What I remember best about Rome

我对罗马记忆最深的是

is the middle-aged woman

我们在通往卡拉卡拉温泉浴场的

we saw on the path near

小路上看到

the Baths of Caracalla,

那个中年妇女，

sitting in the rain

她坐在雨中

with her legs straight out,

两腿向前伸开，

one elbow leaning on a suitcase,

一只胳臂倚着手提箱，

a plastic kerchief on her head.

头上戴着一个塑料头巾。

A car stopped and a man

一辆小车停下来，一个男子

leaned out the window, said something

从车里伸出头，用意大利语对她

in Italian. She wouldn’t look at him,

说了什么。她看也没朝他看一眼，

just shook her head, no, no, the cars

只是摇摇头，不，不，他后面的车子

honking behind him and he pulled away.

使劲儿按着喇叭，他就走开了。

She looked solid and respectable,

她看上去人挺不错，挺让人尊敬，

middle-class. I wondered

挺中产阶级。我不明白

what kind of life

她无法忍受而要逃离的

she was walking out of,

是一种怎样的生活；

what was worse than these streets,

还有什么比在下着大雨的

this pouring rain.

大街上更糟的。

A block past,

过了一个街道，

we looked back, saw the car again,

我们回头看，又看见那辆小车，

the man rolling down his window,

那男人摇下车窗，

the woman shouting now, No!

这次那女人可是大喊出来的，不！

We smiled at that,

我们看着都笑了，

not knowing then we would leave each other

当时并不知道我们两个三年以后

just as absurdly, three years later,

也会分手，一样的荒唐，

in a different country,

在另一个国家，

in the rain.

一样是在雨中。