Punch-Card Window Beside the Jacquard Loom - 適合進階的英文短篇故事，含中譯與發音

Yara stepped through the studio doorway, palm brushing the jamb, and the tall Jacquard cabinet rose beside the floor loom. The card chain hung in a soft loop near her shoes, one stiff rectangle waiting in the reading head for the next mechanical tap. A beeswax candle rested on the sill, its wick upright from a small crater of cooled gold, catching a blade of window light. On a side bench sat a small lathe, silent now, and the bobbin ends it had turned still showed pale, fresh rings under her touch. She traced holes and solid squares on the nearest card, learning the yes and no of the pattern by fingertip instead of sight.

She clipped a narrow ribbon beside the paper blueprint, another color to test against the woven bird growing across the cloth on the beam. Then she added a pencil tick to the margin, and another, until the drawing wore a fringe of marks and dangling threads. The ratchet snapped; the chain made its turn over the top roller, and hooks tested the next grid with their small, muffled taps. "Hear that click?" Troy said, as the shuttle whispered through its shed and the beater pressed the weft home with a steady breath. Rumination settled like a pause between clicks, a low hush of waiting air that simply occupied space without leaning on anyone.

The bird's eye on the cloth seemed offset from the penciled eye on the wall, and her hand slowed over the paper's edge. Instead of reaching near the moving parts, she opened a drawer, lifted the hand punch, and tested its bite on a scrap card. A clean circle dropped to the floor; she held the card to the window, letting the bright dot frame only the bird's small head. With a slight turn of her wrist, the framed cloth matched one curve yet contradicted another, as if the drawing lived in reverse. She rotated the blueprint a quarter, then another quarter, the paper rasping under her nails, and the two eyes aligned across light and thread.

The ribbon she had pinned crowded the margin, so she unfastened that single strip and set it on the bench. Without it, the blueprint lay flatter, the penciled grid reading clearer against seasoned wood whose surface had mellowed through years of oil and touch. She left the extra ticks where they were, but the space thinned, and the bird on the cloth continued, row by quiet row. Her finger returned to the punch card she had touched before and moved across the perforations again, slower now, the paper cool against her nail.

雅拉踏進工作室，手掌擦過門框，高聳的穿孔卡櫃就立在地機旁。腳邊卡片鏈垂成柔軟的弧，一張硬挺長方片正停在讀卡處，等待下一次機械式的輕敲。窗台上放著一支蜂蠟蠟燭，燭芯直立，從一圈凝固金色的小凹口冒出，邊緣勾住一道窗光。旁邊的工作檯擺著一台小型車床，現在安靜無聲；它削過的管梭端面，指尖一摸仍是淡淡的新木環紋。她在最近的穿孔卡上滑指，碰到洞與紙面交替，改用手感而不是眼睛讀出那一格格的「升」與「不升」。

她在牆上的藍圖旁夾上一條窄緞帶，又多添一種顏色，拿來對照前梁上正在累積的布面小鳥。接著她在邊緣畫上一筆鉛筆記號，再加一筆，直到圖紙長出一圈記號和垂著的小線頭。棘輪喀一聲，卡片鏈繞過上方滾輪轉過去，金屬鉤子以細悶的點敲試探下一格網目。托洛伊說：「聽到那一下嗎？」梭子在經線開口裡輕聲滑過，拍打器以穩定的一口氣壓實緯線。靜默像夾在兩次喀響之間的停頓，像一陣佔住空間的沉吟，不向任何人施壓，只是待在那裡。

布面上的小鳥眼睛和牆上的鉛筆眼睛有些錯位，她的手在紙邊放慢。她沒有靠近運動中的零件，而是拉開抽屜，拿起手沖針，在一張備用卡上試了試咬合。乾淨的小圓片落在地上；她把卡片舉到窗前，讓那一點明亮只框住鳥的頭。手腕輕輕一轉，框住的布面某條弧線對上了，另一條卻相反，彷彿圖畫是反向的。她把藍圖旋轉四分之一圈，再多四分之一圈，紙面在指甲下沙沙作響，兩隻眼睛終於在光與線之間對齊。

先前夾上的緞帶擁擠了邊緣，她便鬆開那唯一的一條，放在工作檯上。少了它，藍圖更平坦，鉛筆格線在經年上油、被手拂過而變得溫潤的木面上更清楚。那些額外的小刻劃她保留著，空間卻變得簡潔，而布上的小鳥一行一行織下去。她的指尖回到先前摸過的穿孔卡，再次掠過那些孔洞，這回更慢一點，涼涼的紙邊貼著指甲。