后就开始飞逝。一眨眼，珞蒂已经六十岁，老板的儿子不讲什么情份，没等她提出，就请她退休。
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.
她找了几次工作，但是她邋遢的外表使她看起来又老又没用。珞蒂生平第一次愿意不计报酬只要有个工作，有一个地方可去，有事情可以打发她的日子。
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.
哈里死在外国，在一家三流的旅馆里，碧丝哭得像他留给她多大一笔遗产似的。他什么也没留给她，除了那只法国号。她甚至连回国的路费都没有。
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，她逃不掉得把妹妹给接回国，等她回国后还得收容她。想起她一生克勤克俭，碧丝却来坐享其成，觉得很不公平。
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.
珞蒂费了一个礼拜的时间才整理好一间卧室，一个礼拜的辛苦日和辛苦钱。每样都得做，每样东西都得换新或油漆。等她把一切都弄好之后，那间卧房看起来又新又舒适，珞蒂觉得自己比妹妹更配住这样的一间房。
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.
把她自己的卧室给碧丝住好了。但是床垫垮得太厉害，地毯太破旧，窗帘太褴褛，珞蒂有些于心不安。她想她的卧房也该翻修一下，于是便动手去做，其实是干劲十足，她却自以为是仓促行事。
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.
忙完了楼上，一比，楼下的那般破烂使她愣住了。她假装没看到，但是没有地方可以躲避，楼上楼下的对照越来越不能忍受。
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.
她从厨房收拾到客厅，心里说服自己，这样忙里忙外整理房子只是给自己找点事情做做而已。晚上她睡得像小孩一样熟，因为白天她扮家家酒似，快乐的忙了一整天，她一生从来不曾这样快乐过。她每一小时都生活得很充实。
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.
还有一天碧丝就要到家了。珞蒂走过一面擦亮的镜子，起先隐隐约约的，后来清清楚楚痛苦无比地，她看见别人眼中的自己，实在无法忍受自己的模样。她突然花钱如流水地从一间一间专卖店到美容院，摇身一变，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.
她在厨房给正在烤炙中的火鸡上奶油时，碧丝按了门铃。她的心狂跳起来，她怀疑是烤箱的热度影响了心跳。
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.
她走到门口，碧丝站在她前面。她僵硬地接受了碧丝的拥抱，她的心跳得更快了，她的眼睛因为冷气的冲突忽然刺痛起来。
"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，见到你真好。」碧丝说，却一句也没提珞蒂漂亮的打扮。到楼上，碧丝放下了她寒酸的皮箱说：「今天晚上我会睡得像一块石头。」却一句也没有赞美她可爱的房间。餐桌上，丰盛地摆着火鸡，碧丝说：「鸡胸肉、鸡腿肉我都要嚐嚐。」却没有啧啧赞叹那火鸡有多大，没有说她自己穷得连面包都买不起，而年迈的两个老妇人还有火鸡吃。
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.
胃里佳肴一散热，碧丝的话匣子就打开了。谈了许多地方许多人，大多是低微的，但没有一个不引人入胜。她的脸反应着她的话，一忽儿喜一忽儿悲，回忆着她的爱美化了的贫穷的地方和卑微的人。
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.
那时珞蒂才明白何以碧丝都不提她美的服饰、漂亮的房间或者那只十二磅重的火鸡。因为她根本没有看见。明天她就会看清楚房间是怎么样的；珞蒂是什么样的；再热过的火鸡，隔夜了还有不赖的荣耀的。今天晚上她只看到她来寻求的－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?"
碧丝说：「我的遭遇谈够了。岁月对待你怎么样呢？」
"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."
「是我没有用它们，」珞蒂渴渴地说：「我为岁月节省，但我忘记虽我不花费一天或一块钱去享受，美好的岁月还是会流逝的。这就是我一生的写照，没有真正生活过的一生。而时到现在太接近结尾，要试也来不及了。」
，双语散文：贫富之间