《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 79 (180):我的新家

My new house is on a quiet road, surrounded in all directions by rice fields. It's a little cot-tagelike place inside ivy-covered walls. It's owned by an Englishwoman, but she is in London for the summer, so I slide into her home, replacing her in this miraculous space. There is a bright red kitchen here, a pond full of goldfish, a marble terrace, an outdoor shower tiled in shiny mosaics; while I shampoo I can watch the herons nesting in the palm trees. Little secret paths lead through a truly enchanting garden. The place comes with a gardener, so all I have to do is look at the flowers. I don't know what any of these extraordinary equatorial flowers are called, so I make up names for them. And why not? It's my Eden, is it not? Soon I've given all the plants around here new monikers—daffodil tree, cabbage-palm, prom-dress weed, spiral show-off, tip-toe blossom, melancholy-vine and a spectacular pink orchid I have christened "Baby's First Handshake." The unnecessary and superfluous volume of pure beauty around here is not to be believed. I can pick papayas and bananas right off the trees outside my bed-room window. There's a cat who lives here who is enormously affectionate to me for the half hour every day before I feed him, then moans crazily the rest of the time like he's having Viet-nam War flashbacks. Oddly, I don't mind this. I don't mind anything these days. I can't ima-gine or remember discontent.

我的新家位于寂静的路上，四周环绕稻田。农舍般的小房子，外墙爬满长春藤。屋主是位英国女人，夏天人在伦敦，因此我溜进她家，取代她入住这神奇的地方。这儿有鲜红色的厨房，养满金鱼的池塘，大理石露台，铺马赛克瓷砖的户外淋浴间——我可以一边洗头一边观看筑巢于棕榈树上的苍鹭。小秘道通往诗情画意的庭园。这地方有园丁，因此我只须观看花草。我不清楚这些美妙的赤道花卉如何称呼，于是给它们取名。有何不可？这是我的伊甸园，不是吗？不久，我给每一种植物取了新绰号——水仙树、卷心菜棕榈树、舞衣草、螺旋公子哥、踮脚花、忧愁藤，还有一种被我命名为"小娃的首次握手"的粉红色兰花。此处流淌的纯洁之美，叫人难以置信。从卧室窗外的树上，我能摘到木瓜与香蕉。这儿还住着一只猫，每天在我喂它的半小时前对我亲热得很，其余的时间则疯狂地呻吟，好似回想起越战场景。古怪的是，我并不介意。这些日子以来，我不介意任何事情。我无法想象、也记不得有何不满。

The sound universe is also spectacular around here. In the evenings there's a cricket or-chestra with frogs providing the bass line. In the dead of night the dogs howl about how mis-understood they are. Before dawn the roosters for miles around announce how freaking cool it is to be roosters.("We are ROOSTERS!" they holler. "We are the only ones who get to be ROOSTERS!") Every morning around sunrise there is a tropical birdsong competition, and it's always a ten-way tie for the championship. When the sun comes out the place quiets down and the butterflies get to work. The whole house is covered with vines; I feel like any day it will disappear into the foliage completely and I will disappear with it and become a jungle flower myself. The rent is less than what I used to pay in New York City for taxi fare every month.

这儿的声音世界亦很精采。夜晚时分有蟋蟀乐团，由青蛙提供低音。深夜时分，狗儿嚎叫自己多么被误解。黎明之前，公鸡从数公里外宣告当公鸡有多酷。（"我们是公鸡！"它们叫喊："只有我们有资格当公鸡！"）每天清晨日出时分，有一场热带鸟类的歌唱竞赛，总有十个不分胜负的冠军对手。太阳升起时，这个地方就安静下来，蝴蝶也上工去了。整个屋子爬满长春藤；我觉得哪天屋子就会完全消失在草叶中，我也会随之消失，自己也成为丛林花朵。这儿的租金比我在纽约市每个月花费的计程车费还少。

The word paradise, by the way, which comes to us from the Persian, means literally "a walled garden." Eat, Pray, Love

顺道一提，"天堂"一词来自波斯文，字面的意思是"有围墙的花园"。