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"They don't come from the same culture. Why, they even have their own language. That's okay with me. I like hearing them talk."
“他们文化不同，甚至语言也不同。但这对我来说无所谓，我喜欢听他们说话。”
"But you wouldn't like to marry a black person, is that it?" she asked.
“但是你不愿意与一个黑人结婚，是不是？”她问。
"But that's different. A person from their culture and a person of our culture could never really know each other."
“但结婚就不同了，有着黑人文化背景的人和有我们文化背景的人是永远不可能真正了解对方的。”
"Like you know me?" his wife asked.
“就像你了解我那样，对吗？”他的妻子问。
"Yes. Like I know you."
“是的，就像我了解你一样。”
"But if they love each other," she said.
“但是如果他们彼此相爱呢？”她说。
Oh boy, he thought. He said, "Don't take my word for it. Look at the statistics. Most of those marriages break up."
哦，天啊，他感到无可奈何。他说：“你可以不信我的话。看看数据吧，那样的婚姻大多数都不能长久。”
"Statistics." She was piling dishes on the draining-board at a terrific rate. Many of them were still greasy. "All right," she said, "what about foreigners? I suppose you think the same thing about two foreigners getting married."
“数据。”她以极快的速度将盘子摞在滴水板上，许多盘子上还有油渍。“好吧，”她说，“如果是外国人呢？我猜你对于两个来自不同国家的人结婚也有相同的看法吧。”
"Yes," he said, "as a matter of fact I do. How can you understand someone who comes from a completely different background?"
“你猜对了，”他说，“我就是这么看的。你怎么能理解一个有着完全不同背景的人呢？”
"Different," said his wife. "Not the same, like us."
“背景不同，”他妻子说，“不像我们，来自相同的背景？”
"Yes, different," he snapped, angry with her for resorting to this trick of repeating his words so that they sounded hypocritical. "These are dirty," he said, and threw all the silverware back into the sink.
“是的，背景不同，”他厉声说。她采用这样的方式重复他说的话，使他的话听起来非常虚伪，他对此感到非常生气。“这些还没洗干净，”他说着，把所有的银制餐具都扔回水池里。
She stared down at it, her lips pressed tight together, then plunged her hands under the surface. "Oh!" she cried, and jumped back. She took her right hand by the wrist and held it up. Her thumb was bleeding.
她低头看着水槽，双唇紧闭，然后把双手伸进水里，“啊！”她尖叫起来，向后跳了一下。她抓住右手腕并把它举了起来，大拇指在流血。
