《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 94 (223):談情說愛什麼玩意兒

I asked Ketut, my old medicine man, "What do you know about romance?" He said, "What is this, romance?"

我問我的老藥師賴爺。"你對談情說愛懂多少？他說："談情說愛是什麼？"

"Never mind."

"別放在心上。"

"No—what it is? What this word means?"

"請說吧，談情說愛是什麼意思？"

"Romance." I defined. "Women and men in love. Or sometimes men and men in love, or women and women in love. Kissing and sex and marriage—all that stuff."

"談情說愛就是，"我說明，"男女相愛。或有時候男男相愛，或女女相愛。親吻、性和結婚——這些玩意。"

"I not make sex with too many people in my life, Liss. Only with my wife."

"我這輩子沒和太多人有性，小莉。只跟我太太。

"You're right—that's not too many people. But do you mean your first wife or your second wife?"

"你說得對——是沒太多人。但你說的是第一個太太或第二個太太？"

"I only have one wife, Liss. She dead now."

"我只有一個太太，小莉。她已經過世。"

"What about Nyomo?"

"彌歐姆呢？"

"Nyomo not really my wife, Liss. She the wife of my brother." Seeing my confused expression, he added, "This typical Bali," and explained. Ketut's older brother, who is a rice farmer, lives next door to Ketut and is married to Nyomo. They had three children together. Ketut and his wife, on the other hand, were unable to have any children at all, so they adopted one of Ketut's brother's sons in order to have an heir. When Ketut's wife died, Nyomo began living in both family compounds, splitting her time between the two households, taking care of both her husband and his brother, and tending to the two families of her children. She is in every way a wife to Ketut in the Balinese manner (cooking, cleaning, taking care of household religious ceremonies and rituals) except that they don't have sex together.

"彌歐姆不算我的太太，小莉。她是我哥哥的太太。"見我一臉迷惑，他又說，"這在巴厘島很常見。"他說道。賴爺的哥哥是稻農，與賴爺比鄰而居，娶了彌歐姆。他們一起生了三個孩子。而賴爺和他太太無法生孩子，於是收養賴爺哥哥的一個兒子以傳續香火。賴爺的太太過世後，彌歐姆開始住在兩個家宅，將時間對分給兩家人，照顧她的丈夫和丈夫的弟弟，照料兩家自己的孩子。就巴厘島人而言，她完全是賴爺的老婆（烹飪、打掃、照管一家的宗教儀式），除了他們不做愛之外。

"Why not?" I asked.

"爲什麼不？"我問。

"Too OLD!" he said. Then he called Nyomo over to relay the question to her, to let her know that the American lady wants to know why they don't have sex with each other. Nyomo about died laughing at the very thought of it. She came over and punched me in the arm, hard.

"太老了！"他說。而後他叫彌歐姆過來，把這個問題轉述給她聽，告知她這位美國女士想知道他們爲何不做愛。這想法讓彌歐姆幾乎笑破肚皮。她還走過來用力打我的手臂。

"I only had one wife," Ketut went on. "And now she dead." "Do you miss her?"

"我只有一個太太，"賴爺繼續說，"她已過世。"你想念她嗎？"