He's surprised. He didn't realize I spoke Italian. Neither did I, actually, but we talk for about twenty minutes and I realize for the first time that I do. Some line has been crossed and I'm actually speaking Italian now. I'm not translating; I'm talking. Of course, there's a mistake in every sentence, and I only know three tenses, but I can communicate with this guy without much effort. Me la cavo, is how you would say it in Italian, which basically means, "I can get by," but comes from the same verb you use to talk about uncorking a bottle of wine, meaning, "I can use this language to extract myself from tight situations." 他吃了一惊，没想到我会讲意大利语。事实上，我也没想到，但我们讲了大约二十分钟后，才第一次明白自己会讲呢。我已跨越某条界线，现在我竟然讲着意大利语。我不在翻译，而在讲话。当然，每一句都容有错误之处，而我只知道三种时态，却没费多少劲就能和这家伙沟通。意大利语“me la”，基本上是“混得过去”的意思，跟谈论拔开酒瓶塞时用的是同一个动词，意即“我可以用这个语言让自己从紧绷的状况抽身而出”。我摆脱尴尬局面。

He's hitting on me, this kid! It's not entirely unflattering. He's not entirely unattractive. Though he's not remotely uncocky, either. At one point he says to me in Italian, meaning to be complimentary, of course, "You're not too fat, for an American woman." 他在招惹我，这小子！这并非不讨人喜欢。他并非不迷人。尽管他显得太自信。他一度用意大利语告诉我，尽管本意是恭维：“就美国女人而言，你不太胖。”

I reply in English, "And you're not too greasy, for an Italian man." 我用英语回答：“就意大利男人而言，你不太奉承。”

"Come?" “Come？”

I repeat myself, in slightly modified Italian: "And you're so gracious, just like all Italian men." 我重复一次，用稍作修正过的意大利语说：“你很殷勤，就像所有的意大利男人。”

I can speak this language! The kid thinks I like him, but it's the words I'm flirting with. My God—I have decanted myself! I have uncorked my tongue, and Italian is pouring forth! He wants me to meet him later in Venice, but I don't have the first interest in him. I'm just lovesick over the language, so I let him slide away. Anyhow, I've already got a date in Venice. I'm meeting my friend Linda there. 我能讲这语言！这小子以为我喜欢他，然而我是在和文字调情。我的天——我正在沥干自己！我已拔掉舌头的瓶塞，意大利语滔滔不绝地冒了出来！他要我之后和他在威尼斯会面，但他已经不像一开始让我感兴趣。我只为语言害了相思病，因此我让他脱逃而去。无论如何，我在威尼斯已经有约。我在那儿将和我的朋友琳达见面。

Crazy Linda, as I like to call her, even though she isn't, is coming to Venice from Seattle, another damp and gray town. She wanted to come see me in Italy, so I invited her along on this leg of my trip because I refuse—I absolutely decline—to go to the most romantic city on earth by myself, no, not now, not this year. I could just picture myself all alone, in the butt end of a gondola, getting dragged through the mist by a crooning gondolier as I . . . read a magazine? It's a sad image, rather like the idea of humping up a hill all by yourself on a bicycle-built-for-two. So Linda will provide me with company, and good company, at that. 狂人琳达——我喜欢这么叫她，尽管她并不疯狂——从另一个潮湿灰暗的城市西雅图来到威尼斯。她要来意大利看我，因此我邀她参与这一段旅程，因为我拒绝——绝对不愿——独自前往世上最浪漫的城市，现在可不行，今年不行。我想象孤伶伶一人坐在平底船的一端，由哼着小曲的船夫在雾中载着前进，而我则……阅读杂志？这是一幅可悲的画面，好比独自一人骑着双人脚踏车使劲儿爬上山。因此琳达陪伴我，而且是绝佳的伴儿。

I met Linda (and her dreadlocks, and her piercings) in Bali almost two years ago, when I went for that Yoga retreat. Since then, we've done a trip to Costa Rica together, too. She's one of my favorite traveling companions, an unflappable and entertaining and surprisingly organized little pixie in tight red crushed-velvet pants. Linda is the owner of one of the world's more intact psyches, with an incomprehension for depression and a self-esteem that has never even considered being anything but high. She said to me once, while regarding herself in a mirror, "Admittedly, I am not the one who looks fantastic in everything, but still I cannot help loving myself." She's got this ability to shut me up when I start fretting over metaphysical questions, such as, "What is the nature of the universe?" (Linda's reply: "My only question is: Why ask?") Linda would like to someday grow her dreadlocks so long she could weave them into a wire-supported structure on the top of her head "like a topiary" and maybe store a bird there. The Balinese loved Linda. So did the Costa Ricans. When she's not taking care of her pet lizards and ferrets, she is managing a software development team in Seattle and making more money than any of us. 大约两年前，我在巴厘岛参加瑜伽训练营时遇上琳达（留着细发辫，在身上穿洞）。在那之后，我们还一起去哥斯达黎加旅游。她是我最喜爱的旅伴，一个冷静、有趣、井井有条、身穿红色紧身天鹅绒长裤的小精灵。她是世界上心灵较健康的人之一，无法理解抑郁是什么，还拥有高得不能再高的自尊。她曾看着镜子里的自己，对我说：“我固然不是什么了不起的人，却还是禁不住爱上自己。”当我为形而上的问题，比方说"宇宙的本质是什么？而忧心忡忡时，她总有法子让我闭嘴（琳达答道：“我唯一的问题是：何必问？”）。琳达希望把发辫留长，有一天能在头顶编成钢丝支撑的结构，“类似树雕”，或许在里头摆只鸟。巴厘人爱琳达。哥斯达黎加人也爱她。她不在照顾自己的宠物蜥蜴和白鼬时，就在西雅图管理一个软件开发小组，赚的钱比我们任何人都多。

So we find each other there in Venice, and Linda frowns at our map of the city, turns it upside down, locates our hotel, orients herself and announces with characteristic humility: "We are the mayors of this town's ass." 于是我们在威尼斯碰面，琳达瞪了瞪我们的市区地图，把地图倒过来寻找我们的旅馆位置，确定自己的方位，以特有的谦虚态度宣布：“我们是城市屁股的市长。”