《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 88 (207):及腰秀发

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.

于是今天早晨我又去大姐店里闲晃，她在想办法让我的头发长得更快、更浓密。她自己有一头浓密、闪亮的及腰秀发，为我这头小捆、蓬松的金发感到可怜。身为治疗师的她自然有办法帮助我的头发变浓密，但这可不简单。首先我必须找棵香蕉树，亲自砍下它。我必须"扔掉树头"，然后把树干和树根（根仍深植于泥土中）雕成一口又深又大的钵，像个"游泳池"。而后我必须把一块木头放在坑顶，以免雨水、露水跑进去。几天后我必须再回来，看见水池内注满香蕉根的营养汁液，我得把汁液收集在瓶中，带回给大姐。她把香蕉萃取液拿去庙里祭拜，而后每天将汁液涂在我的头皮上。几个月内就会像大姐一样，有一头浓密、亮丽的及腰长发。

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

"就算秃头，"她说，"也能长出头发。"

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.

在我们谈话的同时，刚放学回家的图蒂坐在地板上画图，画一间房子。图蒂近来多半画房子。她渴望拥有自己的房子。在她画的图里，背景总有一道彩虹，还有一个笑眯眯的家庭——父亲与全家。

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.

我们整天在大姐店里就是做这些事。我们坐着谈天，图蒂画画，大姐和我闲聊家常，彼此开玩笑。大姐喜欢讲黄色笑话，一天到晚谈性，贬我单身，推测路过男人的生殖天赋。她不断告诉我，她每天晚上都去庙里拜拜，祈求一位好男人出现在我生命中，成为我的恋人。