I don't know how old my medicine man is. I've asked him, but he's not certain. I seem to re-member, when I was here two years ago, the translator saying that he was eighty. But Mario asked him the other day how old he was and Ketut said, "Maybe sixty-five, not sure." When I asked him what year he was born, he said he didn't remember being born. I know he was an adult when the Japanese were occupying Bali during World War II, which could make him about eighty now. But when he told me the story about burning his arm as a young man, and I asked him what year that had happened, he said, "I don't know. Maybe 1920?" So if he was around twenty years old in 1920, then that makes him what now? Maybe a hundred and five? So we can estimate that he's somewhere between sixty and a hundred and five years old.
我不清楚药师的年纪。我问过他，可是他也不确定。我犹记得两年前来这儿，翻译员说他八十岁。但马里奥有天问赖爷年岁多大，他却说："大概六十五岁吧，不确定。"我问他哪年出生，他说不记得。我知道二战期间日本人占领巴厘岛时，他已是成人，这使得他现在的年纪可能是八十岁。但当他告诉我年轻时手臂烧伤的故事时，我问他哪一年发生，他却说："我不清楚。也许是1920年吧？"然而1920年他倘若年约二十，那现在是几岁？或许一○五岁吧？因此我们估计他目前的岁数在六十到一○五岁之间。

I've also noticed that his estimation of his age changes by the day, based on how he feels. When he's really tired, he'll sigh and say, "Maybe eighty-five today," but when he's feeling more upbeat he'll say, "I think I'm sixty today." Perhaps this is as good a way of estimating age as any—how old do you feel? What else matters, really? Still, I'm always trying to figure it out.
我还留意到他对自己的年龄估算随日子而改变，根据他自己的感觉而定。他很疲倦时便叹道："今天可能八十五岁吧。"可是当他觉得振奋时，便说："我想今天我六十岁。"或许这也算是估算岁数的好方法——你"觉得"自己年纪多大。老实说，还有什么更重要？尽管如此，我始终想找到答案。

One afternoon I got really simple, and just said, "Ketut—when is your birthday?"
某天下午，我简单地问他："赖爷，你生日在什么时候？"

"Thursday," he said.
"礼拜四。"他说。

"This Thursday?"
"这礼拜四？"

"No. Not this Thursday. A Thursday."
"不，不是这礼拜四，是礼拜四。"