One Word to America

The Tariff

资费

In the year 1909 one word to America cost as much as a day labourer on the island of Faial earned in three days. That was not how it was put on the enamel board above the counter of the Azores & Atlantic Telegraph Company in Horta, where it was put in réis, but Inês Goulart, who had sat beneath that board for sixteen years, was the only person in the building who regularly converted the price into labourers' wages. The Englishmen on the first floor reckoned in pounds. They sat up there to pass stock prices, shipping reports and the engagements of Hamburg shipowners from one continent to the other, for on the seabed off Horta the cables between Europe and America met, and the island, which owned nothing but wind, whales and a good harbour, lay like a knot in the middle of the line.

在1909年，寄往美洲的一个字，抵得上法亚尔岛短工干满三天的所得。在奥尔塔的亚速尔与大西洋电报公司柜台上方，那块搪瓷招牌上写的倒不是这个，上面标的是雷伊斯；但在整栋楼里，十六年来一直坐在这块招牌底下的伊内斯·古拉特，是唯一会定期把价格换算成工钱天数的人。二楼的英国人算账用的是英镑。他们坐在上面，把股票行情、船运电报以及汉堡船东订婚的喜讯从一个大洲传递到另一个大洲。因为在奥尔塔近海的海底，连接欧洲和美洲的缆线在此交汇；而这座除了海风、鲸鱼和优良海港外一无所有的岛屿，就像是线路正中央打的一个结。

The counter on the ground floor was a concession to the locals. It had been given to a woman because a woman cost half as much, and to this woman because she read three languages and was impressed by nobody, neither by captains nor by widows.

底楼的营业柜台是对当地居民的通融。派女人坐柜台，是因为女人的薪水只要一半；而派这个女人，则是因为她通晓三门语言，而且谁也吓不住她，不管是船长还是寡妇。