《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 82 (191):向賴爺道別
Then I asked if I could take the notebook into town with me and photocopy it before it died. I had to explain what photocopying was, and promise that I would only keep the notebook for twenty-four hours and that I would do it no harm. Finally, he agreed to let me take it off the porch property with my most passionate assurances that I would be careful with his grand-father's wisdom. I rode into town to the shop with the Internet computers and photocopiers and I gingerly duplicated every page, then had the new, clean photocopies bound in a nice plastic folder. I brought the old and the new versions of the book back the next day before noon. Ketut was astonished and delighted, so happy because he's had that notebook, he said, for fifty years. Which might literally mean "fifty years," or might just mean "a really long time."
接着我問他能否讓我把筆記本帶到鎮上覆印，免得它翹辮子。我必須說明覆印是怎麼回事，答應二十四小時後還給他，不讓本子受到任何傷害。我激昂地保證我會小心翼翼處理他祖父的智慧，最後，他同意讓我把本子從陽臺帶走。我騎車前往有網絡電腦和複印機的店家，謹慎恐懼地複印每一頁，而後將嶄新干淨的複印頁面以塑膠文件夾裝訂起來。隔日中午前，我把本子的新舊版本帶回去給他。賴爺又驚又喜，因爲他擁有這本筆記本已有五十個年頭。字面意思可能是"五十年"，或只是"很長一段時間"的意思。I asked if I could copy the rest of his notebooks, to keep that information safe, too. He held out another limp, broken, shredded, gasping document filled with Balinese Sanskrit and complicated sketches.
我問他能否讓我複印其他筆記本，也保證資料安全無虞。他取出另一份破破爛爛的資料，裏頭寫滿巴釐梵語和複雜的圖表。"Another patient!" he said.
"又一個病人！"他說。
"Let me heal it!" I replied.
"讓我醫治它吧！"我回答。This was another grand success. By the end of the week, I'd photocopied several of the old manuscripts. Every day, Ketut called his wife over and showed her the new copies and he was overjoyed. Her facial expression didn't change at all, but she studied the evidence thor-oughly.
又一次大成功。直到週末前，我已複印了好幾份老手稿。每一天，賴爺都叫他的老婆過來，興高采烈讓她看新的影印本。她的臉部表情並無任何改變，但她認真細看物證。And the next Monday when I came to visit, Nyomo brought me hot coffee, served in a jelly jar. I watched her carry the drink across the courtyard on a china saucer, limping slowly on the long journey from her kitchen to Ketut's porch. I assumed the coffee was intended for Ke-tut, but, no—he'd already had his coffee. This was for me. She'd prepared it for me. I tried to thank her but she looked annoyed at my thanks, kind of swatted me away the way she swats away the rooster who always tries to stand on her outdoor kitchen table when she's preparing lunch. But the next day she brought me a glass of coffee and a bowl of sugar on the side. And the next day it was a glass of coffee, a bowl of sugar and a cold boiled potato. Every day that week, she added a new treat. This was starting to feel like that childhood car trip alpha-bet-memory game: "I'm going to Grandma's house, and I'm bringing an apple . . . I'm going to Grandma's house and I'm bringing an apple and a balloon . . . I'm going to Grandma's house and I'm bringing an apple, a balloon, a cup of coffee in a jelly glass, a bowl of sugar and a cold potato . . ."
隔週禮拜一，當我來訪時，彌歐姆給我一杯果凍盒盛裝的熱咖啡。我看她端着擱在瓷碟上的咖啡走過中庭，從廚房一拐一拐地慢慢走到賴爺的陽臺。我以爲咖啡是爲賴爺而準備的，結果不是——他已經有杯咖啡。這杯是給我的。她爲我準備。我想謝謝她，但她似乎對我的謝意感到惱火，有點想要揮我走，就像在她準備午飯時，揮趕老是站在戶外餐桌上的公雞一般。然而隔天，她端給我一杯旁邊擺糖罐的咖啡。再隔一天則是一杯咖啡、一罐糖和一顆水煮冷洋薯。那個禮拜的每一天，她都加上一項新品。我開始覺得像小時候搭車子時玩的背字母遊戲："我要去祖母家，帶了蘋果……我要去祖母家，帶了蘋果和氣球……我要去祖母家，帶了蘋果、氣球、果凍盒咖啡、糖罐和冷洋薯……"Then, yesterday, I was standing in the courtyard, saying my good-byes to Ketut, and Nyomo came shuffling past with her broom, sweeping and pretending not to be paying atten-tion to everything that happens in her empire. I had my hands clasped behind my back as I was standing there, and she came up behind me and took one of my hands in hers. She fumbled through my hand like she was trying to untumble the combination on a lock and she found my index finger. Then she wrapped her whole big, hard fist around that finger and gave me this deep, long squeeze. I could feel her love pulsing through her power grip, right up into my arm and all the way down into my guts. Then she dropped my hand and limped away arthritically, saying not a single word, continuing her sweeping as though nothing had happened. While I stood there quietly drowning in two rivers of happiness at the same time. Eat, Pray, Love
而後，昨天我站在中庭，向賴爺道別，彌歐姆拿掃帚拖着腳走過，打掃地面，假裝沒留意到在自己的王國內所發生的一切。我雙手反剪在背後站在那裏，她來到我背後，握住我的一隻手。她摸弄我的手，好似想解開號碼鎖，找到我的食指。而後用她那隻大而有力的拳頭繞住我的食指，緊緊捏着，持續好一段時間。我感覺到她的愛透過有力的手掌流入我的手臂，一路通往我的肺腑。而後她鬆開我的手，一拐一拐走開，一言不發，繼續掃地，彷彿什麼事也沒發生。我則靜靜站在那兒，在兩條河裏同時溺水。
