Taking in summer guests was my parents’ way of helping young academics revise a manuscript before publication. For six weeks each summer I’d have to vacate my bedroom and move one room down the corridor into a much smaller room that had once belonged to my grandfather. During the winter months, when we were away in the city, it became a part-time toolshed, storage room, and attic where rumor had it my grandfather, my namesake, still ground his teeth in his eternal sleep. Summer residents didn’t have to pay anything, were given the full run of the house, and could basically do anything they pleased, provided they spent an hour or so a day helping my father with his correspondence and assorted paperwork. They became part of the family, and after about fifteen years of doing this, we had gotten used to a shower of postcards and gift packages not only around Christmastime but all year long from people who were now totally devoted to our family and would go out of their way when they were in Europe to drop by B. for a day or two with their family and take a nostalgic tour of their old digs.
 
為了指導(dǎo)年輕學(xué)者在出版之前修改書(shū)稿，我父母年年接待夏季來(lái)客。每年夏天有六個(gè)星期，我必須騰出臥室，搬進(jìn)走廊盡頭那間祖父曾經(jīng)住過(guò)的狹小的多的鄰室。寒冬時(shí)節(jié)，當(dāng)我們告別這里住進(jìn)市區(qū)，那個(gè)閣樓的小房間就成了臨時(shí)的工具間、儲(chǔ)藏室，并且謠傳與我同名的祖父長(zhǎng)眠之后仍在那里面磨牙。夏季訪客無(wú)需支付任何費(fèi)用，基本上能夠隨心所欲使用屋內(nèi)的任何設(shè)施，只要每天花一個(gè)小時(shí)左右?guī)透赣H處理來(lái)往信件和分類(lèi)文件即可。他們最后往往成了我們家的一分子。連續(xù)接待了十五年后，如今不只是圣誕時(shí)節(jié)，一年到頭，明信片或禮物都會(huì)如雪片般飛來(lái)。寄東西來(lái)的人宛如我們家的一分子，每次來(lái)到歐洲，總會(huì)帶著家人特地造訪 B 城幾日，到曾經(jīng)短暫落腳的地方來(lái)趟懷舊之旅。
 
At meals there were frequently two or three other guests, sometimes neighbors or relatives, sometimes colleagues, lawyers, doctors, the rich and famous who’d drop by to see my father on their way to their own summer houses. Sometimes we’d even open our dining room to the occasional tourist couple who’d heard of the old villa and simply wanted to come by and take a peek and were totally enchanted when asked to eat with us and tell us all about themselves, while Mafalda, informed at the last minute, dished out her usual fare. My father, who was reserved and shy in private, loved nothing better than to have some precocious rising expert in a field keep the conversation going in a few languages while the hot summer sun, after a few glasses of rosatello, ushered in the unavoidable afternoon torpor. We named the task dinner drudgery—and, after a while, so did most of our six-week guests.
 
用餐時(shí)刻往往會(huì)多兩三位客人，有時(shí)候是鄰居或親戚，有時(shí)候是同事、律師、醫(yī)生等等名流，在前往自家的夏季別墅前順路來(lái)探訪我的父親。有時(shí)候我們甚至開(kāi)放餐廳給偶爾來(lái)訪的夫妻或情侶旅客，他們因耳聞這棟老別墅，單純想來(lái)一窺究竟。這些人受邀與我們共餐時(shí)，簡(jiǎn)直心醉神迷，然后熱情地閑聊關(guān)于自己的一切?？傇谧詈笠环昼姴沤拥竭@種臨時(shí)通知的瑪法爾達(dá)則會(huì)端上她的拿手菜。私底下內(nèi)斂害羞的父親其實(shí)最喜歡聽(tīng)在某些領(lǐng)域?qū)W有專(zhuān)長(zhǎng)的新星以數(shù)種語(yǔ)言高談闊論；伴著幾杯玫瑰紅下肚，坐在午后炎熱的夏日陽(yáng)光下，人不免變得呆滯。我們總把這段時(shí)光稱(chēng)為“正餐苦差”——過(guò)不了多久，那些即將長(zhǎng)住六周的訪客也會(huì)這么說(shuō)。

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