《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 4 (8):與神的交流
Then I heard a voice. Please don't be alarmed—it was not an Old Testament Hollywood Charlton Heston voice, nor was it a voice telling me I must build a baseball field in my backyard. It was merely my own voice, speaking from within my own self. But this was my voice as I had never heard it before. This was my voice, but perfectly wise, calm and compassionate. This was what my voice would sound like if I'd only ever experienced love and certainty in my life. How can I describe the warmth of affection in that voice, as it gave me the answer that would forever seal my faith in the divine?
而後我聽見一個聲音。別慌——不是好萊塢老片中的磁性男聲，也不是那種叫我在後院建棒球場的聲音。那只是我自己的聲音，從自己內心說出的聲音。卻是我過去未曾聽過的自己的聲音。那是我的聲音，卻很明智、平靜、悲天憫人。倘若我在生命中曾體驗過愛與堅定，聽起來正是這種聲音。該如何描述那聲音所流露的溫暖之愛呢？它賜予我的答案，永久決定了我對神的信仰。
The voice said: Go back to bed, Liz.
這聲音說：回牀上去，小莉。
I exhaled.
我嘆了口氣。
It was so immediately clear that this was the only thing to do. I would not have accepted any other answer. I would not have trusted a great booming voice that said either: You Must Divorce Your Husband! or You Must Not Divorce Your Husband! Because that’s not true wis-dom. True wisdom gives the only possible answer at any given moment, and that night, going back to bed was the only possible answer. Go back to bed, said this omniscient interior voice, because you don't need to know the final answer right now, at three o'clock in the morning on a Thursday in November. Go back to bed, because I love you. Go back to bed, because the only thing you need to do for now is get some rest and take good care of yourself until you do know the answer. Go back to bed so that, when the tempest comes, you'll be strong enough to deal with it. And the tempest is coming, dear one.
我立刻明白，這是唯一可做的事情。我不會 接受其他任何答案。我不會信任任何一副聲如洪鐘的嗓音說：“你得跟你先生離婚！”或“你不能跟你先生離婚 ！”因爲，那並非真正的智慧。真正的智慧，無論何時僅提供唯一可能的答案，而那天晚上，回牀上去是唯一可能的答案。回牀上去，無所不知的內在聲音說道，因爲你無須在十一月某個週四的凌晨三點立即獲知最後的答案。回牀上去，因爲我愛你。回牀上去，因爲你現在只需要休息，好好照顧自己，直到你得知答案。回牀上去，以便風暴來襲時，有足夠的力量去應付。而風暴即將來襲，親愛的。
Very soon. But not tonight. Therefore:
馬上就要來襲。但不是今晚。因此 ：
Go back to bed, Liz.
回牀上去 ，小莉 。
In a way, this little episode had all the hallmarks of a typical Christian conversion experience—the dark night of the soul, the call for help, the responding voice, the sense of transformation. But I would not say that this was a religious conversion for me, not in that traditional manner of being born again or saved. Instead, I would call what happened that night the beginning of a religious conversation. The first words of an open and exploratory dialogue that would, ultimately, bring me very close to God, indeed.
Eat, Pray, Love
從某種意義上來說，這段小插曲的種種，都標示出典型的基督教皈依體驗——靈魂的黑暗之夜；求援；迴應的聲音；脫胎換骨的感覺。但我不想說這是一次宗教皈依，不是傳統方式的獲得重生或拯救。我把那天晚上發生的事稱作宗教“交談”的開始。它開啓了一段開放式、探索性的對話，終將帶領我靠近神靈。
