《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 75 (168):赖爷的新任老婆

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

马里奥欣喜若狂地拍手，胜利地宣告：“瞧，图生效了！”

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

我说：“赖爷，你还想让我帮你学英语吗？”

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."

他告诉我现在就开始，敏捷地跳了起来。他蹦蹦跳跳跑进小屋，拿来一叠过去几年从海外寄来的信（所以他有地址嘛！）。他请我给他大声读信；他通晓英语，却不太会读。我已成为他的秘书。我是药师的秘书。太妙了。这些海外艺术收藏家的来信都设法取得赖爷有名的魔法画作。一封澳洲收藏家的来信赞扬赖爷的技艺，说：“您怎能如此巧妙地使用这么细腻的笔法？”赖爷好似口述听写般回答我：“因为我已画了许多许多年。”

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.

念完信后，他向我叙述自己过去几年生活的新消息。发生了一些转变。比方，现在他娶了老婆。他指着中庭对面的一名胖女人，她站在厨房门口的阴影中瞪着我，好似不确定是否该直接射杀我，或者先给我下毒再射杀我。上回我在这里的时候，赖爷悲伤地给我看此前病故妻子生前的相片——一名漂亮的巴厘老妇，尽管年老，却欢快天真。我朝中庭对面的新任老婆挥手，她退入厨房。

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

“好女人，”赖爷朝厨房的阴影宣告，“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?"

他接着说自己忙于治疗巴厘病人，总有大量的工作：为新生儿施行法术，给亡者举行仪式，治疗病患，举办结婚仪式。下回他有一场婚礼要去，他说：“我们可以一块儿去！我带你去！”唯一的问题是，探访他的西方人不再很多。爆炸案过后，没有人再来巴厘岛。这让他“脑袋很乱”，也让他觉得“银行很空”|。他说：“现在你每天来我家和我练习英语？”我愉快地点头，他说：“我教你巴厘禅修，好吗？”

"OK," I say.

“好的。”我说。