那座房子（2)

翻译《我们建了一座花园》Margery Fish

接上文

“那座房子”图片来源：英国皇家园艺学会

我们第一次看到这个房子是在九月，那天很暖和。那房子实在太破旧了，Walter走到前厅就不愿意再往里走了，即便是那个撑在屋前的突出来的大烟囱也没吸引他。

长长的屋顶上，盖着一块块波浪型的铁皮瓦，小小的前院挤满了老月桂树，叶子干枯发黄，屋内有股强烈的防腐剂气味，刚油上去不久的，混合着空房子毫无生气的湿冷和暮气沉沉。

“腐朽不堪”，Walter说，“再便宜也不买”，然后他拔腿就跑。

我们继续找房子，找了三个月，看过乡村小屋，大庄园，看过矗落在山顶的荒芜的维多利亚时代的大屋，还有窝在僻静山谷里的小房子，它们要么太大要么太小，有些有很大的花园，有些花园又太小。有的位置太偏僻，有的又与邻居太密切，缺乏隐私。

我们都不知道该如何是好，还有过激烈争吵，不过我们倒是发现了我们不想要什么。Walter肯定不喜欢有四个房间的村舍，厨房在这一头，浴室在另外一头。我不打算住在一间空荡荡的大房子，得请好几个佣人搞卫生。（待续）

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It was on a warm September day when we first saw the house but it was such a wreck that Walter refused to go further than the hall, in spite of the great jutting chimney that buttressed the front.

Then the long roof was patched with corrugated iron, the little front garden was a jungle of rusty old laurels and inside an overpowering smell of creosote, newly applied, fought with the dank, grave-like smell of an unlived in house.

‘Full of dry rot,’ said Walter, ‘not at any price,’ and turned on his heel. 

For three months we tried to find what we wanted. We looked at cottages and villas, gaunt Victorian houses perched uneasily on hilltops, and snug little homes wedged in forgotten valleys. Some were too big and most too small, some hadn’t enough garden and others too much. Some were too isolated, others so mixed up with other houses that privacy would have been impossible.

We lost our way and had bitter arguments, but we did discover what we didn’t want. I couldn’t see Walter in a four-roomed cottage with a kitchen tacked on to one end and a bathroom at the other, and I had no intention of landing myself with a barn of a place that would require several servants to keep it clean.     

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We Made a Garden, by Margery Fish, Publisher: Batsford (19 Dec 2011)