赵明翻译（评论者：侯国金）：

   Appetite

 渴盼

（Laurie Lee）

（劳丽.[h1] 李）

  One of the major pleasures in life is appetite, and one of our major duties should be to preserve it. （渴盼乃生活中最重要的乐趣之一，永葆渴盼则是我们之天责。[h2] ）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.（渴盼就是[h3] 生活有盼头；渴盼使人神志清醒：对生存尚存好奇之心，对渴望尚有力量之源，对世界尚有踏入之愿，欲品其丰富多彩的滋味和精髓。）

  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. （我所指的渴盼当然不只是意味着想吃东西的热情，而是指一切永不满足的愿望和一切使人热血澎湃的追求。这证明你还有未竟的事业，还有不竭的生命动力。）Wilde said he felt sorry for those who never got their heart’s desire, but sorrier still for those who did. I got mine once only, and it nearly killed me, and I’ve always preferred wanting to having since. （英国作家[h4] 王尔德说他为心想事不成的人感到遗憾，但是更为心想事成的人感到遗憾。我就曾经有过一次这样的经历，它几乎销蚀了我的精神追求。自那之后，我总是更愿意保持向往之情。）

  For appetite, to me, is this state of wanting, which keeps one’s expectations alive. （于我[h5] 来说，欲望就是向往的状态，它使企盼永远鲜活。）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. （我对很久以前的儿时教训，仍然记忆犹新。那时，能够犒劳和享受的东西实在太少。我发现最大的快乐不是真正地吃上太妃糖，而是之前的眼馋[h6] 。）True, the first bite was delicious, but once the toffee was gone one was left with nothing, neither toffee nor lust. （不错，第一口的味道确实好吃，但是一旦糖吃完了，就什么都没了，太妃糖没了，渴望也没了。）Besides, the whole toffeeness of toffees was imperceptibly diminished by the gross act of having eaten it. （而且，太妃糖本身的味道也会随着咀嚼而渐渐远去。） No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an inexhaustible treasure-house of flavors. （是啊，品人间百味，寻世上万宝，最美好的莫过于企盼、等待和注目。）[h7] 

  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. For in this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire is always at its most flawlessly perfect.（所以，对我而言，最令我陶醉的就是渴盼向往，而非心满意足。怎样去弄到一个桃子，弄来一杯威士忌酒，或者仅仅是获取某种韵味[h8] ，听到某种声音[h9] 。因为我清楚渴盼的东西总是完美无瑕。） 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. （我总是珍藏着这份渴盼，甚至到了故意“节食”的地步，最为简单的原因就是我认为渴盼太美好而不忍失去，渴盼太珍贵而不愿将其打入餍足过分的“冷宫[h10] ”。）

  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. （因此，我并不愿意日日饱食三餐。我想美美地大吃一顿，就假设四天才吃一次吧，吃起来毫无节制，吃得来胀得呻吟，撑破肚皮，一点不知道下一餐饭从何而来[h11] 。）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.（我节食一天，并不只是要象苦行憎那样亏待自己，而是要创设一种可以纵情享受的难得时刻[h12] 。）

  Fasting is an act of homage to the majesty of appetite. （节食是对神圣食欲的敬仰。） 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. （因而，我们应当适时地放弃拥有的快乐：美味佳肴、亲朋挚友、心爱恋人，以便保持对他们的激情，享受再会时激动人心的时刻[h13] 。）For this is the moment that renews and refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves. （无论对谁来说，这都是重拾新鲜时刻，是重振精神的时刻。）Sailors and travelers enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose.（远航水手和旅士[h14] 侠客都曾有过这样的机会，我猜想，猎手亦有过这样的经历。）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. （我们认为一部分现代生活索然无味可能是我们对什么都太清楚，我们享受太多，太容易厌倦。）Once we were separated by hunger both from our food and families, and then we learned to value both. The men went off hunting, and the dogs went with them; the women and children waved goodbye. （从前，饥饿迫使人们抛家别子，去寻找食物。之后，我们才学会了珍惜。男人带着猎犬打猎远行，女人带着孩子挥手作别。）The cave was empty of men for days on end; nobody ate, or knew what to do. （居住的洞穴连着几天都没有男丁，找不出任何吃的[h15] ，也不知道该怎么办。）The women crouched by the fire, the wet smoke in their eyes; the children wailed; everybody was hungry. （女人们蜷缩在火塘边，双眼被浓烟熏得流泪[h16] ，孩子们在大声啼哭，没有人能幸免辘辘饥肠[h17] 。）Then one night there were shouts and the barking of dogs from the hills, and the men came back loaded with meat. （突然，有一天夜晚，山上传来了喊叫声、狗吠声，男人们满载猎物[h18] 归来了。）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.（这是大团聚的时刻，人人都傻吃、特吃[h19] ，食欲大振；好不容易等来的这餐饭成了令人回味的盛宴，几乎成了生活的庆典。） Now we go off to the office and come home in the evenings to cheap chicken and frozen peas. （现在，我们上完班，晚上回到家后，就能吃上便宜的鸡肉和速冻[h20] 青豆。）Very nice, but too much of it, too easy and regular, served up without effort or wanting. （很好，但是来得太多、太容易、太经常，无需费劲，也无需渴盼即唾手可得。）We eat, we are lucky, our faces are shining with fat, but we don’t know the pleasure of being hungry any more. （我们有吃的，很幸运，油头粉面，容光焕发[h21] ，但是却再也找不到饥饿带来的快感了。）

  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.（我们真是什么都不缺: 好听的音乐啦，好玩的消遣啦，好吃的零食啦,与朋友相聚的美好时光啦等等，它们使我们的生活变得萎靡不振，对一切美好的东西都充耳不闻，食而无味，熟视无睹，无所眷恋，懒得回忆。）Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of its guardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death. （人生短暂，弥足珍贵，而渴盼则是其守护神，没有了渴盼，就是一种死亡。）So if we are to enjoy this short life we should respect the divinity of appetite, and keep it eager and not to much blunted. （因此，假如要把短暂的人生过得有滋有味，就让我们尊重渴盼的神圣，永葆激情，莫丧棱角。[h22] ）

  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. （久违了，口甘舌燥时喝到沁人心脾的凉水时的狂喜时刻！欲品甘泉之美，所需之物唯干渴难忍也！[h23] ）