Chapter 7: Wisdom Exercise Notebooks

Event: Ammu's death in the Bharat Lodge in Alleppey

"Ammu died in a grimy room in the Bharat Lodge in Alleppey. where she had gone for a job interview as someone's secretary. She died alone. With a noisy ceiling fan for company and no Estha to lie at the back of her and talk to her. She was thirty-one. Not old, not young, but a viable, die-able age" (154).

「阿慕去亞力培應徵一份秘書工作，但她卻死在當地巴拉特旅館的一間骯髒客房裡。她死得孤單，只有天花板發出噪音的電扇跟她作伴，艾斯沙沒有躺在背後跟她說話。她只有31歲。不老也不年輕，介於可活、可死的年紀。」

"That night in the lodge, Ammu sat up in the strange bed in the strange room in the strange town. She didn't know where she was, she recognized nothing around her. Only her fear was familiar. The faraway man inside her began to shout. This time the steely fist never loosened its grip. Shadows gathered like bats in the steep hollows near her collarbone" (154).

「阿慕那晚在旅館裡，她待在陌生城鎮的陌生房間，坐在陌生的床上。她不知道自己在哪裡，也不認得周遭的一切。只有恐懼是她熟悉的。體內遙遠的男人開始喊叫。這一次，緊握的鋼鐵拳頭不曾放鬆。陰影如蝙蝠聚集在她鎖骨旁邊的凹洞裡。」