Appetite

xiao4zhu

Appetite
胃口

（Laurie Lee）

翻译：蒋小虎

评论：侯国金



One of the major pleasures in life is appetite, and one of our major duties should be to preserve it. （生命中最主要的快乐之一便是胃口，而我们最主要的义务之一就是保持胃口[h1] ）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 bite into the world and taste its multitudinous flavors and juices.（胃口象征着生命的敏锐；胃口作为感觉之一，告诉我们对生存还有向往，对所好之物还有感觉，对世界还有细品一口的兴趣，对各色风味小吃和果汁饮料还想一尝滋味[h2] 。）



By appetite, of course, I don’t mean just the lust for food, but any condition of unsatisfied desire, any burning in the blood that proves you want more than you’ve got, and that you haven’t yet used up your life. （自然，说“胃口”我并不是仅指对食物的迷恋，而是指任何未能满足的欲望，欲望的血液在体内燃烧，证明你想要更多，你的生命还没有消磨殆尽。）Wilde said he felt sorry for those who never got their heart’s desire, but sorrier still for those who did.（王尔德曾说，他为那些内心欲望没有得到满足的人感到难过，却对那些已经实现心中欲望的人倍加同情。）I got mine once only, and it nearly killed me, and I’ve always preferred wanting to having since.（我曾亲身经历过一次[h3] ，几乎断送了小命，自那以后，我永远都倾向于索求而非拥有。）



For appetite, to me, is this state of wanting, which keeps one’s expectations alive.（对我而言，胃口是一种索求的状态，永葆期望之火燃烧不熄。） I remember learning the lesson long ago as a child, when treats and orgies were few, and when I discovered that the greatest pitch of happiness was not in actually eating a toffee but in gazing at it beforehand.（早在孩提时代，我就上了这一课。当时很少有佳肴美酒，我便发觉，最幸福的不在于吃了一块太妃糖，却在于在品尝之前，久久凝视。） True, the first bite was delicious, but once the toffee was gone one was left with nothing, neither toffee nor lust.（诚然，太妃糖第一口吃下去美味无比，可一旦吃完了，便觉索然无味，太妃糖的美味没了，其诱惑也消失了。） Besides, the whole toffeeness of toffees was imperceptibly diminished by the gross act of having eaten it.（并且，随着机械地吃掉太妃糖，其所有的意味全都慢慢烟消云散[h4] ） No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an inexhaustible treasure-house of flavors.（不，最美妙的经历在于渴望，端坐着注视着它，从中获取永不泯灭的色香味大餐[h5] 。）



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.（所以对我而言，胃口最刺激的妙处仍在于渴望，而非满足。[h6] 想要一个桃，一杯威士忌，一块特别的布料，一段不凡的音乐，或是和某个特殊的朋友在一起。） For in this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire is always at its most flawlessly perfect.（当然，在这种情况之下，我深知，渴望的对象总会完美无暇。） Which is why I would carry the preservation of appetite to the extent of deliberate fasting, simply because I think that appetite is too good to lose, too precious to be bludgeoned into insensibility by satiation and over-doing it.（这便是为什么我会一直控制胃口，几近蓄意绝食，仅是因为在我看来，如此绝妙的胃口切不可消失，如此宝贵的胃口绝不能因心满意足和过分享受被沦为麻木迟钝[h7] 。）



For that matter, I don’t really want three square meals a day—I want one huge, delicious, orgiastic, table-groaning blow-out, say every four days, and then not be too sure where the next one is coming from.（为那件事[h8] ，我并不真希望每天一日三餐，我倒是愿意，例如每四天享受一次风味俱全，佳酒美酿的豪华盛宴，然后对于何时何日还能再一享美味毫无概念[h9] 。） 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 of supreme indulgence.（禁食一天对我而言并不仅是清教徒禁欲的一种方式，却是一个期待至高无上享受的难得机会。）



Fasting is an act of homage to the majesty of appetite.（禁食是对胃口的朝拜。） So I think we should arrange to give up our pleasures regularly—our food, our friends, our lovers—in order to preserve their intensity, and the moment of coming back to them.（正因如此，我觉得应该时不时放弃快乐---[h10] 食物，朋友，爱人---以保护那份由此而来[h11] 强烈的享受，以及重新拥有的时刻。） For this is the moment that renews and refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves.（正是这一时刻，让我们自己还有喜爱之物不断保持新鲜气[h12] 。） Sailors and travelers enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose.（据我推测，海员，旅行者曾有这经验，还有猎人。） 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.（现代生活枯燥乏味的其中一部分便在于，我们在太多方面达到极限，过于频繁地被取悦和喂养[h13] 。） Once we were separated by hunger both from our food and families, and then we learned to value both.（一旦因为饥饿我们和食物家人分隔两地[h14] ，便会体会到两者的价值。） The men went off hunting, and the dogs went with them; the women and children waved goodbye.（男人外出狩猎，猎狗尾随其后；女人和孩子挥手告别。） The cave was empty of men for days on end; nobody ate, or knew what to do.（连续还几天男人都不在山洞[h15] ，没人进食，不知该做什么[h16] 。） The women crouched by the fire, the wet smoke in their eyes; the children wailed; everybody was hungry.（女人蹲坐在火边，泪眼朦胧[h17] ，孩子们嚎啕大哭，所有人都饥饿非常。） Then one night there were shouts and the barking of dogs from the hills, and the men came back loaded with meat.（终于有天夜晚，从山上传来猎狗的吠叫声，男人扛着肉回家了。） This was the great reunion, and everybody gorged themselves silly, and appetite came into its own;（在这个激动人心的团圆上，所有人都不顾形象狼吞虎咽，胃口一展绝技；[h18] ）the long-awaited meal became a feast to remember and an almost sacred celebration of life.（企盼已久的食物成了盛宴，永存记忆[h19] ，几乎成为生命中神圣的一场庆祝典礼[h20] 。）Now we go off to the office and come home in the evenings to cheap chicken and frozen peas.（而现在我们晚上下班回家后，啃着廉价的鸡肉和冷冻的豌豆。） Very nice, but too much of it, too easy and regular, served up without effort or wanting.（味道倒也不差，可太多了，太易获得，太常食用，不费丝毫气力或心思就能吃到。[h21] ） We eat, we are lucky, our faces are shining with fat, but we don’t know the pleasure of being hungry any more.（有吃有喝，我们是幸运的[h22] ，脸上的脂肪发着油光[h23] ，可对于饥饿的乐趣，我们再不会体会到了[h24] 。）



Too much of anything—too much music, entertainment, happy snacks, or time spent with one’s friends—creates a kind of impotence of living by which one can no longer hear, or taste, or see, or love, or remember.（凡事太过，太多的音乐，娱乐，零食，花太长的时间和朋友在一起，使[h25] 人无法再听，尝，视，爱或记忆[h26] ，失去生活的能力。） Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of its guardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death.（生命[h27] 短暂而珍贵，胃口就是生命的守护神之一，胃口的消逝便是一种死亡。） So if we are to enjoy this short life we should respect the divinity of appetite, and keep it eager and not to [h28] much blunted.（所以如果希望享受这一转瞬即逝[h29] 的生命，我们应该尊重胃口的神圣[h30] ，确保胃口强烈而不钝化。）



It is a long time now since I knew that acute moment of bliss that comes from putting parched lips to a cup of cold water.（早在很久以前，我就体会到当口干舌燥之时，干裂的双唇贴近一杯冰水时那种切肤感恩[h31] 之情。） The springs are still there to be enjoyed—all one needs is the original thirst.（泉水仍在，待人亲[h32] 睐，所需要的仅是当初的干渴[h33] [h34] 。）


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[h1]你欠我一个句号吧？侯注，2007年12月15日星期六

[h2]好好好

[h3]什么经历？此时汉语倾向于明白

[h4]标点呢？

[h5]原文这是状语哟

[h6]你是如何断句的？

[h7]整句译得好棒

[h8]哪件？英语的说法是“为此，鉴于此”的意思吧

[h9]不妥吧

[h10]符号写法不妥，下同

[h11]定语么？

[h12]俗

[h13]哈！改一说法吧，“纵饮纵食”如何？

[h14]原文的“饥饿”是隐喻。你的译文有问题

[h15]为什么要调整语序呢？

[h16]意思是对的。“茫然无措”如何？

[h17]捏造吧？“眼睛被烟熏得睁不开”如何？

[h18]你是这样给我断句的啊！？

[h19]合成：“难忘的……”

[h20]累赘了，“庆典”、“盛典”都可以的。

[h21]整句译得不够味：“好是好，就是……”

[h22]不够紧凑

[h23]不够凝练

[h24]同上

[h25]空格太大

[h26]不好读

[h27]加“因此”如何？

[h28]应该是too。

[h29]太夸张了。我要活100年的。

[h30]颠倒过来更地道。

[h31]鬼扯。另外，全句的含义是“现在要……”你的译文要避免纯粹叙旧的含义。你看看王兰兰的译法。比你的好些。

[h32]拼写错误

[h33]全文译得较好。比一般同学好。错误很少。多少分？等到心急如焚时我会告诉你的。90分！加油！

[h34]好。