《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 81 (184):每週的生日
I don't know how old my medicine man is. I've asked him, but he's not certain. I seem to re-member, when I was here two years ago, the translator saying that he was eighty. But Mario asked him the other day how old he was and Ketut said, "Maybe sixty-five, not sure." When I asked him what year he was born, he said he didn't remember being born. I know he was an adult when the Japanese were occupying Bali during World War II, which could make him about eighty now. But when he told me the story about burning his arm as a young man, and I asked him what year that had happened, he said, "I don't know. Maybe 1920?" So if he was around twenty years old in 1920, then that makes him what now? Maybe a hundred and five? So we can estimate that he's somewhere between sixty and a hundred and five years old.
我不清楚藥師的年紀。我問過他，可是他也不確定。我猶記得兩年前來這兒，翻譯員說他八十歲。但馬里奧有天問賴爺年歲多大，他卻說："大概六十五歲吧，不確定。"我問他哪年出生，他說不記得。我知道二戰期間日本人佔領巴厘島時，他已是成人，這使得他現在的年紀可能是八十歲。但當他告訴我年輕時手臂燒傷的故事時，我問他哪一年發生，他卻說："我不清楚。也許是1920年吧？"然而1920年他倘若年約二十，那現在是幾歲？或許一○五歲吧？因此我們估計他目前的歲數在六十到一○五歲之間。I've also noticed that his estimation of his age changes by the day, based on how he feels. When he's really tired, he'll sigh and say, "Maybe eighty-five today," but when he's feeling more upbeat he'll say, "I think I'm sixty today." Perhaps this is as good a way of estimating age as any—how old do you feel? What else matters, really? Still, I'm always trying to figure it out.
我還留意到他對自己的年齡估算隨日子而改變，根據他自己的感覺而定。他很疲倦時便嘆道："今天可能八十五歲吧。"可是當他覺得振奮時，便說："我想今天我六十歲。"或許這也算是估算歲數的好方法——你"覺得"自己年紀多大。老實說，還有什麼更重要？儘管如此，我始終想找到答案。One afternoon I got really simple, and just said, "Ketut—when is your birthday?"
某天下午，我簡單地問他："賴爺，你生日在什麼時候？"
"Thursday," he said.
"禮拜四。"他說。"This Thursday?"
"這禮拜四？""No. Not this Thursday. A Thursday."
"不，不是這禮拜四，是禮拜四。"
