《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 43 (92):坐在餐桌前
Dinnertime. I'm sitting alone, trying to eat slowly. My Guru is always encouraging us to practice discipline when it comes to eating. She encourages us to eat in moderation and without desperate gulps, to not extinguish the sacred fires of our bodies by dumping too much food into our digestive tracts too fast. (My Guru, I'm fairly certain, has never been to Naples.) When students come to her complaining that they're having trouble meditating, she always asks how their digestion has been lately. It only stands to reason that you'll have trouble gliding lightly into transcendence when your guts are struggling to churn through a sausage calzone, a pound of buffalo wings and half a coconut cream pie. Which is why they don't serve that kind of stuff here. The food at the Ashram is vegetarian, light and healthy. But still delicious. Which is why it's difficult for me not to wolf it down like a starving orphan. Plus, meals are served buffet-style, and it never has been easy for me to resist taking a second or third turn at-bat when beautiful food is just lying out there in the open, smelling good and costing nothing.
晚餐時間。我獨自坐着，嘗試慢慢吃。我的導師經常鼓勵我們用餐的時候實行教規。她鼓勵我們吃得適度，不大口大口吃，勿將太多食物迅速扔進消化道中，以免澆熄體內的神聖之火。（我確定，我的導師從沒去過那不勒斯。）當學員向她訴說在禪坐時有困難，她總是詢問他們近來的消化狀況。當然，你在胃腸努力攪拌一個臘腸餡餅、一磅辣雞翅和半個椰子鮮奶油派的時候，的確很難進入超越自我的狀態。因此，這地方不供應這類的食物。道場的食物是清淡健康的素食。儘管如此，卻美味可口。因此很難讓我不像個捱餓的孤兒般狼吞虎嚥。此外，餐點是以自助餐方式供應，使我忍不住要拿第二或第三次，因爲香噴噴的美食當前，而且還免費。So I'm sitting at the dinner table all by myself, making an effort to restrain my fork, when I see a man walk over with his dinner tray, looking for an open chair. I nod to him that he is welcome to join me. I haven't seen this guy around here yet. He must be a new arrival. The stranger's got a cool, ain't-no-big-hurry kind of walk, and he moves with the authority of a border town sheriff, or maybe a lifelong high-rolling poker player. He looks like he's in his fifties, but walks like he's lived a few centuries longer than that. He's got white hair and a white beard and a plaid flannel shirt. Wide shoulders and giant hands that look like they could do some damage, but a totally relaxed face.
於是我獨自坐在餐桌前，努力管束我的叉子， 這時我看見一名男人手持餐盤走來，找空椅子。我向他點頭，表示歡迎來坐我這桌。我尚未在這兒見過這名男人。他肯定新來不久。這陌生人走起路來不慌不忙，舉手投足間帶有邊城警長或撲克玩家的權威。他看上去五十多歲，走起路來卻像多活了好幾個世紀。白髮、白鬍須，穿法蘭絨格子襯衫。寬闊的肩膀，巨大的手掌，看上去有能力造成某種破壞，臉孔卻完全放鬆。He sits down across from me and drawls, "Man, they got mosquitoes 'round this place big enough to rape a chicken."
他在我對面坐下來，慢聲慢氣地說：“嘿，這裏的蚊子真大，能凌虐一隻雞。”
Ladies and Gentlemen, Richard from Texas has , Pray, Love
女士先生們，德州的理查到來了。
