《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 89 (211):盛裝出門
I can't remember the last time I got dressed up, but this evening I dug out my one fancy spaghetti-strap dress from the bottom of my backpack and slithered it on. I even wore lipstick. I can't remember the last time I wore lipstick, but I know it wasn't anywhere near India. I stopped at Armenia's house on the way over to the party, and she draped me in some of her fancy jewelry, let me borrow her fancy perfume, let me store my bicycle in her backyard so I could arrive at the party in her fancy car, like a proper adult woman.
我不記得上回盛裝出門是何時的事了，但這天晚上，我從行李箱底翻出自己唯一的一件細肩帶時髦洋裝，穿上了它。我甚至塗了脣膏。我不記得上回塗脣膏是哪時候的事，我只知道不是在印度。在去派對的路上，我在亞美尼亞家稍作停留，她拿自己的時髦首飾套在我身上，讓我借用她的時髦香水，讓我把單車存放在她的後院，一起搭她的時髦轎車共同抵達派對，就像個得體的成年女人一般。
The dinner with the expatriates was great fun, and I felt myself revisiting all these long-dormant aspects of my personality. I even got a little bit drunk, which was notable after all the purity of my last few months of praying at the Ashram and sipping tea in my Balinese flower garden. And I was flirting! I hadn't flirted in ages. I'd only been hanging around with monks and medicine men lately, but suddenly I was dusting off the old sexuality again. Though I couldn't really tell who I was flirting with. I was kind of spreading it around everywhere. Was I attracted to the witty Australian former journalist sitting next to me? ("We're all drunks here," he quipped. "We write references for other drunks.") Or was it the quiet intellectual German down the table? (He promised to lend me novels from his personal library.) Or was it the handsome older Brazilian man who had cooked this giant feast for all of us in the first place? (I liked his kind brown eyes and his accent. And his cooking, of course. I said something very provocative to him, out of nowhere. He was making a joke at his own expense, saying, "I'm a full catastrophe of a Brazilian man—I can't dance, I can't play soccer and I can't play any mu-sical instruments." For some reason I replied, "Maybe so. But I have a feeling you could play a very good Casanova." Time stopped solid for a long, long moment, then, as we looked at each other frankly, like, That was an interesting idea to lay on this table. The boldness of my statement hovered in the air around us like a fragrance. He didn't deny it. I looked away first, feeling myself blush.)
和海外人士的晚餐很有意思，我感覺自己重新尋訪那些長期潛藏的個人性格。我甚至有點喝醉，經過前幾個月在道場祈禱、在自家巴釐庭園喝茶的純淨日子後，尤其明顯。我還調情！我有很長時間沒和人調情了。近來我只和僧侶及藥師混在一起，但突然間，我往日的性別再度復甦。儘管我分不太清楚自己跟誰調情，有點像到處調情。我是否迷戀坐在隔壁那位機靈的澳洲前記者？（"我們這兒每個人都是醉漢，"他打趣道，"我們來寫參考資料給其他醉漢看。"）或者桌子那頭那位安靜的德國文化人？（他答應把個人收藏的小說借給我看。）或是爲我們烹煮這餐盛宴的那個年紀較大的巴西美男子？（我喜歡他親切的棕眼和他的口音，當然還有他的廚藝。我不知哪根筋不對，跟他說了些非常挑逗的話。他開了個關於自己花錢的玩笑，然後說："我這個巴西男人是徹底的災難——不會跳舞，不會踢足球，也不會玩樂器。"出於某種原因，我答道："或許吧。但我感覺你可以扮演一個很好的情聖。"當時，時間靜止好長一段時間，我們率直地注視彼此，好像在說："把這想法攤開來談很是有趣。"我的大膽聲明仿若香味般在我們四周的空氣中飛翔。他並未否認。我先把眼光別開，感覺自己臉紅了起來。）
