The wall between Vila and Kestrel was older than anyone's memory of the quarrel that had built it. It ran through a meadow, cut a footpath in half, and ended, absurdly, at a stream too shallow to matter. Ana had taught mathematics in Vila for thirty-one years, and when she retired she bought the field on her side and began, without announcing it, to plant along the wall. Beans on the sunny face. Lavender where the stones held heat. In April a neighbour noticed that the seedlings had crossed the line, because Ana had removed three stones and simply kept digging.
维拉和凯斯特雷尔之间的那道墙，比任何人记得的那场争吵都要古老。它穿过一片草甸，把小径截成两段，最后荒唐地停在一道浅得无关紧要的小溪边。安娜在维拉教了三十一年数学，退休后买下自己这一侧的田地，没有声张，就开始沿着墙根种东西。向阳的一面种豆子，石头存得住热的地方种薰衣草。四月里，一个邻居发现幼苗越过了界线，因为安娜搬开了三块石头，然后只是继续挖下去。
The council of Kestrel sent a young man named Petr to speak to her. He arrived with a clipboard and a list of regulations and left two hours later carrying a paper bag of lettuce. Ana had not argued. She had asked him what his grandmother used to grow in that field, and he had remembered, unexpectedly, the taste of a small yellow plum. “The trees are gone,” he said. “Then we will plant beans,” said Ana, “and you will tell me where the shade falls.”
凯斯特雷尔的村委派了一个叫彼得的年轻人来找她谈。他来的时候带着一块写字板和一份规章清单，两个小时后离开时，手里提着一纸袋生菜。安娜并没有争辩。她只是问他，他祖母从前在那块地里种什么，而他出乎意料地想起了那种小黄李子的味道。“那些树都没了，”他说。“那我们就种豆子，”安娜说，“你来告诉我影子落在哪里。”
By June the garden had acquired helpers who would not have described themselves as such. Petr came on Saturdays, ostensibly to check the boundary, and stayed to weed. Two boys, one from each village, built a bench out of a fallen door and argued for an entire afternoon about which side of the wall it should face. They solved the problem by placing it exactly on the line, so that sitters could choose. Ana brought out bread and did not comment. She had learned, in thirty-one years of classrooms, that the fastest way to end an argument is to give everyone a task.
到了六月，花园里多了一些帮手，而他们自己是不会用这个词的。彼得每个星期六都来，名义上是检查边界，结果留下来拔草。两个男孩，一个来自维拉，一个来自凯斯特雷尔，用一扇倒下的门做成一条长凳，为它该朝墙的哪一边争了整整一个下午。他们最后的解决办法是把它正好放在界线上，坐的人可以自己选。安娜端出面包，什么也没评论。三十一年的课堂教会她一件事：结束争论最快的办法，是给每个人派一样活儿。
The old men were the last to come. They stood at the edge of the beans with their hands behind their backs and made observations about drainage. Then one of them, whose name was Ivo, knelt down and pulled a weed with the exaggerated care of a man who did not want to be seen doing it. The next week he brought seed potatoes. Nobody mentioned the wall. It remained, grey and ridiculous, running to the stream, but it had become a thing you walked around rather than a thing you defended, and Ana noticed that the path now curved through the garden instead of stopping at it.
最后来的是那些老人。他们背着手站在豆田边上，对排水发表意见。然后其中一个叫伊沃的人蹲下身，拔掉一棵草，动作小心得夸张，像一个不愿意被人看见自己在做什么的人。第二个星期他带来了种薯。没有人提那道墙。它还立在那里，灰扑扑的，有点可笑，一直延伸到溪边，可它已经变成了一件你绕着走的东西，而不是一件你要守住的东西。安娜注意到，那条小径现在拐进了花园里，而不是在墙前停住。
In September the garden produced more than either village could eat. Ana put a table at the crossroads, a tin for coins, and a sign that said simply: Take what you need; leave what you can. On the first day someone stole the tin. On the second, someone returned it with more money than it had held. By the end of the week the table had acquired a jar of honey, a stack of paperbacks, three pairs of boots and a hand-lettered notice from the Kestrel school asking whether the children might pick the lavender for the church fair.
九月，花园的收成超过了任何一个村子能吃完的量。安娜在十字路口摆了一张桌子、一只收硬币的铁罐，还有一块牌子，上面只写了一句话：需要多少拿多少，能留多少留多少。第一天有人把铁罐偷走了。第二天有人把它送了回来，里面的钱比原来还多。到那个周末，桌上多了一罐蜂蜜、一摞平装书、三双靴子，还有一张凯斯特雷尔小学手写的告示，问孩子们能不能来采薰衣草，供教堂义卖会用。
The councils met in October, for the first time in living memory, in the same room. They discussed the wall, its legal status, and the cost of demolition, and they agreed to leave it standing, because both sides had grown fond of the gate that had been cut through it, and because, as Petr pointed out, a wall you can walk through is no longer a wall. Ana walked home along the stream. The garden would be bare soon, and she was already thinking about bulbs, and about where the shade fell in winter.
十月，两个村委第一次在有生之年坐在同一间屋子里开会。他们讨论了那道墙、它的法律地位，以及拆除的费用，最后同意让它继续立着。因为两边的人都喜欢上了墙上开出的那道门，也因为，正如彼得指出的，一道你能走过去的墙已经不再是墙了。安娜沿着小溪走回家。花园很快就要空了，而她已经在想球根的事，想冬天影子会落在哪里。