I’d mentioned that I was interested in meeting my aunt, and my mother had stunned me then, just as she’d stunned me now, by saying, “Why don’t we go together?”[qh]

我提到我有兴趣见姨妈，就像她现在让我大吃一惊一样，母亲当时让我大吃了一惊，她说：“我们为什么不一起去看姨妈呢?”[qh]

And what do I remember of that singular day?[qh]

我还记得那个特别的日子吗?[qh]

How uncharacteristically animated and affectionate my mother was when she saw Adele, for one thing. [qh]

首先，母亲见到阿黛尔(姨妈)时，显得异常活泼和亲切mz5hzn7*7C#&Q-j,d%W。[qh]

You could almost discern the outlines of the little girl she’d been, the one who would circle Adele’s crib and play a made-up game she called “Here, Baby.”[qh]

你几乎可以分辨出那个小女孩的轮廓，她会绕着阿黛尔的婴儿床转一圈，玩一个她称之为“这里，宝贝”的自创游戏wS+^qv)5&c。[qh]

Also, how petite my aunt was—4 foot 8, dumpling-shaped—and how slack the musculature was around her jaw, which may have had something to do with the fact that my aunt had no teeth. [qh]

此外，我的姨妈是多么娇小--4英尺8英寸高，身形如饺子一般--下巴周围的肌肉组织十分松弛，这可能与我姨妈没有牙齿有关9M|p3jw)q(TcENwD~gf。[qh]

She had supposedly taken a medication that had made them decay, though there’s really no way to know.[qh]

据说，她服用了一种会使牙齿腐烂的药物，尽管无从得知事实如何N(Xze9oj-Ab448t6qZ。[qh]

But what stayed with me most from that day—what I thought about for years afterward—were the needlepoint canvases marching along the walls in Adele’s bedroom. [qh]

但从那天起，让我印象最深的——也是多年后我一直念念不忘的——是阿黛尔卧室墙壁上的一幅幅刺绣画RNN#9ggL;x!~1PEA%MY4。[qh]

My mother and I both gasped when we saw them.[qh]

看到这些刺绣画，我和母亲都倒吸了一口气ffKim+nNSikm^5u。[qh]

My mother, too, was an avid needlepointer in those years, undertaking almost comically ambitious projects—the Chagall windows, the Unicorn Tapestries. [qh]

那些年，我母亲也是一个狂热的绣娘，承担着雄心勃勃的但又几近滑稽的项目——夏加尔的窗户，独角兽挂毯k=1RX~Ssk9。[qh]

Adele’s handiwork was simpler, cruder, but there it was, betokening the same passion, the same obsession.[qh]

阿黛尔的手工刺绣画更简单，也更粗糙，但它就在那里，象征着同样的激情，同样的痴迷*&hu2w=kS(I。[qh]

One other thing: My mother and I discovered that day that Adele could carry a tune—and when she sang, she suddenly had hundreds of words at her disposal, not just yes and no, the only two words we heard her speak.[qh]

还有一件事：那天，我和母亲发现阿黛尔唱得准调子——当她唱歌时，突然几百个词语都由她支配，而不仅仅是“是”和“不是”，这是我们听到她说的唯一两个词H~F#MKdP%0PB。[qh]

Again, we were amazed.[qh]

我们再次感到惊讶w0fRisE5K)7|%rOT)[g。[qh]

For years, my mother was a pianist and studied opera; her technical skills were impeccable, her sight-reading was impeccable, her ear was impeccable. [qh]

多年来，我的母亲是一名钢琴家，学习歌剧；她的技艺无懈可击，她的视奏能力无懈可击，她的听觉无懈可击w.i|c*~mDi0)soGK。[qh]

She could pick up the telephone and tell you that the dial tone was a major third.[qh]

她可以接起电话，告诉你拨号音是大三度音2Pi]WeV4#u_TKI6K!。[qh]

My mother couldn’t get over it—the needlepoints, the singing.[qh]

我母亲无法释怀——那些刺绣画，那些歌声XO@.829;tx。[qh]

I felt like I was staring at some kind of photonegative of a twin study.[qh]

我觉得我在盯着某种研究双胞胎的底片-6FJnwlC8plCh-4。[qh]

So here we are, 23 years later, and Adele is greeting us at the door. She is wearing a bright-red sweater. [qh]

23年后的今天，我们到了，阿黛尔在门口迎接我们1NH3qc^qj&zhg*Ua+g。她穿着一件鲜红的毛衣hM|TUl-cD)gj)#!_a。[qh]

There is my mother at the door. She, too, is wearing a bright-red sweater.[qh]

我妈妈在门口，她也穿着一件鲜红的毛衣XAdJ)u~W6]PmL&(HGI@A。[qh]

Adele is wearing a long, chunky beaded necklace she has recently made at her day program.[qh]

阿黛尔戴着她最近在日间活动中制作的一条又长又粗的串珠项链mp]GfVn8^h%lvub~b。[qh]

And my mother, like her sister, is wearing a long, chunky beaded necklace she has recently made—not at a day program, obviously, but for Hadassah.[qh]

而我的母亲，像她的妹妹一样，也戴着她最近制作的一条又长又粗的串珠项链——显然不是在日间活动中制作的，而是为Hadassah(慈善组织)制作的&3D9Nq;b&F-nhgN0W@%。[qh]