我对罗马记忆最深的是

What I remember best about Rome

我们在通往卡拉卡拉温泉浴场的

is the middle-aged woman

小路上看到

we saw on the path near

那个中年妇女，

the Baths of Caracalla,

她坐在雨中

sitting in the rain

两腿向前伸开，

with her legs straight out,

一只胳臂倚着手提箱，

one elbow leaning on a suitcase,

头上戴着一个塑料头巾。

a plastic kerchief on her head.

一辆小车停下来，一个男子

A car stopped and a man

从车里伸出头，用意大利语对她

leaned out the window, said something

说了什么。她看也没朝他看一眼，

in Italian. She wouldn’t look at him,

只是摇摇头，不，不，他后面的车子

just shook her head, no, no, the cars

使劲儿按着喇叭，他就走开了。

honking behind him and he pulled away.

她看上去人挺不错，挺让人尊敬，

She looked solid and respectable,

挺中产阶级。我不明白

middle-class. I wondered

她无法忍受而要逃离的

what kind of life

是一种怎样的生活；

she was walking out of,

还有什么比在下着大雨的

what was worse than these streets,

大街上更糟的。

this pouring rain.

过了一个街道，

A block past,

我们回头看，又看见那辆小车，

we looked back, saw the car again,

那男人摇下车窗，

the man rolling down his window,

这次那女人可是大喊出来的，不！

the woman shouting now, No!

我们看着都笑了，

We smiled at that,

当时并不知道我们两个三年以后

not knowing then we would leave each other

也会分手，一样的荒唐，

just as absurdly, three years later,

在另一个国家，

in a different country,

一样是在雨中。

in the rain.