《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 75 (168):賴爺的新任老婆

Mario bursts into ecstatic applause and pronounces victoriously: "See? Painting working!"

馬里奧欣喜若狂地拍手，勝利地宣告：“瞧，圖生效了！”

I say, "Do you still want me to help you with your English, Ketut?"

我說：“賴爺，你還想讓我幫你學英語嗎？”

He tells me I can start helping him right now and hops up nimbly, gnome-like. He bounds into his little house and comes back with a pile of letters he's received from abroad over the last few years (so he does have an address!). He asks me to read the letters aloud to him; he can understand English well, but can't read much. I'm his secretary already. I'm a medicine man's secretary. This is fabulous. The letters are from art collectors overseas, from people who have somehow managed to acquire his famous magic drawings and magic paintings. One letter is from a collector in Australia, praising Ketut for his painting skills, saying, "How can you be so clever to paint with such detail?" Ketut answers to me, like giving dictation: "Because I practice many, many years."

他告訴我現在就開始，敏捷地跳了起來。他蹦蹦跳跳跑進小屋，拿來一疊過去幾年從海外寄來的信（所以他有地址嘛！）。他請我給他大聲讀信；他通曉英語，卻不太會讀。我已成爲他的祕書。我是藥師的祕書。太妙了。這些海外藝術收藏家的來信都設法取得賴爺有名的魔法畫作。一封澳洲收藏家的來信讚揚賴爺的技藝，說：“您怎能如此巧妙地使用這麼細膩的筆法？”賴爺好似口述聽寫般回答我：“因爲我已畫了許多許多年。”

When the letters are finished, he updates me on his life over the last few years. Some changes have occurred. Now he has a wife, for instance. He points across the courtyard at a heavyset woman who's been standing in the shadow of her kitchen door, glaring at me like she's not sure if she should shoot me, or poison me first and then shoot me. Last time I was here, Ketut had sadly shown me photographs of his wife who had recently died—a beautiful old Balinese woman who seemed bright and childlike even at her advanced age. I wave across the courtyard to the new wife, who backs away into her kitchen.

唸完信後，他向我敘述自己過去幾年生活的新消息。發生了一些轉變。比方，現在他娶了老婆。他指着中庭對面的一名胖女人，她站在廚房門口的陰影中瞪着我，好似不確定是否該直接射殺我，或者先給我下毒再射殺我。上回我在這裏的時候，賴爺悲傷地給我看此前病故妻子生前的相片——一名漂亮的巴釐老婦，儘管年老，卻歡快天真。我朝中庭對面的新任老婆揮手，她退入廚房。

"Good woman," Ketut proclaims toward the kitchen shadows. "Very good woman."

“好女人，”賴爺朝廚房的陰影宣告，“很好的女人。”

He goes on to say that he's been very busy with his Balinese patients, always a lot to do, has to give much magic for new babies, ceremonies for dead people, healing for sick people, ceremonies for marriage. Next time he goes to Balinese wedding, he says, "We can go together! I take you!" The only thing is, he doesn't have very many Westerners visiting him anymore. Nobody comes to visit Bali since the terrorist bombing. This makes him "feel very confusing in my head." This also makes him feel "very empty in my bank." He says, "You come to my house every day to practice English with me now?" I nod happily and he says, "I will teach you Balinese meditation, OK?"

他接着說自己忙於治療巴釐病人，總有大量的工作：爲新生兒施行法術，給亡者舉行儀式，治療病患，舉辦結婚儀式。下回他有一場婚禮要去，他說：“我們可以一塊兒去！我帶你去！”唯一的問題是，探訪他的西方人不再很多。爆炸案過後，沒有人再來巴厘島。這讓他“腦袋很亂”，也讓他覺得“銀行很空”|。他說：“現在你每天來我家和我練習英語？”我愉快地點頭，他說：“我教你巴釐禪修，好嗎？”

"OK," I say.

“好的。”我說。