Rope
by Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980)

繩 子 (一)

 On the third day after they moved to the country he came walking back from the village carrying a basket of groceries and a twenty-four-yard coil of rope. She came out to meet him, wiping her hands on her green smock (工作服). Her hair was tumbled(弄乱，搞乱，乱蓬蓬), her nose was scarlet with sunburn; he told her that already she looked like a born country woman. His gray flannel (法兰绒衣服)shirt stuck(紧紧地粘在) to him, his heavy shoes were dusty. She assured him he looked like a rural character in a play.
Had he brought the coffee? She had been waiting all day long for coffee. They had forgot it when they ordered at the store the first day.

Gosh, no, he hadn't. Lord, now he'd have to go back. Yes, he would if it killed him.( 哪怕是要他的命，他也会回去的。) He thought, though, he had everything else. She reminded him it was only because he didn't drink coffee himself. If he did he would remember it quick enough. Suppose they ran out of cigarettes? Then she saw the rope. What was that for? Well, he thought it might do to hang clothes on, or something. Naturally she asked him if he thought they were going to run a laundry? They already had a fifty-foot line hanging right before his eyes? Why, hadn't he noticed it, really? It was a blot on the landscape(破坏整体美的事物；煞风景的事物) to her.

He thought there were a lot of things a rope might come in handy for. She wanted to know what, for instance. He thought a few seconds, but nothing occurred. They could wait and see, couldn't they? You need all sorts of strange odds and ends (零碎的东西) around a place in the country. She said, yes, that was so; but she thought just at that time when every penny counted, it seemed funny to buy more rope. That was all. She hadn't meant anything else. She hadn't just seen, not at first, why he felt it was necessary.
Well, thunder,( 得了，少噜唆) he had bought it because he wanted to, and that was all there was to it. She thought that was reason enough, and couldn't understand why he hadn't said so, at first. Undoubtedly it would be useful, twenty-four yards of rope, there were hundreds of things, she couldn't think of any at the moment, but it would come in. Of course. As he had said, things always did in the country.

But she was a little disappointed about the coffee, and oh, look, look, look at the eggs! Oh, my, they're all running(都碎啦)! What had he put on top of them? Hadn't he known eggs mustn't be squeezed? Squeezed, who had squeezed them, he wanted to know. What a silly thing to say. He had simply brought them along in the basket with the other things. If they got broke it was the grocer's fault. He should know better than to put heavy things on top of eggs.
She believed it was the rope. That was the heaviest thing in the pack, she saw him plainly when he came in from the road, the rope was a big package on top of everything. He desired the whole wide world to witness that this was not a fact. He had carried the rope in one hand and the basket in the other, and what was the use of her having eyes if that was the best they could do for her?

Well, anyhow, she could see one thing plain: no eggs for breakfast. They'd have to scramble them now, for supper. It was too damned bad. She had planned to have steak for supper. No ice, meat wouldn't keep. He wanted to know why she couldn't finish breaking the eggs in a bowl and set them in a cool place.
Cool place! if he could find one for her, she'd be glad to set them there. Well, then, it seemed to him they might very well cook the meat at the same time they cooked the eggs and then warm up the meat for tomorrow. The idea simply choked her. (这主意简直要她的命) Warmed-over meat, when they might as well have had it fresh. Second best and scraps and makeshifts (权宜之计，临时代用的物品), even to the meat!( 不做最好的打算，鸡零狗碎的，凑合应付，哪怕煮块肉也是这样！) He rubbed her shoulder a little. It doesn't really matter so much, does it, darling? Sometimes when they were playful(开玩 笑), he would rub her shoulder and she would arch and purr.( 会弓起身子，像猫似的高兴得喵呜喵呜叫)This time she hissed(咬牙切齿) and almost clawed. He was getting ready to say that they could surely manage somehow when she turned on him and said, if he told her they could manage somehow she would certainly slap his face.

He swallowed the words red hot, his face burned. He picked up the rope and started to put it on the top shelf. She would not have it on the top shelf, the jars and tins belonged there; positively she would not have the top shelf cluttered up(乱糟糟地堆满 ) with a lot of rope. She had borne all the clutter she meant to bear in the flat(公寓房间) in town, there was space here at least and she meant to keep things in order.
Well, in that case, he wanted to know what the hammer and nails were doing up there? And why had she put them there when she knew very well he needed that hammer and those nails upstairs to fix the window sashes? She simply slowed down everything and made double work on the place with her insane(怪毛病) habit of changing things around and hiding them.

She was sure she begged his pardon, and if she had had any reason to believe he was going to fix the sashes this summer she would have left the hammer and nails right where he put them; in the middle of the bedroom floor where they could step on them in the dark. And now if he didn't clear the whole mess(乱七八糟的东西) out of there she would throw them down the well.
Oh, all right, all right -- could he put them in the closet? Naturally not, there were brooms and mops and dustpans(扫帚、拖把和畚箕) in the closet, and why couldn't he find a place for his rope outside her kitchen? Had he stopped to consider there were seven God-forsaken (荒芜的，空著的)rooms in the house, and only one kitchen?

He wanted to know what of it? And did she realize she was making a complete fool of herself?( 扮演一个彻头彻尾的大傻瓜) And what did she take him for, a three-year-old idiot? The whole trouble with her was she needed something weaker than she was to heckle (诘问，数落) and tyrannize over (作威作福). He wished to God now they had a couple of children she could take it out on. Maybe he'd get some rest.