《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 60 (132):站在塔顶

When lunch ended, the plumber/poet from New Zealand slipped me a note. It said to meet him after dinner; he wanted to show me something. So after dinner that night I met him over by the meditation caves, and he told me to follow him, that he had a gift for me. He walked me across the Ashram, then led me to a building I'd never been inside before, unlocked a door and took me up a back set of stairs. He knew of this place, I guessed, because he fixes all the air-conditioning units, and some of them are located up there. At the top of the stairs there was a door which he had to unlock with a combination; he did this swiftly, from meMory. Then we were up on a gorgeous rooftop, tiled in ceramic chips that glittered in the evening twilight like the bottom of a reflecting pool. He took me across that roof to a little tower, a minaret, really, and showed me another narrow set of stairs, leading to the tippity-top of the tower. He pointed to the tower and said, "I'm going to leave you now. You're going to go up there. Stay up there until it's finished."

午饭过后，新西兰水管工诗人塞了张纸条给我，上面说晚饭后跟他见面，他要让我看个东西。因此当晚吃过晚饭，我在禅坐洞附近和他碰面，他叫我跟他去，说有礼物给我。他和我走过道场，带我去一栋我没进去过的建筑，打开门锁，带我爬上后方的楼梯。我猜他熟悉这个地方，因为他负责修理空调设备，有些机器就在楼上。爬上楼梯口有扇门，必须打开对号锁；他凭记忆很快开了锁。而后我们来到华丽的屋顶，铺了陶瓷片，在苍茫的暮色中闪闪发亮，有如反射的池底。他带我走过屋顶，来到一个小尖塔，然后指给我看另一排窄梯，通往塔的最顶端。他指着塔顶说：“现在我要把你留在这儿。你自己上去。待在那里，直到结束。”

"Until what's finished?" I asked.

“直到什么结束？”我问。

The plumber just smiled, handed me a flashlight, "for getting down safely when it's over," and also handed me a folded piece of paper. Then he left.

水管工只是微笑，递给我一支手电筒：“让你结束的时候平安地下来。”另外交给我一张折叠起来的纸。而后离去。

I climbed to the top of the tower. I was now standing at the tallest place in the Ashram, with a view overlooking the entirety of this river valley in India. Mountains and farmland stretched out as far as I could see. I had a feeling this was not a place students were normally allowed to hang out, but it was so lovely up there. Maybe this is where my Guru watches the sun go down, when she's in residence here. And the sun was going down right now. The breeze was warm. I unfolded the piece of paper the plumber/poet had given me.

我爬到塔顶。现在我站在道场的最高处，俯瞰印度这边的整个河谷。山脉与农田一望无际。我感觉这地方不是学员一般能来的地方，但塔顶的景致如此优美。或许我的导师下榻此地时，就在这儿观看日落。微风和煦。我把水管工诗人交给我的纸条摊平。

He had typed:

他在纸条上打了字：