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I looked to see if he was teasing me, but his face was serious. He, in turn, inspected me carefully, as if to make sure I grasped the significance of his statement. The occasion called for some show of recognition on my part. "The center of the world?" I repeated, trying to show interest if not complete acceptance. He nodded. "The absolute center. Everyone around here knows it."
我看著他，想知道他是否在和我開玩笑，但他卻表情嚴肅，反過來認真地審視著我，似乎想確認我是否領會了他那句話的深刻含義。這種情況要求我必須表現出認同。“世界的中心？”我重復道，雖然我并不真正贊同，但仍盡力表現出對此的興趣。他點頭說：“世界的最中心。這兒的人都知道。”
At that moment the boy returned with an armful of green bananas. The man cut one in half and pressed the cut end against the radiator jacket. The banana melted into a glue against the hot metal, stopping the leaks instantly. I was so astonished at this that I must have looked rather foolish and everyone laughed. They then refilled my radiator and gave me extra bananas to take along in case my radiator should give me trouble again. An hour later, after using the green banana once more, my radiator and I reached our destination. The local mechanic smiled. "Who taught you about the green banana?" I gave him the name of the village. "Did they show you the rock marking the center of the world?" he asked. I assured him they had. "My grandfather came from there," he said. "The exact center. Everyone around here has always known about it."
這時，小男孩抱著一抱青香蕉回來了。那個男子把其中一根切成兩半，將其斷口處按在水箱的外殼上。香蕉遇到炙熱的金屬融成了膠，立刻就堵住了漏洞。面對如此情景，我驚呆了，我當時的表情一定是傻傻的，所有的人都笑了起來。他們把我的水箱裝滿水，又讓我帶上一些香蕉，以防沿途中水箱再出問題。路上，我又用了一次青香蕉，一個小時后，我開著車到達了目的地。當地的修理工笑著問我：“誰教你用青香蕉的？”我告訴了他那個村子的名字。“他們有沒有指給你看標志世界中心的那塊巖石？”他問道。我告訴他，他們指給我看了。“我祖父就是那兒的人，”他說，“世界的最中心。一直以來這兒的人都知道。”
