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He's been living in Bali for about five years now, working with Balinese silversmiths to make jewelry from Brazilian gemstones for export to America. I like the fact that he was faith-fully married for almost twenty years before his marriage deteriorated for its own multicomplic-ated plethora of reasons. I like the fact that he has already raised children, and that he raised them well, and that they love him. I like that he was the parent who stayed home and tended to his children when they were little, while his Australian wife pursued her career. (A good feminist husband, he says, "I wanted to be on the correct side of social history.") I like his nat-ural Brazilian over-the-top displays of affection. (When his Australian son was fourteen years old, the boy finally had to say, "Dad, now that I'm fourteen, maybe you shouldn't kiss me on the mouth anymore when you drop me off at school.") I like the fact that Felipe speaks four, maybe more, languages fluently. (He keeps claiming he doesn't speak Indonesian, but I hear him talking it all day long.) I like that he's traveled through over fifty countries in his life, and that he sees the world as a small and easily managed place. I like the way he listens to me, leaning in, interrupting me only when I interrupt myself to ask if I am boring him, to which he always responds, "I have all the time in the world for you, my lovely little darling." I like being called "my lovely little darling."(Even if the waitress gets it, too.)
他住在巴厘岛至今已五年之久，和巴厘岛银器匠合作，将由巴西宝石制作而成的珠宝首饰出口到美国去。我喜欢他忠心耿耿维持二十年婚姻，而后才因种种复杂的理由逐渐变质的故事。我喜欢他抚养过孩子，而且抚养得很好，让孩子们喜欢他。我喜欢他在孩子们还小的时候待在家中照顾他们，他的澳洲太太则去追求自己的事业（他说自己是个女性主义好丈夫："我想走在社会史上正确的一方。"）我喜欢他这种巴西人天性夸大其辞的感情表白（他的澳洲儿子十四岁时终于不得不说："老爸，我已经十四岁，或许你不该在送我上学、在校门口下车时再亲我的嘴了。"）我喜欢斐利贝能说四种，或许更多种流利的语言。（他一直说自己不会讲印尼语，可是我却听他一天到晚在讲。）我喜欢他这辈子游历过五十多个国家，在他眼中，世界是个不难处理的小地方。我喜欢他听我说话的模样，倾着身子，只有在我打断自己问他说，我讲的话是否让他无聊时，他才会插进来说话，而他总是答说："我有全部的时间给你，我可爱的小甜心。"我喜欢他叫我"我可爱的小甜心"。（尽管女服务生亦获得此一称谓。）
He said to me the other night, "Why don't you take a lover while you're in Bali, Liz?"
有天晚上他对我说："小莉，你怎么不趁着待在巴厘岛的时候找个情人？"
To his credit, he didn't just mean himself, though I believe he might be willing to take on the job. He assured me that Ian—that good-looking Welsh guy—would be a fine match for me, but there are other candidates, too. There's a chef from New York City, "a great, big, muscular, confident fellow," whom he thinks I might like. Really there are all sorts of men here, he said, all of them floating through Ubud, expatriates from everywhere, hiding out in this shifting community of the planet's "homeless and assetless," many of whom would be happy to see to it, "my lovely darling, that you have a wonderful summer here."
为了自己的信誉起见，他这么说并不仅仅意味着他可以胜任，尽管我相信他或许乐意接受这份工作。他向我保证伊恩——相貌好看的威尔士家伙——很适合我，但也有其他候选人。有位纽约来的主厨，"一名健壮、高大、自信的好兄弟"，他认为我或许会看得上。他说，这里实在有各式各样、来自世界各地的男人，浮沉于乌布镇，躲藏在世间不断变动的"无家无产"社区当中，而许多人都乐于见到我，"我可爱的小甜心，你在这儿有个美好的夏日"。
"I don't think I'm ready for it," I told him. "I don't feel like going through all the effort of romance again, you know? I don't feel like having to shave my legs every day or having to show my body to a new lover. And I don't want to have to tell my life story all over again, or worry about birth control. Anyway, I'm not even sure I know how to do it anymore. I feel like I was more confident about sex and romance when I was sixteen than I am now."
"我觉得自己还没准备好，"我告诉他，"我不想再费心去谈情说爱，你了解吧？我不想每天得刮腿毛，或必须让新恋人看我的身体。我也不想再从头说一遍我的人生故事，或担心避孕的事。总之，我甚至不确定自己能不能再过这种日子。我觉得自己十六岁的时候比现在对性和谈情说爱更有自信。"
