《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 75 (164):再見賴爺

So this is how it comes to pass that—the very afternoon I have arrived in Bali—I'm suddenly on the back of a motorbike, clutching my new friend Mario the Italian-Indonesian, who is speeding me through the rice terraces toward Ketut Liyer's home. For all that I've thought about this reunion with the medicine man over the last two years, I actually have no idea what I'm going to say to him when I arrive. And of course we don't have an appointment. So we show up unannounced. I recognize the sign outside his door, same as last time, saying: "Ketut Liyer—painter." It's a typical, traditional Balinese family compound. A high stone wall surrounds the entire property, there's a courtyard in the middle and a temple in the back. Several generations live out their lives together in the various interconnected small homes within these walls. We enter without knocking (no door, anyway) to the riotous dismay of a some typical Balinese watchdogs (skinny, angry) and there in the courtyard is Ketut Liyer the elderly medicine man, wearing his sarong and his golf shirt, looking precisely the same as he did two years ago when I first met him. Mario says something to Ketut, and I'm not exactly fluent in Balinese, but it sounds like a general introduction, something along the lines of, "Here's a girl from America—go for it."

因此抵達巴厘島當天下午，我突然坐在摩托車後座，抓着“意式印尼”新朋友馬里奧，他載我穿越梯田，朝老四賴爺家而去。過去兩年來儘管想過與藥師重聚，我卻不曉得到達時跟他說什麼。我們當然沒有預約，因此是突然到訪。我認出門口的招牌和上回一樣，寫着：“老四賴爺——畫家”。這是巴厘島典型的傳統家庭宅院。石頭高牆環繞整幢住宅，中央有中庭，後方有座寺廟。幾代人同住在牆內各個彼此相連的小屋裏。我們並未敲門進去（反正也沒有門），驚動幾條典型的巴厘島看門狗（骨瘦如柴、兇裏凶氣），老藥師賴爺就在中庭裏，身穿沙龍裙和高爾夫衫，和我兩年前第一次見到他時完全一樣。馬里奧對賴爺說了些話，我不熟悉巴釐語，但聽起來像是簡單介紹，“來了個美國姑娘——加油”之類的句子。

Ketut turns his mostly toothless smile upon me with the force of a compassionate fire hose, and this is so reassuring: I had remembered correctly, he is extraordinary. His face is a comprehensive encyclopedia of kindness. He shakes my hand with an excited and powerful grip.

賴爺朝我露出幾乎沒有牙齒的笑容，其力度有如慈悲的消防水龍，如此教人安心：我記得沒錯，他是個了不起的人。他的臉是一本兼容幷蓄的和善百科全書。他激動而有力地握我的手。

"I am very happy to meet you," he says.

“很高興認識你。”他說。

He has no idea who I am.

他不知道我是誰。

"Come, come," he says, and I'm ushered to the porch of his little house, where woven bamboo mats serve as furniture. It looks exactly as it did two years ago. We both sit down. With no hesitation, he takes my palm in his hand—assuming that, like most of his Western visitors, a palmreading is what I've come for. He gives me a quick reading, which I am reassured to see is an abridged version of exactly what he said to me last time. (He may not remember my face, but my destiny, to his practiced eye, is unchanged.) His English is better than I remembered, and also better than Mario's. Ketut speaks like the wise old Chinamen in classic kung fu movies, a form of English you could call "Grasshopperese," because you could insert the endearment "Grasshopper" into the middle of any sentence and it sounds very wise. "Ah—you have very lucky good fortune, Grasshopper . . ."

“來，來吧，”他說，我被請進他的小屋門廊，有竹蓆充當傢俱，和兩年前一模一樣。我們倆坐下來。他毫不遲疑地執起我的手掌——猜想我和多數西方訪客一樣來看手相。他很快看了我的手相，我放心地發現正是他上回告訴我的簡縮版（他或許不記得我的長相，但我的命運在他熟練的眼睛看來並未更改。）他的英語比我記憶中來得好，也好過馬里奧。賴爺說起話來像經典功夫片裏聰明的中國老人，某種可稱爲"蚱蜢式"的英語，因爲你可以把親愛的"蚱蜢"插入任何句子當中，聽起來非常聰明。“啊——你的命很好，蚱蜢……”