Everyday Use for your grandmamma
外婆的日用家当
I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yester day afternoon.
我就在这院子里等候她的到来。我和麦姬昨天下午已将院子打扫得干干净净，地面上还留着清晰的扫帚扫出的波浪形痕迹。
A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know.
这样的院子比一般人想象的要舒服。
It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room.
它不仅仅是一个院子，简直就像一间扩大了的客厅。
When the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves, anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house.
当院子的泥土地面被打扫得像屋里的地板一样干净，四周边缘的细沙面上布满不规则的细纹时，任何人都可以进来坐一下，一边抬头仰望院中的榆树，一边等着享受从来吹不进屋内的微风。
Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe.
麦姬在她姐姐离去之前将会一直心神不定：她将会神情沮丧地站在角落里，一面为自己的丑陋面孔和胳膊大腿上晒出的累累疤痕而自惭形秽，一面怀着既羡慕又敬畏的心情怯生生地看着她姐姐。
She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her.
她觉得她姐姐真正是生活的主人，想要什么便能得到什么，世界还没有学会对她说半个"不"字。
You've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has "made it" is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage.
你一定从电视片上看到过"闯出了江山"的儿女突然出乎意料地出现在那跌跌撞撞从后台走出来的父母面前的场面。
(A Pleasant surprise, of course: What would they do if parent and child came on the show only to curse out and insult each other?)
（当然，那场面必定是令人喜悦的：假如电视上的父母和儿女之间相互攻击辱骂，他们该怎么样呢？）
On TV mother and child embrace and smile into each other's face.
在电视上，母亲和儿女见面总是相互拥抱和微笑。
Sometimes the mother and father weep, the child wraps them in her arms and leans across the table to tell how she would not have made it without their help. I have seen these programs.
有时父母会痛哭流涕，而那发迹了的孩子就会紧紧地拥抱他们，并隔着桌子伸过头来告诉他们说若没有他们的帮助，她自己就不会有今日的成就。我自己就看过这样的电视节目。