《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 83 (192):我的朋友尤弟
I have a new friend. His name is Yudhi, which is pronounced "You-Day." He's Indonesian, originally from Java. I got to know him because he rented my house to me; he's working for the Englishwoman who owns the place, looking after her property while she's away in London for the summer. Yudhi is twenty-seven years old and stocky in build and talks kind of like a southern California surfer. He calls me "man" and "dude" all the time. He's got a smile that could stop crime, and he's got a long, complicated life story for somebody so young.
我有位新朋友，名叫"Yudhi"，唸作"尤弟"。他是印尼人，原籍爪哇。我之所以認識他，是因爲他是租房子給我的人；他爲英國女屋主工作，在她去倫敦度夏時照看她的房子。尤弟二十七歲，身材健壯，講話像南加州衝浪者。他時時刻刻叫我"老兄"和"好傢伙"。他的微笑足以阻止犯罪，而他年紀雖輕，卻有段複雜的人生故事。He was born in Jakarta; his mother was a housewife, his father an Indonesian fan of Elvis who owned a small air-conditioning and refrigeration business. The family was Christian—an oddity in this part of the world, and Yudhi tells entertaining stories about being mocked by the neighborhood Muslim kids for such shortcomings as "You eat pork!" and "You love Jesus!" Yudhi wasn't bothered by the teasing; Yudhi, by nature, isn't bothered by much. His mom, however, didn't like him hanging around with the Muslim kids, mostly on account of the fact that they were always barefoot, which Yudhi also liked to be, but she thought it was unhygien-ic, so she gave her son a choice—he could either wear shoes and play outside, or he could stay barefoot and remain indoors. Yudhi doesn't like wearing shoes, so he spent a big chunk of his childhood and adolescence life in his bedroom, and that's where he learned how to play the guitar. Barefoot.
他生在爪哇；母親是家庭主婦，父親是貓王迷，做空調冷凍的小生意。這家人信奉基督教——在此地是異數，尤弟述說自己因爲"吃豬肉"和"愛耶穌"等缺點而被鄰近的穆斯林孩子取笑。這些嘲弄並未惹惱尤弟；尤弟不是天性容易惱火的人。然而他的母親不喜歡他和穆斯林孩子們鬼混，多半因爲他們老是打赤腳，而尤弟也喜歡打赤腳，但她認爲不衛生，於是讓兒子作選擇——穿鞋去外頭玩，或打赤腳待在家裏。尤弟不喜歡穿鞋，於是他的童年與青少年時期有大半時間待在自己的臥室裏，於是學會彈吉他，打着赤腳。The guy has a musical ear like maybe nobody I've ever met. He's beautiful with the guitar, never had lessons but understands melody and harmony like they were the kid sisters he grew up with. He makes these East-West blends of music that combine classical Indonesian lullabies with reggae groove and early-days Stevie Wonder funk—it's hard to explain, but he should be famous. I never knew anybody who heard Yudhi's music who didn't think he should be famous.
我未曾遇見過比這個傢伙更有樂感的人。吉他彈得優美，雖不曾拜師學藝，對音韻卻瞭若指掌，猶如一起長大的姐妹。他創作的音樂合併東方與西方，結合傳統印尼搖籃曲以及雷鬼經驗與早期史提夫·汪達（StevieWonder）的放克（Funk），難以解說他的風格，但他應該成名。任何人聽過尤弟的音樂，都認爲他該成名。
Here's what he always wanted to do most of all—live in America and work in show busi-ness. The world's shared dream. So when Yudhi was still a Javanese teenager, he somehow talked himself into a job (speaking hardly any English yet) on a Carnival Cruise Lines ship, thereby casting himself out of his narrow Jakarta environs and into the big, blue world. The job Yudhi got on the cruise ship was one of those insane jobs for industrious immig-rants—living belowdecks, working twelve hours a day, one day off a month, cleaning. His fellow workers were Filipinos and Indonesians. The Indonesians and the Filipinos slept and ate in separate quarters of the boat, never mingling (Muslims vs. Christians, don't you know), but Yudhi, in typical fashion, befriended everybody and became a kind of emissary between the two groups of Asian laborers. He saw more similarities than differences between these maids and custodians and dishwashers, all of whom were working bottomless hours in order to send a hundred dollars or so a month back to their families at home.
他一直想去美國住，在娛樂界工作。這是全球共通的夢想。因此當尤弟還是爪哇少年時，他說服自己去嘉年華遊輪（CarnivalCruiseLines）上幹活（當時的他幾乎不識英語），於是讓自己從爪哇的狹窄環境中解脫出來，走入廣大蔚藍的世界。尤弟所取得的遊輪工作，是那種勤奮移民所從事的瘋狂工作——住下層甲板，天天工作十二小時、每個月休假一天，他做清理工作。他的工作同伴是菲律賓人與印尼人。印尼人和菲律賓人在船上分開吃睡，從不混在一起（穆斯林人相對於天主教徒，可想而知），但尤弟一如往常，與每個人交朋友，成爲兩個亞洲勞工集團之間的某種特使。他在這些女侍、守衛、洗碗工身上看見的相似處多於相異處，他們每天日夜不停地工作，爲了每個月寄一百多塊錢給家人。
