Last week I sent a tuner over to my parents' apartment and had the piano reconditioned, for purely sentimental reasons. My mother had died a few months before and I had been getting things in order for my father, a little bit at a time. I put the jewelry in special silk pouches. The sweaters she had knitted in yellow, pink bright orange-all the colors I hated-I put those in mothproof boxes. I found some old chinese silk dresses, the kind with little slits up the sides. I rubbed the old silk against my skin, and then wrapped them in tissue and decided to take them home with me.
上周，出于怀旧，我请了一位调琴师去父母家。母亲已于几个月前去世，我一直在为父亲整理东西，一次整理一点儿。把珠宝放进特制的丝袋里，把她编织的彩色毛衣，黄的、粉的、亮橙的，这都是我最不喜欢的颜色，全都放进防蛀箱里。我还找到一些两侧开小衩的旧丝绸旗袍。我先将这些旧丝绸放在皮肤上轻轻地摩擦，然后用包装纸包好，要把它们带回我家。
After I had the piano tuned, I opened the lid and touched the keys. It sounded even richer that I remembered. Really, it was a very good piano. Inside the bench were the same exercise notes with handwritten scales, the same sedcondhand music books with their covers held together with yellow tape.
钢琴调好后，我打开琴盖，轻触琴键。琴声听起来比我记忆中的圆润。真的，这是一架很好的钢琴。琴凳里放着的还是那些东西：手写的音阶练习曲，一些封皮用黄色胶条粘在一起的二手琴谱。
I opened up the Schumann book to the dark little piecce I had played at the recital. It was on the left-hand page, "Pleading Child" It looked more difficult than I remembered. I played a few bars, surprised at how easily the notes came back to me.
我打开舒曼的乐谱，找到了当年我演奏的那段伤感乐曲《祈求的孩子》。它在左半页。它可比我记忆中的还要难。弹了几节，我就惊奇地发现那些音符竟那么轻松地再现。
And for the first time, or so it seemed, I noticed the piece on the right-hand side, It was called "Perfectly Contented" I tried to play this one as well. It had a lighter melody but with the same flowing rhythm and turned out to be quite easy. "Pleading Child" was shorter but slower; "Perfectly Contented" was longer but faster. And after I had played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.
我第一次，或感觉好像是第一次，注意到右边的乐曲标题是《心满意足》。我也试着弹这首曲子。它的曲调比较轻松，但节奏同样流畅，不是很难。《祈求的孩子》较短、较慢，而《心满意足》更长、更快一些。在我弹了几遍后，我意识到，原来这两个曲子是同一首歌的两个组成部分。