《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 83 (193):尤弟來到紐約

The first time the cruise ship sailed into New York Harbor, Yudhi stayed up all night, perched on the highest deck, watching the city skyline appear over the horizon, heart ham-mering with excitement. Hours later, he got off the ship in New York and hailed a yellow cab, just like in the movies. When the recent African immigrant driving the taxi asked where he'd like to go, Yudhi said, "Anywhere, man—just drive me around. I want to see everything." A few months later the ship came to New York City again, and this time Yudhi disembarked for good. His contract was up with the cruise line and he wanted to live in America now.

遊輪首次航入紐約港時，尤弟整個晚上沒睡，站在最高的甲板上，注視城市的天際線出現在地平線一方，心中興奮異常。幾個小時後，他在紐約下船，招了一輛計程車，猶如電影情節。新來的非裔移民計程車司機問他去哪裏，尤弟說："哪兒都行，老兄——就載我逛逛吧。我想看每一樣東西。"幾個月後，船再次來到紐約，這回尤弟永久下了船。他和遊輪的合約屆滿，如今他要住在美國。

He ended up in suburban New Jersey, of all places, living for a while with an Indonesian man he'd met on the ship. He got a job in a sandwich shop at the mall—again, ten-to-twelve-hour days of immigrant-style labor, this time working with Mexicans, not Filipinos. He learned better Spanish those first few months than English. In his rare moments of free time, Yudhi would ride the bus into Manhattan and just wander the streets, still so speechlessly infatuated with the city—a town he describes today as "the place which is the most full of love in the en-tire world." Somehow (again—that smile) he met up in New York City with a crowd of young musicians from all over the world and he took to playing guitar with them, jamming all night with talented kids from Jamaica, Africa, France, Japan . . . And at one of those gigs, he met Ann—a pretty blonde from Connecticut who played bass. They fell in love. They got married. They found an apartment in Brooklyn and they were surrounded by groovy friends who all went on road trips together down to the Florida Keys. Life was just unbelievably happy. His English was quickly impeccable. He was thinking about going to college.

他最後來到新澤西郊區，和在遊輪上遇見的一位印尼男子住了一陣子。他在購物商場的三明治店工作——又是天天工作十到十二小時的移民式勞工，這回的同事不是菲律賓人，而是墨西哥人。他在頭幾個月學的西班牙語多過英語。尤弟在他少數的空閒時間搭公車去曼哈頓，漫遊街頭，對這個城市依然懷有說不出的迷戀——是一個如今被他形容爲"全世界最充滿愛的地方"的城市。但不知怎麼地（又是他的笑容吧），他在紐約市遇上一羣來自世界各地的年輕樂手，於是開始和他們一塊兒彈吉他；與來自牙買加、非洲、法國、日本的優秀年輕人整晚表演即興音樂……在其中一場演奏會上，他認識了安妮——一位彈奏低音提琴的康州金髮美女。他們墜入愛河。他們結了婚。他們在布魯克林找到一間公寓，他們和一羣絕妙的朋友一同開車南下前往佛羅里達礁島羣（FloridaKeys）。生活快樂得難以置信。他的英語很快地臻於完美。他考慮上大學。

On September 11, Yudhi watched the towers fall from his rooftop in Brooklyn. Like every-one else he was paralyzed with grief at what had happened—how could somebody inflict such an appalling atrocity on the city that is the most full of love of anywhere in the world? I don't know how much attention Yudhi was paying when the U.S. Congress subsequently passed the Patriot Act in response to the terrorist threat—legislation which included draconian new immigration laws, many of which were directed against Islamic nations such as Indone-sia. One of these provisions demanded that all Indonesian citizens living in America register with the Department of Homeland Security. The telephones started ringing as Yudhi and his young Indonesian immigrant friends tried to figure out what to do—many of them had over-stayed their visas and were afraid that registering would get them deported. On the other hand, they were afraid to not register, thereby behaving like criminals. Presumably the fundamentalist Islamic terrorists roaming around America ignored this registration law, but Yudhi decided that he did want to register. He was married to an American and he wanted to update his immigration status and become a legal citizen. He didn't want to live in hiding.

9月11日，尤弟從布魯克林的公寓屋頂目睹雙子大樓倒塌。他和每個人一樣，對所發生的事感到哀傷，不知所措——怎麼會有人對全世界最充滿愛的城市下此毒手？我不知道尤弟對國會隨後通過的愛國法案——立法制定嚴厲的新移民法，多條法規針對印尼之類的伊斯蘭國家——留意多少。其中一條規定要求說，定居於美國的印尼公民皆須向國土安全部（DepartmentofHomel and Security）登記。尤弟和他年輕的印尼朋友們開始互通電話想方設法——其中許多人簽證過期，擔心前去登記將被驅逐出境。但是如果不去登記，又怕被視爲罪犯。而遊蕩在美國各地的基本教義派恐怖分子，則看樣子對這條登記法規視而不見，不過尤弟卻決定去登記。他娶了美國人，想提供自己最新的移民身份，成爲合法公民。他不想過隱姓埋名的日子。