Appetite 译文
·
Appetite
渴望
（Laurie Lee）
（劳丽·李）
One of the major pleasures in life is appetite, and one of our major duties should be to preserve it. 渴望乃生活之一大乐事，而心怀渴望则成为一项重要的任务。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[h1]into the world and taste its multitudinous flavors and juices.渴望意味着对生活充满热情，这种感觉表明你依然希冀生活，热衷梦想，向往探索世界，历尽世间百味百态。
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.当然，我所说的“渴望”不单指对食物的欲望，而指所有欲求未满的状态，及血液中燃烧的激情，这炽热的激情证明你希望收获更多，你的生命力并未耗尽。Wilde said he felt sorry for those who never got their heart’s desire, but sorrier still for those who did.王尔德曾说过，对未能梦想成真者，他深表惋惜；而对心愿已遂者，他则倍感遗憾。[h2]I got mine once only, and it nearly killed me, and I’ve always preferred wanting to having since.仅有一次，我如愿以偿，但就那次把我折磨得够呛，自那以后，我总是更乐于想往，而非如愿以偿[h3]。
For appetite, to me, is this state of wanting, which keeps one’s expectations alive. 因为对我来说，渴望就是这种想往的状态，它总是让人满怀期待。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.当还是小孩子时，我即对此有所感悟。那时没什么极乐之事，我发现其实最大的乐趣不在于吃太妃糖，而在于吃糖之前好好地把糖端详一阵。True, the first bite was delicious, but once the toffee was gone one was left with nothing, neither toffee nor lust. Besides, the whole toffeeness of toffees was imperceptibly diminished by the gross act of having eaten it. 没错，第一口美不胜收，然而，糖一旦吃完，你就一无所有了。太妃糖吃完了，吃糖的欲望也随之消失殆尽了。此外，在咀嚼时，太妃糖的滋味也不知不觉地减少。No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an inexhaustible treasure-house of flavors.所以最好别吃，只消坐在那盯着糖，你就能感受到太妃糖无穷无尽的美味。[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，对我来说，渴望的最大乐趣之一在于心怀想往，而非心满意足，比如，想往一只密桃，一瓶威士忌，一块特质布料[h5]，或一种美妙的声音，亦或期望与朋友团聚。For in this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire is always at its most flawlessly perfect. 因为，我知道在这种情况下，心中渴求之物总是完美无缺的。Which is why I would carry the preservation of appetite to the extent of deliberate fasting, simply because I think that appetite is too good to lose, too precious to be bludgeoned into insensibility by satiation and over-doing it.
怀着这种渴望，我特意安排了斋戒。原因很简单，我觉得渴望是极好的事，不能丧失，它弥足珍贵，不能饱食生腻，耗费过度使其沦为麻木无知之境。[h6]
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. 为此，我并不希望一日三餐顿顿丰盛可口---我只想，比如说每四天，来一顿盛宴，桌上堆满美菜佳肴，可尽情享受。大快朵颐[h7]之后，又猜想下一顿大餐将自何处来。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.斋戒一天，对我来说，不仅仅是清教徒节制享乐的一种手段，更是一种方式，借此期待难能可贵的纵乐时刻[h8]。
Fasting is an act of homage to the majesty of appetite. 斋戒是对崇高渴望的效忠[h9]。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.因此，我们应该特意定期放弃享乐---美食之乐，朋友之乐，情人之乐---以此保持对他们的强烈渴望，使回归享乐的时刻成为美好的回忆。For this is the moment that renews and refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves. 因为这一刻，我们自身及我们所爱之物似乎都焕然一新，充满新鲜感。Sailors and travelers enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose. 水手和旅行者曾经乐于此道，我想猎人们也不例外吧。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.我们厌倦现代生活，部分是因为大家生活在一块儿，天天打照面，且饮食进餐太过固定。Once we were separated by hunger both from our food and families, and then we learned to value both. 一旦与食物，家人分开，肚子发饿，想念家人时，我们就会意识到这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. 男人们带上猎狗外出打猎，女人和孩子们挥手与之告别。The cave was empty of men for days on end; nobody ate, or knew what to do. 连续数日，男人们一直未回到洞中；没有吃的，谁也不知道该干什么。The women crouched by the fire, the wet smoke in their eyes; the children wailed; everybody was hungry.女人们蜷缩
在火堆旁，泪眼迷蒙[h10]，孩子们饿得嚎啕大哭，所以人都饥肠辘辘。Then one night there were shouts and the barking of dogs from the hills, and the men came back loaded with meat. 终于，一天晚上，山谷里响起了喊叫声、狗吠声，男人们回来了！满载而归[h11]！This was the great reunion, and everybody gorged themselves silly, and appetite came into its own; the
long-awaited meal became a feast to remember and an almost sacred celebration of life. 这是一
次盛大的团聚，一个个食欲大振，狼吞虎咽，一副饿鬼相。这顿苦苦等候的晚餐变成空前盛宴，几乎成了生活神圣的庆典，让人刻骨铭心。[h12] Now we go off to the office and come home in the evenings to cheap chicken and frozen peas. 现今，我们去办公室上班，每晚下班回家，实惠鸡肉、冰冻青豆[h13]是我们的家常便饭。Very nice, but too much of it, too easy and
regular, served up without effort or wanting. 这些菜固然可口，但吃得太多，太过单一，加上长期食用，制作简单，人们都对此没多大食欲了。We eat, we are lucky, our faces are shining with fat, but we don’t know the pleasure of being hungry any more. 我们不愁吃，非常幸运；可是满脸油光闪闪的我们[h14]再也体会不到饥肠辘辘的乐趣了。
Too much of anything—too much music, ent ertainment, 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.任何东西一旦过度—-音乐听得多了，娱乐享受多了，零食吃多了，或与朋友相处久了---则会使人产生一种对生活的无能为力，于是，人们再也无法聆听，品尝，观赏，爱恋或记忆。Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of its guardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death. 生命转瞬即逝，弥足珍贵，而渴望则是其守护神之一，失却渴望也是一种死亡。So if we are to enjoy this short life we should respect the divinity of appetite, and keep it eager and not too much blunted. 所以，要享受短暂的生命，我们就应尊重渴望的神威[h15]，热心渴求，切勿让渴望钝化。
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. The springs are still there to be enjoyed—all one needs is the original thirst.很久以前，我就感悟到干渴的双唇触到一杯冷水时心中的极乐狂喜。清泉就在杯子里[h16]等人享用---而人们需要的就是最初的渴望[h17]。
翻译得可以。不过，[h1]原文的隐喻呢？
[h2]好。看我对赵的意见。
[h3]这句最好。
[h4]原文不仅说糖了。由具体到抽象了。
[h5]好。比赵的好。
[h6]我喜欢的译法。每句都这样译就可以发金猴奖了。
[h7]？
[h8]这句好
[h9]不好
[h10]很好，虽然与原文有一厘米的距离。看她人如何译的。
[h11]好棒！模糊的译法。比其他人强。
[h12]美。
[h13]你的译法是最好的。
[h14]很好！
[h15]言重了。
[h16]别说在杯子里好吗？拜托！
[h17]全篇译得很好。你用了心，我看得出。93分！猴哥，2007年12月15日星期六