Until this evening, I still wasn't sure what my role was in Ketut Liyer's life. Every day I've been asking him if he's really sure he wants me around, and he keeps insisting that I must come and spend time with him. I feel guilty taking up so much of his day, but he always seems disappointed when I leave at the end of the afternoon. I'm not teaching him any English, not really. Whatever English he already learned however many decades ago has been cemented into his mind by now and there isn't much space for correction or new vocabulary. It's all I can do to get him to say, "Nice to see you," when I arrive, instead of "Nice to meet you."
在这一晚之前，我仍然不确知自己在赖爷生命中的角色。每天我都问他是否确定要我待在身边，他始终坚持要我来和他共度时光。占用他这么多时间，令我感到内疚，可是到了傍晚我离开之时，他似乎总是怅然若失。我并未真的教他英语。他在几十年前学的英语，老早深印在脑子里，没有太多空间更正或增加新字汇。我能做的只是在刚来的时候教他把"高兴认识你"更正为"高兴见到你"。

Tonight, when his last patient had left and Ketut was exhausted, looking ancient from the weariness of service, I asked him whether I should go now and let him have some privacy, and he replied, "I always have time for you." Then he asked me to tell him some stories about India, about America, about Italy, about my family. That's when I realized that I am not Ketut Liyer's English teacher, nor am I exactly his theological student, but I am the merest and simplest of pleasures for this old medicine man—I am his company. I'm somebody he can talk to because he enjoys hearing about the world and he hasn't had much of a chance to see it.
今晚，最后一名病患离去时，赖爷已经筋疲力竭，辛劳的服务使他看起来很苍老，我问他是否我该走了，让他有点私人空间，他答说："对你，我永远有时间。"而后他请我告诉他一些有关印度、美国、意大利、我家人的事情。此时我才意识到，我不是赖爷的英语教师，也不是他的神学学生，而是这位老药师最简单纯粹的喜乐——我是他的同伴朋友。我是能让他讲话的人，因为他喜欢听世界的事，尽管他没有很多机会去看这个世界。

In our hours together on this porch, Ketut has asked me questions about everything from how much cars cost in Mexico to what causes AIDS. (I did my best with both topics, though I believe there are experts who could have answered with more substance.) Ketut has never been off the island of Bali in his life. He has spent very little time, actually, off this porch. He once went on a pilgrimage to Mount Agung, the biggest and most spiritually important volcano on Bali, but he said the energy was so powerful there he could scarcely meditate for fear he might be consumed by sacred fire. He goes to the temples for the big important ceremonies and he is invited to his neighbors' homes to perform weddings or coming-of-age rituals, but most of the time he can be found right here, cross-legged upon this bamboo mat, surrounded by his great-grandfather's palm-leaf medical encyclopedias, taking care of people, mollifying demons and occasionally treating himself to a cup of coffee with sugar.
在阳台的时光，赖爷问过我许多问题，墨西哥买车多少钱，艾滋病的病因，等等。（我尽己所能回答这两个问题，尽管我相信能更具体回答这些问题的专家所在多有）。赖爷一辈子不曾离开巴厘岛。事实上，他很少离开自己的阳台。他曾去巴厘岛最大、最具宗教重要性的火山——阿贡山（MountAgung）朝圣，但他说那儿的能量十分强大，使他几乎无法禅坐，唯恐自己被神圣之火吞没。他去各寺庙参加各大重要庆典，他本身亦受邀前往左邻右舍家中主持婚礼或成年礼，但多数时间都能在他家阳台找到他；他盘腿坐在竹席上，四周环绕着曾祖父的棕榈叶药籍，照料人们，撵走恶魔，偶尔享受一杯加糖咖啡。

"I had a dream from you last night," he told me today. "I had a dream you are riding your bicycle anywhere."
"我昨晚梦见你，"他今天告诉我，"梦见你骑单车上任何地方去。"

Because he paused, I suggested a grammatical correction. "Do you mean, you had a dream that I was riding my bicycle everywhere?"
他停顿了下来，于是我提出一处文法更正。"你是说，你梦见我骑单车去"每个地方"？"

"Yes! I dream last night you are riding your bicycle anywhere and everywhere. You are so happy in my dream! All over world, you are riding your bicycle. And I following you!"
"对！昨晚我梦见你骑单车去每个地方和任何地方。你在我梦中很快乐！你骑车走遍全世界！我跟随在你身后！"

Maybe he wishes he could . . .
或许他希望自己办得到……

"Maybe you can come see me someday in America, Ketut," I said.
"也许你哪天来美国找我，赖爷。"我说。

"Can't, Liss." He shook his head, cheerfully resigned to his destiny. "Don't have enough teeth to travel on airplane." Eat, Pray, Love
"不行，小莉，"他摇头，愉快地听从自己的天命，"我的牙齿已经不够搭飞机旅行了。"