So Dad quit and pottered around for a couple of years and then died.

所以爸爸辞职了， 在附近闲逛了几年， 然后就死了。

To the Old World of art, Europe, where the veterans of modernism, Salvador Dali, Picasso, were still pottering around to ever less effect.

而那个有着众多现代主义高手，如萨尔瓦多，达利，毕加索等人的欧洲的旧的艺术圈子，仍然在影响力日渐衰微的路上徘徊。

Morning people would have risen before dawn to light the stove, but we are not them, so potter around the immediate private landscape waiting hours for the kettle to boil.

早起的人会在黎明前起床点燃炉子，但我们不是他们， 所以在眼前的私人景观周围陶艺， 等待水壶烧开。