I had shipped ahead a box of books to myself, right before I left New York to move to Italy. The box was guaranteed to arrive at my Roman apartment within four to six days, but I think the Italian post office must have misread that instruction as "forty-six days," for two months have passed now, and I have seen no sign of my box. My Italian friends tell me to put the box out of my mind completely. They say that the box may arrive or it may not arrive, but such things are out of our hands.

在我离开纽约、移居意大利之前，我事先运去一箱书给自己。这箱书担保四至六天内抵达我的罗马公寓，但我想意大利邮局肯定把指示误解成四十六天，因为两个月过去了，却不见箱子的踪影。 我的意大利朋友告诉我，把箱子一事抛诸脑后吧。 他们说箱子或许会寄达或许不会寄达，这类事情不在你的掌控之中。

"Did someone maybe steal it?" I ask Luca Spaghetti. "Did the post office lose it?"

或许被人偷了？我问卢卡邮局搞丢了？

He covers his eyes. "Don't ask these questions," he says. "You'll only make yourself upset."

他蒙住眼睛。别问这些问题，他说，只会让自己心烦罢了。

The mystery of my missing box prompts a long discussion one night between me, my American friend Maria and her husband, Giulio. Maria thinks that in a civilized society one should be able to rely on such things as the post office delivering one's mail in a prompt manner, but Giulio begs to differ. He submits that the post office belongs not to man, but to the fates, and that delivery of mail is not something anybody can guarantee. Maria, annoyed, says this is only further evidence of the Protestant-Catholic divide. This divide is best proven, she says, by the fact that Italians—including her own husband—can never make plans for the future, not even a week in advance. If you ask a Protestant from the American Midwest to commit to a dinner date next week, that Protestant, believing that she is the captain of her own destiny, will say, "Thursday night works fine for me." But if you ask a Catholic from Calabria to make the same commitment, he will only shrug, turn his eyes to God, and ask, "How can any of us know whether we will be free for dinner next Thursday night, given that everything is in God's hands and none of us can know our fate?"

关于我遗失箱子之谜，有天晚上引发了我、我的美国朋友玛莉亚和她先生朱利欧之间的长篇议论。玛莉亚认为在一个文明社会，你理当能仰赖邮局尽速递送邮件这类事情，朱利欧则不以为然。他辩称，邮局不属于人，而是属于命运，邮件的递送不是任何人能担保的事情。玛莉亚颇是生气，她说这只是进一步证明新教徒和天主教徒的分歧。她说，此一分歧的最佳明证是意大利人——包括她自己的丈夫在内——永远无法做未来的计划，即使仅仅是一个礼拜后的事情。如果你请求美国中西部的新教徒答应下礼拜选一天吃晚饭，相信自己是自身命运主宰的新教徒会说：周四晚上我方便。但如果你请求卡拉布里亚（Calabria）的天主教徒做出相同承诺，他只会耸耸肩，抬头仰望上帝，问道：我们怎能知道下周四晚间是否有空一起吃饭？既然一切都在上帝掌控中，我们谁也不会晓得自己的命运。