Appetite 譯文

1、·                                  Appetite 渴望（Laurie Lee）（勞麗·李）   One of the major pleasures in life is appet

2、ite, and one of our major duties should be to preserve it. 渴望乃生活之一大樂事，而心懷渴望則成為一項重要的任務。Appetite is the keenness of living; it is one of the senses that tells you that you are still curious to exist, that you still have an edge on your longings and want to biteh1  into the world and taste its mul

3、titudinous flavors and juices.渴望意味著對生活充滿熱情，這種感覺表明你依然希冀生活，熱衷夢想，向往探索世界，歷盡世間百味百態(tài)。   By appetite, of course, I dont mean just the lust for food, but any condition of unsatisfied desire, any burning in the blood that proves you want more than youve got, and that you havent yet used up your life

4、.當然，我所說的“渴望”不單指對食物的欲望，而指所有欲求未滿的狀態(tài)，及血液中燃燒的激情，這熾熱的激情證明你希望收獲更多，你的生命力并未耗盡。 Wilde said he felt sorry for those who never got their hearts desire, but sorrier still for those who did.王爾德曾說過，對未能夢想成真者，他深表惋惜；而對心愿已遂者，他則倍感遺憾。h2  I got mine once only, and it nearly killed me, and Ive always preferred wanti

5、ng to having since.僅有一次，我如愿以償，但就那次把我折磨得夠嗆，自那以后，我總是更樂于想往，而非如愿以償h3 。   For appetite, to me, is this state of wanting, which keeps ones expectations alive. 因為對我來說，渴望就是這種想往的狀態(tài)，它總是讓人滿懷期待。I remember learning the lesson long ago as a child, when treats and orgies were few, and when I discove

6、red that the greatest pitch of happiness was not in actually eating a toffee but in gazing at it beforehand.當還是小孩子時，我即對此有所感悟。那時沒什么極樂之事，我發(fā)現(xiàn)其實最大的樂趣不在于吃太妃糖，而在于吃糖之前好好地把糖端詳一陣。 True, the first bite was delicious, but once the toffee was gone one was left with nothing, neither toffee nor lust. Besides, the

7、 whole toffeeness of toffees was imperceptibly diminished by the gross act of having eaten it. 沒錯，第一口美不勝收，然而，糖一旦吃完，你就一無所有了。太妃糖吃完了，吃糖的欲望也隨之消失殆盡了。此外，在咀嚼時，太妃糖的滋味也不知不覺地減少。No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an inexhaustible treasure-house of flavors.所以最好別吃，只消坐在那

8、盯著糖，你就能感受到太妃糖無窮無盡的美味。h4    So, for me, one of the keenest pleasures of appetite remains in the wanting, not the satisfaction. In wanting a peach, or a whisky, or a particular texture or sound, or to be with a particular friend. 因此，對我來說，渴望的最大樂趣之一在于心懷想往，而非心滿意足，比如，想往一只密桃，一瓶威士忌，一塊特質(zhì)布料h5&#

9、160;，或一種美妙的聲音，亦或期望與朋友團聚。 For in this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire is always at its most flawlessly perfect. 因為，我知道在這種情況下，心中渴求之物總是完美無缺的。Which is why I would carry the preservation of appetite to the extent of deliberate fasting, simply because I think that appetite is too go

10、od to lose, too precious to be bludgeoned into insensibility by satiation and over-doing it. 懷著這種渴望，我特意安排了齋戒。原因很簡單，我覺得渴望是極好的事，不能喪失，它彌足珍貴，不能飽食生膩，耗費過度使其淪為麻木無知之境。h6    For that matter, I dont really want three square meals a dayI want one huge, delicious, orgiastic, table-groaning blow-o

11、ut, say every four days, and then not be too sure where the next one is coming from. 為此，我并不希望一日三餐頓頓豐盛可口-我只想，比如說每四天，來一頓盛宴，桌上堆滿美菜佳肴，可盡情享受。大快朵頤h7 之后，又猜想下一頓大餐將自何處來。A day of fasting is not for me just a puritanical device for denying oneself a pleasure, but rather a way of anticipating a rare moment

12、 of supreme indulgence.齋戒一天，對我來說，不僅僅是清教徒節(jié)制享樂的一種手段，更是一種方式，借此期待難能可貴的縱樂時刻h8 。   Fasting is an act of homage to the majesty of appetite. 齋戒是對崇高渴望的效忠h9 。So I think we should arrange to give up our pleasures regularlyour food, our friends, our loversin order to preserve their intensity

13、, and the moment of coming back to them.因此，我們應該特意定期放棄享樂-美食之樂，朋友之樂，情人之樂-以此保持對他們的強烈渴望，使回歸享樂的時刻成為美好的回憶。 For this is the moment that renews and refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves. 因為這一刻，我們自身及我們所愛之物似乎都煥然一新，充滿新鮮感。Sailors and travelers enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose. 水手和旅行者曾經(jīng)樂

14、于此道，我想獵人們也不例外吧。Part of the weariness of modern life may be that we live too much on top of each other, and are entertained and fed too regularly.我們厭倦現(xiàn)代生活，部分是因為大家生活在一塊兒，天天打照面，且飲食進餐太過固定。 Once we were separated by hunger both from our food and families, and then we learned to value both. 一旦與食物，家人分開，肚子發(fā)

15、餓，想念家人時，我們就會意識到這二者是多么值得珍惜。 The men went off hunting, and the dogs went with them; the women and children waved goodbye. 男人們帶上獵狗外出打獵，女人和孩子們揮手與之告別。The cave was empty of men for days on end; nobody ate, or knew what to do. 連續(xù)數(shù)日，男人們一直未回到洞中；沒有吃的，誰也不知道該干什么。The women crouched by the fire, the wet smoke in

16、their eyes; the children wailed; everybody was hungry.女人們蜷縮在火堆旁，淚眼迷蒙h10 ，孩子們餓得嚎啕大哭，所以人都饑腸轆轆。 Then one night there were shouts and the barking of dogs from the hills, and the men came back loaded with meat. 終于，一天晚上，山谷里響起了喊叫聲、狗吠聲，男人們回來了！滿載而歸h11 ！This was the great reunion, and everybody gorg

17、ed themselves silly, and appetite came into its own; the long-awaited meal became a feast to remember and an almost sacred celebration of life. 這是一次盛大的團聚，一個個食欲大振，狼吞虎咽，一副餓鬼相。這頓苦苦等候的晚餐變成空前盛宴，幾乎成了生活神圣的慶典，讓人刻骨銘心。h12 Now we go off to the office and come home in the evenings to cheap chicken and froz

18、en peas. 現(xiàn)今，我們?nèi)マk公室上班，每晚下班回家，實惠雞肉、冰凍青豆h13 是我們的家常便飯。Very nice, but too much of it, too easy and regular, served up without effort or wanting. 這些菜固然可口，但吃得太多，太過單一，加上長期食用，制作簡單，人們都對此沒多大食欲了。We eat, we are lucky, our faces are shining with fat, but we dont know the pleasure of being hungry any more. 我們

19、不愁吃，非常幸運；可是滿臉油光閃閃的我們h14 再也體會不到饑腸轆轆的樂趣了。  Too much of anythingtoo much music, entertainment, happy snacks, or time spent with ones friendscreates a kind of impotence of living by which one can no longer hear, or taste, or see, or love, or remember.任何東西一旦過度-音樂聽得多了，娛樂享受多了，零食吃多了，或與朋友相處久了-則會使人產(chǎn)

20、生一種對生活的無能為力，于是，人們再也無法聆聽，品嘗，觀賞，愛戀或記憶。 Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of its guardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death. 生命轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝，彌足珍貴，而渴望則是其守護神之一，失卻渴望也是一種死亡。 So if we are to enjoy this short life we should respect the divinity of appetite, and keep it eager and not too much blun