Mateo built the washing drum out of a bicycle frame, a barrel, and a pulley salvaged from the mill. The idea was simple: fill the barrel, add clothes and ash soap, turn the pedals, and let the water do the work that wrists had done for generations. It took four weekends and one broken thumb. When it finally spun, his aunt Lucía laughed out loud and said it would never replace the river.
马特奥用一副自行车架、一个圆桶，以及从磨坊捡来的一个滑轮，造出了那台洗衣滚筒。道理很简单：把桶装满，放进衣物和草木灰皂，踩动踏板，让水去做几代人用双手做过的事。他花了四个周末，还弄断了一根拇指。当它终于转起来时，他的姑妈露西亚放声大笑，说它永远取代不了那条河。
By June it had replaced the river three days a week. The cooperative bought two more and kept them in the old shed by the bridge. Washing, which had once taken a whole morning, now took forty minutes and far less hot water. Mateo was given a certificate at the town festival and a place in the newspaper; for a few weeks he was the most interviewed person in the valley.
到了六月，它已经每周三天取代了那条河。合作社又买了两台滚筒，放在桥边的旧棚屋里。洗衣过去要花一整个上午，现在只要四十分钟，用的热水也少得多。镇上的节庆给了马特奥一张证书，报纸也写了他，有几个星期，他成了山谷里被采访最多的人。
He noticed the change gradually, the way you notice a sound after it stops. The riverbank, which had always been crowded on Mondays, was empty. The stones where the women spread their washing to dry were dry. His aunt stopped leaving the house before seven. Everyone agreed the drum was a success, and Mateo, standing among the barrels, began to suspect that success was a word with more than one room.
他慢慢才注意到这种变化，就像声音停下之后你才注意到它。一向在周一挤满人的河岸空了。女人们摊开晾衣的石头发干着。姑妈不再七点前出门。所有人都说滚筒是个成功，而马特奥站在棚屋里、站在那些圆桶之间，开始怀疑成功这个词有好几个房间。
Doña Rosa was the first to say it plainly. She had washed at the river for fifty-one years, and she did not miss the cold water; she missed the mornings. The riverbank had been where the town exchanged its news, where a woman could say a thing out loud before deciding whether to believe it, where children were watched by fourteen pairs of eyes. Now everyone washed alone in a shed.
罗莎奶奶是第一个把话说白的人。她在河边洗了五十一年衣服，她并不想念那冷水；她想念的是那些早晨。河岸曾是全镇交换消息的地方，是一个女人可以先把话说出口、再决定要不要相信它的地方，是十四个大人的眼睛一起看着孩子的地方。现在每个人都在棚屋里独自洗衣。
The drum had other consequences nobody had planned. The blankets were too heavy for it, so they still went to the river, but only twice a month, and the women who came no longer knew each other's news. A shop that sold firewood lost customers, because the drum needed less fuel. Mateo's aunt, who had earned a little money taking in washing, found that her neighbours could now do it themselves.
滚筒还带来了别的、没人计划过的后果。毯子对它来说太重，所以仍然拿到河边洗，但一个月只剩两次，而来的女人已经不再知道彼此的消息。一家卖柴火的店失去了顾客，因为滚筒需要的燃料更少。靠替人洗衣挣点钱的姑妈发现，邻居们现在自己就能洗了。
Mateo listened to all of this and felt the particular guilt of having solved the wrong part of a problem. He had counted hours and litres, and he had counted correctly. What he had not counted was the thing the riverbank produced without anyone intending it: a place where people were not efficient, and were not alone.
马特奥听着这一切，感到一种特别的愧疚：他解决的只是问题里不该被解决的那一部分。他计算了小时和升数，而且算得没错。他没有计算的是河岸在无人刻意安排下产生的东西：一个人们不必高效、也不必独自一人的地方。
The solution came from Doña Rosa, which surprised everyone except her. If the shed was where the washing now happened, then the shed should become the riverbank. She proposed a Thursday: anyone who wanted to could bring their washing, use the drums in turn, and stay afterwards for soup. The cooperative donated a long table. Mateo built a bench out of the same bicycle frame, which he admitted was mostly symbolic.
解决办法来自罗莎奶奶，除了她自己，所有人都感到意外。如果现在洗衣的地方是棚屋，那么棚屋就该变成河岸。她提议设一个星期四：愿意的人可以带衣物来，轮流使用滚筒，洗完留下来喝汤。合作社捐了一张长桌。马特奥用同一副自行车架做了一条长凳，他承认这大多是象征性的。
The first Thursday was awkward. People came for the washing and left before the soup, as if staying might look like wasting time. The second Thursday, six women stayed. The third, someone brought a radio, and Doña Rosa corrected its pronunciation of the news. By winter the table was full, and the blankets still went to the river once a month, which was now treated as a festival rather than a chore.
第一个星期四很尴尬。人们来洗衣，在喝汤前就走了，仿佛留下来会显得浪费时间。第二个星期四，六位妇女留了下来。第三个星期四，有人带来一台收音机，罗莎奶奶纠正了播音员念新闻的发音。到冬天，长桌坐满了人，而毯子仍然每月去一次河边，如今那被当作节日，而不是苦差。
Mateo still keeps a notebook of hours saved; he is proud of the drum and does not pretend otherwise. But at the bottom of the last page he has written a sentence he cannot yet prove: an invention is not finished when it works. It is finished when the life around it has been rebuilt, and that part cannot be designed in a shed.
马特奥仍然记着一本节省了多少小时的账；他为滚筒骄傲，也不假装不是。但在最后一页的底部，他写下一句自己还无法证明的话：一项发明在运转时并没有完成。当它周围的生活被重新建起来，它才算完成，而那一部分无法在棚屋里设计出来。