The seed library lives in the back room of the village hall, inside an old wooden cabinet with forty small drawers. Each drawer holds paper envelopes of seeds that people have saved from their gardens, and anyone can borrow a packet for free. The only rule is to bring back seeds from the plants that grow.
种子图书馆设在村会堂的后屋里，在一个有四十个小抽屉的旧木柜里。每个抽屉里装着一个个纸信封，里面是人们从自家花园里留下的种子，任何人都可以免费借一包。唯一的规矩是，要把长出来的植物的种子还回来。
Hari has volunteered here for three weeks. His job is simple. He writes names on envelopes, keeps the ledger up to date and tells visitors that yes, this really is free. Most afternoons he does his homework at the front desk and listens to the radio.
哈里在这里做志愿者已经三个星期了。他的工作很简单：在信封上写名字，登记账簿，告诉来访的人，是的，这真的是免费的。大多数下午，他在前台边写作业，边听收音机。
Today, the radio is off, because a stranger is standing at the desk with a small wooden box under one arm.
今天，收音机关着，因为一个陌生人正站在前台边，腋下夹着一个小木盒。
"Hi," says the stranger. "Do you have a pen?"
“你好，”陌生人说，“你有笔吗？”
"Of course." Hari holds out his own. The stranger is about his age, with short dark hair, a green scarf and the tired look of someone who has travelled a long way. "Are you looking for seeds?"
“当然。”哈里递出自己的笔。陌生人和他年龄相仿，留着深色短发，围着绿围巾，带着长途跋涉后的疲惫神情。“你是来找种子的吗？”
"Not exactly." The stranger opens the box on the desk. Inside is a travelling chess set, the folding kind, with tiny magnetic pieces tucked into little holes. "I'm Zia. I have a match in two hours, in the next village. I just checked the box, and the white knight is gone. I must have dropped it on the bus."
“不完全是。”陌生人把盒子在桌上打开。里面是一副旅行用的国际象棋，折叠式的，细小的磁性棋子嵌在小孔里。“我叫齐亚。两个小时后我在隔壁村有一场比赛。我刚刚检查了棋盒，白骑士不见了。肯定是掉在公共汽车上了。”
Hari looks at the board. The white pieces stand in a neat line, and between the bishop and the rook there is an empty hole.
哈里看着棋盘。白棋整整齐齐地排成一行，主教和车之间有个空孔。
"That's bad," he says.
“这下糟了。”他说。
"It's terrible. I'm the captain, and the other club is very strict." Zia sighs and runs a hand through their hair. "I thought a shop might sell a single piece. But every shop in the village is closed for lunch, and I've walked past all of them."
“糟透了。我是队长，对面那个俱乐部又很严格。”齐亚叹了口气，用手捋了捋头发。“我想也许有商店卖单个的棋子。可是村里的商店午饭时间都关门了，我一家一家走过来的。”
Hari is about to say that he is sorry. Then he thinks of the book he has been reading in the evenings, a thick paperback called Chess for Complete Beginners. He is not good. He loses to his little cousin. But he has memorised the section on the rules, because it was the one part that felt like solving a puzzle.
哈里正要说抱歉。这时他想起了自己晚上一直在读的那本书，一本厚厚的平装书，叫《国际象棋完全入门》。他下得不好，连他的小表弟都下不过。可是他把规则那一章背熟了，因为那是唯一让他觉得像解谜的部分。
"Wait," he says. "I think there is a rule about this."
“等等，”他说，“我记得有一条规则是说这个的。”
He pulls the paperback out of his bag and flips to the right page. After a minute he reads aloud. "'A damaged or missing piece may be replaced by any object of similar size, provided both players agree and the object is easy to recognise.' It's in the section on the rules."
他从包里拿出平装书，翻到了那一页。一分钟后，他大声念道：“‘损坏或丢失的棋子，可以用任何大小相近的物品代替，前提是双方都同意，并且该物品易于辨认。’这是在规则那一章里。”
Zia stares at him. "You know the rules that well?"
齐亚盯着他。“你对规则这么熟？”
"I know three pages of them," says Hari. "I'm much better at the rules than at the game."
“我熟三页，”哈里说，“我懂规则比会下棋强多了。”
For the first time, Zia smiles properly, and the tired look vanishes. "That is the most useful thing anyone has said to me all day. And I've played chess for nine years."
齐亚第一次真正地笑了，疲惫的神色一下子消失了。“这是今天所有人对我说的最有用的话。而我已经下了九年棋。”
"Then you can teach me something later," says Hari, and immediately wishes he had stayed quiet. But Zia only nods.
“那你以后可以教我点东西。”哈里说，说完立刻后悔自己多嘴。可是齐亚只是点了点头。
The difficult part is the replacement. They search the room together. A bottle cap is too big. A piece of chalk is too thin. A button from Hari's jacket looks exactly like a pawn, which would be dangerous.
难点在于找替代品。他们一起在屋里搜寻。瓶盖太大了，粉笔太细了，哈里夹克上的一颗纽扣看上去和兵一模一样，那就危险了。
Then Hari turns to the cabinet. He opens the drawer marked B and lifts out an envelope labelled broad beans, early variety. He tips one onto his palm. It is pale and flat and about the size of a thumbnail, with a dark scar on one side.
然后哈里转向木柜。他拉开标着B的抽屉，拿出一个标签写着“蚕豆，早熟品种”的信封。他倒了一颗在手心里，豆子苍白而扁平，大小和拇指指甲差不多，一侧有一道深色的疤。
"It's the right colour," he says. "It's almost white. And it stands up if you set it on its edge."
“颜色对了，”他说，“几乎是白的。而且把它竖在边上，它能立住。”
"It doesn't look like a knight," says Zia.
“它看起来不像骑士。”齐亚说。
"That's because nobody has drawn on it yet."
“那是因为还没有人在上面画过。”
He finds a fine black pen in his bag and, with his tongue between his teeth, draws a small horse's head on the bean. He gives it a curved neck, two pointed ears and a single dot for an eye. It takes him four attempts to get the nose right. The three failed beans go into a small, silent pile.
他从包里找出一支细细的黑笔，舌头抵在牙齿间，在豆子上画了一个小小的马头。他给它画了弯弯的脖子、两只尖尖的耳朵和一个点做的眼睛。画鼻子花了他四次尝试。三颗失败的豆子默默地堆成一小堆。
Zia leans over the desk to watch, so close that their shoulders touch. Neither of them moves away.
齐亚俯身在桌上看，靠得那么近，两人的肩膀都碰到了一起。谁也没有挪开。
"That is amazing," says Zia, when Hari holds up the finished piece. "It looks like it is thinking about something."
“太神奇了，”哈里举起画好的棋子时，齐亚说，“它看起来像是在想什么事情。”
"It is thinking about dinner," says Hari. "It's a bean."
“它在想晚饭，”哈里说，“它是一颗豆子。”
Zia laughs so loudly that a man in the corridor looks in to check on them. Then Zia takes the bean carefully between two fingers and presses it into the empty hole. The magnet is too weak to hold it, but a small piece of tape from the desk does the job.
齐亚大笑起来，声音大得连走廊里的一个男人都探头进来看是怎么回事。然后齐亚用两根手指小心地捏起豆子，按进空孔里。磁铁太弱，吸不住它，但是桌上的一小段胶带解决了问题。
They look at the board. Seven white pieces stand in a row, and in the middle of them a tiny pale horse watches the empty squares ahead.
他们看着棋盘。七个白色的棋子排成一行，中间一匹小小的苍白的马，注视着前面空空的格子。
"If they refuse it, I'll show them the rule," says Zia. "And I'll tell them who found it."
“如果他们不接受，我就把规则给他们看，”齐亚说，“我还要告诉他们是谁找到的。”
"You can leave my name out," says Hari.
“你可以不提我的名字。”哈里说。
"No chance." Zia checks the clock on the wall. "I have to run to the bus stop. Can I borrow something from the cabinet? As a thank you. It seems wrong to leave without borrowing something."
“没门。”齐亚看了看墙上的钟。“我得跑去公共汽车站了。我能从柜子里借点东西吗？作为感谢。不借点东西就走，感觉不对。”
"You have to bring seeds back," Hari says.
“你得把种子还回来。”哈里说。
"Then I'll have to grow something."
“那我就得种点什么了。”
Hari hesitates, then opens a drawer at the very bottom. In the back, behind a row of tidy envelopes, there is one that has been there since he arrived. The paper has gone soft. On the front is a faded drawing of a flower and a single question mark, in handwriting nobody can identify.
哈里犹豫了一下，然后打开最底下的一个抽屉。在最里面，在一排整齐的信封后面，有一个从他来的时候就一直在那里的信封。纸已经变软了。信封正面是一朵褪了色的花，旁边一个问号，是没人认得出的笔迹。
"Nobody has ever borrowed this one," he says. "Nobody knows what it is. The woman who started the library left it behind, and it just stayed."
“从来没有人借过这一个，”他说，“没人知道它是什么。创办图书馆的那位女士把它留下了，它就一直放在这儿。”
Zia takes the envelope with both hands. "Perfect," Zia says. "I like a puzzle."
齐亚双手接过信封。“太好了，”齐亚说，“我喜欢谜题。”
Hari opens the ledger and writes the date. Under Name he writes Zia. Under Plant he stops for a long moment, with the pen above the page, and then writes: Unknown.
哈里打开账簿，写下日期。在“姓名”下面他写了“齐亚”。在“植物”下面，他停了好久，笔悬在纸面上，然后写下：未知。
Zia hurries out of the door with the chess box under one arm and the envelope in a pocket. The green scarf disappears around the corner of the hall. Hari sits at the desk and looks at the open drawer, at the pile of ruined beans and at the pen still in his hand.
齐亚匆匆走出门，腋下夹着棋盒，口袋里放着信封。那条绿围巾消失在会堂的拐角处。哈里坐在前台边，看着打开的抽屉，看着那堆报废的豆子，还有手里仍握着的笔。
Neither of them has any idea what will grow.
他们两个都不知道会长出什么来。
