Every August, the town held a market contest. Each team received a stall, a small budget, and one Saturday to sell whatever it liked. The scoreboard in the square ranked teams by profit, and the winning team’s name was painted on a wooden shield in the town hall. Last year’s winners had sold iced drinks in paper cups and thrown away four bags of rubbish.
每年八月，镇上举办市集比赛。每支队伍分到一个摊位、一小笔预算，用一个星期六卖任何他们想卖的东西。广场上的记分牌按利润给队伍排名，获胜队的名字会被画在市政厅的一块木盾上。去年的赢家卖纸杯冰饮，扔掉了四袋垃圾。
This year, Ana’s team chose to sell soup. They had no ice, no paper cups, and no plan for making money quickly. Their stall was at the quiet end of the square, beside the bench where an old man named Mr. Bell sat every Saturday with a dog and a newspaper. By ten o’clock, the iced-drink stall had made more than Ana’s team would make all day.
今年，安娜的队伍决定卖汤。他们没有冰，没有纸杯，也没有快速赚钱的计划。他们的摊位在广场安静的一端，旁边就是贝尔先生每个星期六坐着的那条长椅，他带着一条狗和一份报纸。到十点，冰饮摊赚的钱已经超过了安娜队伍一整天的收入。
Mr. Bell came over at noon and asked the price of soup. Then he asked whether they sold half portions, because his pension arrived on Monday. Ana said they sold half portions, which was not true until she said it. He ate slowly, and afterward he sat at their stall for an hour, telling customers about the year the square flooded.
贝尔先生中午过来问汤的价钱。然后他问卖不卖半份，因为他的养老金星期一到账。安娜说卖半份——在她开口之前，这还不是真的。他吃得很慢，之后在他们的摊位旁坐了一个小时，给顾客讲广场发大水那一年的事。
People stayed to listen. They bought soup, then more soup, then sat down on the wall. Ana’s team ran out at three o’clock, having made far less profit than the iced-drink stall and having somehow collected a small crowd. At judging time, the mayor read the numbers and paused. “The scoreboard is clear,” he said, “but I have never seen a queue like that at the losing stall.”
人们留下来听。他们买了汤，又买了一些，然后坐在矮墙上。安娜的队伍三点就卖光了，利润远不如冰饮摊，却不知怎么聚起了一小群人。评审时，镇长念了数字，停顿了一下。“记分牌很清楚，”他说，“但我从没见过输的摊位前排这样的队。”
Ana expected nothing. Then Mr. Bell stood up and asked the mayor a question: what, exactly, was the contest measuring? Not kindness, said the mayor. Not company, said the crowd. Not the hour a stranger had spent talking to people who had been lonely all summer. The mayor looked at the shield on the wall and then at the empty space beside it.
安娜什么也没指望。这时贝尔先生站起来，问了镇长一个问题：这个比赛到底在衡量什么？不是善意，镇长说。不是陪伴，人群说。不是一个陌生人花一小时和整个夏天都孤独的人说话。镇长看看墙上的木盾，又看看它旁边的空位。
The iced-drink team won the profit prize, fairly and without argument. But the council added a second shield, smaller and made of the same wood, for “the stall that made the square better.” Ana’s team did not win that one either; a group of teenagers who had repaired bicycles for free took it. They all ate soup together afterward, and Ana wrote the new category on the back of her ledger, where the numbers could not argue with it.
冰饮队凭利润赢了奖，公平且无人异议。但议会增设了第二块木盾，更小，用同样的木头，颁给“让广场变得更好的摊位”。安娜的队伍也没得到它；一群免费修自行车的少年拿走了。之后他们一起吃汤，安娜把新的奖项写在账本背面，那里数字无法反驳。