評(píng)論
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By the time I unpack my bags it's still early afternoon, so I decide to take myself for a walk, get reoriented to this town I haven't seen in two years. And then I'll try to figure out how to start finding my medicine man. I imagine this will be a difficult task, might take days or even weeks. I'm not sure where to start with my search, so I stop at the front desk on my way out and ask Mario if he can help me.
我打開(kāi)行李時(shí)還早，正午剛過(guò)，于是決定去散散步，重新熟悉兩年不見(jiàn)的小鎮(zhèn)，而后我得想辦法找到我的藥師。我猜想這是一項(xiàng)艱巨的任務(wù)，或許得花上幾天，甚至幾個(gè)禮拜。我不確定從何開(kāi)始找尋，于是出門之前到前臺(tái)問(wèn)馬里奧能否幫忙我。
Mario is one of the guys who work at this hotel. I already made friends with him when I checked in, largely on account of his name. Not too long ago I was traveling in a country where many men were named Mario, but not one of them was a small, muscular, energetic Balinese fellow wearing a silk sarong and a flower behind his ear. So I had to ask, "Is your name really Mario? That doesn't sound very Indonesian."
馬里奧是旅社工作人員之一。我登記住宿時(shí)已和他交上朋友，大半因?yàn)樗拿帧２痪们埃也旁谝粋€(gè)有很多男人名叫馬里奧的國(guó)家旅行，卻沒(méi)有哪個(gè)是矮小、健壯、精力充沛的巴厘島小伙子，穿條沙龍絲裙，耳后插朵花。因此我必須問(wèn)他：“你真叫馬里奧嗎？聽(tīng)起來(lái)不太像印尼名字。”
"Not my real name," he said. "My real name is Nyoman."
“不是我的真名，”他說(shuō)，“我的真名叫老三。”
Ah—I should have known. I should have known that I would have a 25 percent chance of guessing Mario's real name. In Bali, if I may digress, there are only four names that the majority of the population give to their children, regardless of whether the baby is a boy or a girl. The names are Wayan (pronounced "Why-Ann"), Made ("mah-DAY"), Nyoman and Ketut. Translated, these names mean simply First, Second, Third and Fourth, and they connote birth order. If you have a fifth child, you start the name cycle all over again, so that the fifth child is really known as something like: "Wayan to the Second Power." And so forth. If you have twins, you name them in the order they came out. Because there are basically only four names in Bali (higher-caste elites have their own selection of names) it's totally possible (indeed, quite common) that two Wayans would marry each other. And then their firstborn would be named, of course: Wayan.
啊，我早該知道。我早該知道我有四分之一的幾率猜中馬里奧的真名。容我暫時(shí)離題——在巴厘島，大部分人給孩子取的名字只有四個(gè)，且無(wú)分男女。這四個(gè)名字是“Wayan”“Made”“Nyoman”和“Ketut”。這些名字只是老大、老二、老三、老四的意思，意味出生順序。倘若生第五個(gè)孩子，便重頭開(kāi)始名字的循環(huán)，因此第五個(gè)孩子的實(shí)際名字大致是：“二次老大”。依此類推。若是雙胞胎，則依他們的出世次序命名。巴厘島基本上只有四個(gè)名字（上層精英人士有自己挑選的名字），因此兩個(gè)“Wayan”大有可能結(jié)為夫妻（事實(shí)上也很常見(jiàn)）。他們的頭一個(gè)孩子自然也取名為“Wayan”。
This gives a slight indication of how important family is in Bali, and how important your placement in that family is. You would think this system could become complicated, but some-how the Balinese work it out. Understandably and necessarily, nicknaming is popular. For in-stance, one of the most successful businesswomen in Ubud is a lady named Wayan who has a busy restaurant called Café Wayan, and so she is known as "Wayan Café"—meaning, "The Wayan who owns Café Wayan." Somebody else might be known as "Fat Made," or "NyomanRental-Car" or "Stupid-Ketut-Who-Burned-Down-His-Uncle's-House." My new Balinese friend Mario got around the problem by simply naming himself Mario.
這暗示家庭在巴厘島的重要性，以及家族中成員定位的重要性。你可能認(rèn)為這套系統(tǒng)會(huì)趨于復(fù)雜，但巴厘人卻處理得很好。可以理解（而且有其必要）的是，大家流行取綽號(hào)。比方說(shuō)，烏布有個(gè)成功女事業(yè)家名叫“Wayan”，她經(jīng)營(yíng)一家繁忙的餐廳，叫“老大咖啡館”（CafeWayan），因此她被稱為“咖啡館老大”——意即“經(jīng)營(yíng)老大咖啡館的老大”。有的人可能稱為“肥老二”或“租車?yán)先被颉盁舨讣业拇览纤摹薄Ｎ业陌屠逍屡笥疡R里奧簡(jiǎn)單稱呼自己為馬里奧，因此躲過(guò)這問(wèn)題。
