At six in the morning the square belonged to the fish. Crates of silver arrived on the backs of carts, ice spilled across the stones, and the fishmonger's call rolled from one stall to the next like a wave that had learned words. Inês knew the sound before she knew the square. Her grandmother, Dona Lurdes, had sold herbs at the north corner since before the river had a second bridge.
早上六点，广场属于鱼。一箱箱银色的鱼由手推车运来，冰撒在石板上，鱼贩的叫卖声从一个摊位滚到另一个摊位，像一道学会了说话的浪。伊内斯先认识这个声音，然后才认识这个广场。她的外婆多娜·卢尔德斯在河北角卖香草，早在那条河有第二座桥之前就在那里了。
Inês helped on Saturdays. She weighed bundles of parsley and listened to the arguments, the prices, the gossip that travelled faster than any bus. Tourists came with cameras and left with photographs of tiles, but the market was not a photograph; it was a schedule, a set of debts, a place where everyone knew whose son had passed the exam and whose roof had leaked.
伊内斯周六来帮忙。她称一捆捆欧芹，听着争吵、价格，以及那些比任何公交车都传得快的闲话。游客带着相机来，带着瓷砖的照片离开，但市场不是一张照片；它是一份时间表，一组人情债，一个所有人都知道谁家儿子通过了考试、谁家屋顶漏了水的地方。
In February a notice appeared on the board by the fountain. The square would close in spring for redevelopment. The stalls would move to a concrete hall two kilometres inland, where the rent was lower and the ceilings were high and the acoustics, the notice said, would be improved. Dona Lurdes read it twice and said nothing at all.
二月，喷泉旁的通告栏上出现了一张通知。广场将在春天关闭，进行改造。摊位将迁到内陆两公里外的一座混凝土大厅，那里租金更低、天花板更高，通知还说，音响效果会得到改善。多娜·卢尔德斯读了两遍，什么也没说。
The consultation was held in the library, with biscuits and a screen. Dr. Amaro, the architect, showed a plan in soft greens: stalls as neat rectangles, arrows for circulation, a plaza for events. It was beautiful in the way that diagrams are beautiful, and it was completely silent. Inês raised her hand and asked where the sound would go.
咨询会在图书馆举行，有饼干，也有一块屏幕。建筑师阿马罗博士展示了一张柔绿色调的规划图：摊位是整齐的矩形，箭头表示人流，还有一块用于活动的广场。它有一种图表特有的美，也完全寂静。伊内斯举手问：声音要去哪里？
Dr. Amaro said that the new hall would have better acoustics. That was not what she meant, and for a moment she could not explain it. Then she took out her phone and played a recording she had made that morning: the fishmonger calling the price of sardines, her grandmother laughing at something unsaid, a cart wheel catching on a stone. The room listened. Someone's spoon stopped moving.
阿马罗博士说，新大厅会有更好的音响效果。那不是她的意思，而有一瞬间她解释不清。随后她掏出手机，播放了那天早上录下的声音：鱼贩喊着沙丁鱼的价格，外婆因为某件没说出口的事而笑，一只车轮卡在石头上。整个房间都在听。有人的勺子停了下来。
Afterwards she began recording properly. She walked the square for three weeks, collecting voices the way other people collect stamps. The fishmonger, who had never been asked, spoke for eleven minutes. Her grandmother refused at first, then talked for an hour about a flood, a wedding, and the year the fountain froze. Inês did not edit out the interruptions. The interruptions were the market.
从那以后，她开始认真录音。她在广场上走了三个星期，像别人集邮那样收集声音。从未被问过的鱼贩讲了十一分钟。外婆起初拒绝，后来讲了一个小时，讲一场洪水、一场婚礼，还有喷泉结冰的那一年。伊内斯没有剪掉那些打断。那些打断本身就是市场。
The square closed in April, as promised. The new hall opened in September, and it was clean, dry, and far from the river. The stalls were the same stalls, but the sound had changed; a market indoors speaks to its ceiling instead of its neighbours. Dona Lurdes sold her herbs in a corner with good light and said the light was the only thing she had gained.
广场如约在四月关闭。新大厅九月开放，干净、干燥，离河很远。摊位还是那些摊位，但声音变了；室内市场对着天花板说话，而不是对着邻居。多娜·卢尔德斯在一个光线不错的角落卖香草，她说光线是她唯一得到的好处。
At the entrance, the city had agreed to build a small room with six benches, a window, and a set of headphones. Inês's recordings played on a loop: the price of sardines, the cart wheel, the flood, the wedding. People sat for a few minutes and then went to buy fish. It was not the market, and she never pretended it was.
在大厅入口，市政府同意建一个小房间，里面有六条长凳、一扇窗和一副耳机。伊内斯的录音循环播放：沙丁鱼的价格、车轮、洪水、婚礼。人们坐上几分钟，然后去买鱼。那不是市场，她也从不假装它是。
What the room did was change the argument. The planners stopped saying the old square had been inefficient and started saying it had been inhabited. Inês still thinks about the difference, and about her grandmother's question the day the recordings were installed: if a city keeps the sound but loses the work, what exactly has it remembered?
这个房间真正做到的，是改变了争论的说法。规划者不再说旧广场效率低下，而开始说它曾被人生活过。伊内斯仍在思考这两种说法的差别，也仍在思考录音装好那天外婆的问题：如果一座城市留住了声音，却失去了生计，它记住的到底是什么？