《美食祈禱和戀愛》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.

我的新家位於寂靜的路上，四周環繞稻田。農舍般的小房子，外牆爬滿長春藤。屋主是位英國女人，夏天人在倫敦，因此我溜進她家，取代她入住這神奇的地方。這兒有鮮紅色的廚房，養滿金魚的池塘，大理石露臺，鋪馬賽克瓷磚的戶外淋浴間——我可以一邊洗頭一邊觀看築巢於棕櫚樹上的蒼鷺。小祕道通往詩情畫意的庭園。這地方有園丁，因此我只須觀看花草。我不清楚這些美妙的赤道花卉如何稱呼，於是給它們取名。有何不可？這是我的伊甸園，不是嗎？不久，我給每一種植物取了新綽號——水仙樹、捲心菜棕櫚樹、舞衣草、螺旋公子哥、踮腳花、憂愁藤，還有一種被我命名爲"小娃的首次握手"的粉紅色蘭花。此處流淌的純潔之美，叫人難以置信。從臥室窗外的樹上，我能摘到木瓜與香蕉。這兒還住着一隻貓，每天在我餵它的半小時前對我親熱得很，其餘的時間則瘋狂地呻吟，好似回想起越戰場景。古怪的是，我並不介意。這些日子以來，我不介意任何事情。我無法想象、也記不得有何不滿。

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.

這兒的聲音世界亦很精采。夜晚時分有蟋蟀樂團，由青蛙提供低音。深夜時分，狗兒嚎叫自己多麼被誤解。黎明之前，公雞從數公里外宣告當公雞有多酷。（"我們是公雞！"它們叫喊："只有我們有資格當公雞！"）每天清晨日出時分，有一場熱帶鳥類的歌唱競賽，總有十個不分勝負的冠軍對手。太陽升起時，這個地方就安靜下來，蝴蝶也上工去了。整個屋子爬滿長春藤；我覺得哪天屋子就會完全消失在草葉中，我也會隨之消失，自己也成爲叢林花朵。這兒的租金比我在紐約市每個月花費的計程車費還少。

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

順道一提，"天堂"一詞來自波斯文，字面的意思是"有圍牆的花園"。