《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 88 (207):及腰秀髮

So I was hanging out in Wayan's shop again this morning, and she was trying to figure out how to make my hair grow faster and thicker. Having glorious thick, shiny hair herself that hangs all the way down to her butt, she feels sorry for me with my wispy blond mop. As a healer, of course, she does have a remedy to help thicken my hair, but it won't be easy. First, I have to find a banana tree and personally cut it down. I have to "throw away the top of the tree," then carve the trunk and roots (which are still lodged in the earth) into a big, deep bowl "like a swimming pool." Then I have to put a piece of wood over the top of this hollow, so rain-water and dew don't get in. Then I will come back in a few days and find that the swimming pool is now filled with the nutrient-rich liquid of the banana root, which I then must collect in bottles and bring to Wayan. She will bless the banana root juice at the temple for me, then rub the juice into my skull every day. Within a few months I will have, like Wayan, thick, shiny hair all the way down to my butt.

於是今天早晨我又去大姐店裏閒晃，她在想辦法讓我的頭髮長得更快、更濃密。她自己有一頭濃密、閃亮的及腰秀髮，爲我這頭小捆、蓬鬆的金髮感到可憐。身爲治療師的她自然有辦法幫助我的頭髮變濃密，但這可不簡單。首先我必須找棵香蕉樹，親自砍下它。我必須"扔掉樹頭"，然後把樹幹和樹根（根仍深植於泥土中）雕成一口又深又大的鉢，像個"游泳池"。而後我必須把一塊木頭放在坑頂，以免雨水、露水跑進去。幾天後我必須再回來，看見水池內注滿香蕉根的營養汁液，我得把汁液收集在瓶中，帶回給大姐。她把香蕉萃取液拿去廟裏祭拜，而後每天將汁液塗在我的頭皮上。幾個月內就會像大姐一樣，有一頭濃密、亮麗的及腰長髮。

"Even if you are bald," she said, "this will make you have hair."

"就算禿頭，"她說，"也能長出頭髮。"

As we're talking, little Tutti—just home from school—is sitting on the floor, drawing a picture of a house. Mostly, houses are what Tutti draws these days. She's dying to have a house of her own. There's always a rainbow in the backdrop of her pictures, and a smiling family—father and all.

在我們談話的同時，剛放學回家的圖蒂坐在地板上畫圖，畫一間房子。圖蒂近來多半畫房子。她渴望擁有自己的房子。在她畫的圖裏，背景總有一道彩虹，還有一個笑眯眯的家庭——父親與全家。

This is what we do all day in Wayan's shop. We sit and talk and Tutti draws pictures and Wayan and I gossip and tease each other. Wayan's got a bawdy sense of humor, always talking about sex, busting me about being single, speculating on the genital endowments of all the men who pass by her shop. She keeps telling me she's been going to the temple every evening and praying for a good man to show up in my life, to be my lover.

我們整天在大姐店裏就是做這些事。我們坐着談天，圖蒂畫畫，大姐和我閒聊家常，彼此開玩笑。大姐喜歡講黃色笑話，一天到晚談性，貶我單身，推測路過男人的生殖天賦。她不斷告訴我，她每天晚上都去廟裏拜拜，祈求一位好男人出現在我生命中，成爲我的戀人。