《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 31 (65):爲了學習而退學
Over the next six weeks, I travel to Bologna, to Florence, to Venice, to Sicily, to Sardinia, once more down to Naples, then over to Calabria. These are short trips, mostly—a week here, a weekend there—just the right amount of time to get the feel for a place, to look around, to ask people on the street where the good food is and then to go eat it. I drop out of my Italian language school, having come to feel that it was interfering with my efforts to learn Italian, since it was keeping me stuck in the classroom instead of wandering around Italy, where I could practice with people in person.
接下來的六個禮拜，我去了波隆那、佛羅倫薩、威尼斯、西西里、撒丁，又南下去了一次那不勒斯，而後去了卡拉布里亞。這些短程旅行——這地方待一個禮拜，那地方待一個週末——時間恰恰足以讓人感受一個地方，四處參觀，問路人哪兒東西好吃，然後去嚐嚐。我從意大利語言學校退了學，覺得它阻礙我學習意大利語的努力，因其把我困在課堂上，無法周遊意大利，和人們面對面練習。
These weeks of spontaneous travel are such a glorious twirl of time, some of the loosest days of my life, running to the train station and buying tickets left and right, finally beginning to flex my freedom for real because it has finally sunk in that I can go wherever I want. I don't see my friends in Rome for a while. Giovanni tells me over the phone, "Sei una trottola" ("You're a spinning top"). One night in a town somewhere on the Mediterranean, in a hotel room by the ocean, the sound of my own laughter actually wakes me up the middle of my deep sleep. I am startled. Who is that laughing in my bed? The realization that it is only me just makes me laugh again. I can't remember now what I was dreaming. I think maybe it had something to do with boats.
Eat, Pray, Love
這幾個星期的自發旅遊，如此愉快，是我這輩子最閒散的日子。奔去火車站買票，我終於開始認真看待自己的自由，因爲我終於會意過來，我能隨心所欲地去自己想去的任何地方。我有好一陣子未見羅馬的朋友。喬凡尼在電話中告訴我：“Sei una trottola”（你是旋轉的陀螺。）某天晚上在地中海邊的某個城鎮，我在海邊的飯店房間內，自己的笑聲竟然喚醒沉睡中的我。我大吃一驚。“是誰在我牀上大笑？”我發現就只有我自己一人，這使我又笑了起來。我現在記不得夢見什麼。我想或許和船有點關係。
