Appetite 渴求

（Laurie Lee劳里.李）

翻译：王兰兰

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.生活的一大乐趣就是对各种事物的[h1] 渴求，我们应该在生活中保持这种渴求[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.它使我们对生活满怀热情。对食物的渴望这种身体感官显示我们仍然充满好奇和热情的生活着，希望探寻世界上各种美妙的滋味。[h3] 

  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. 提到渴求，我当然不单指对食物的胃口，而是每一种未得到满足的渴望。它是血液中燃烧的激情――不只满足于你生活中拥有的东西，对生活的热情从未消失殆尽。Wilde said he felt sorry for those who never got their heart’s desire, but sorrier still for those who did.维尔德[h4] 曾说，对心灵深处的愿望从未得到满足的人表示遗憾，但他更为愿望被满足的人悲哀[h5] 。I got mine once only, and it nearly killed me, and I’ve always preferred wanting to having since.我的渴求曾经得到满足，却让我非常难过。那之后我更愿意保持渴求的状态而不是真正的拥有。

  For appetite, to me, is this state of wanting, which keeps one’s expectations alive.渴求对我而言是迫切的想拥有的状态，使人充满活力的期待。 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.我还是小孩的时候就明白了这个道理。当时生活中没有太多可以随意挥霍享受的物资，我发现将一颗太妃糖放进嘴里之前盯着看它更让我心情愉悦。 True, the first bite was delicious, but once the toffee was gone one was left with nothing, neither toffee nor lust.第一口的滋味的确美妙，但糖吃完了什么都没留下，包括对它的渴望。 Besides, the whole toffeeness of toffees was imperceptibly diminished by the gross act of having eaten it. treasure-house of flavors而且整个因太妃糖带来的喜悦在粗俗的咀嚼中逐渐消失了。No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an inexhaustible可不能这么做。最好就想着它，坐着看着它，这样给我无穷无尽的乐趣。

  So, for me, one of the keenest pleasures of appetite remains in the wanting, not the satisfaction. 因此，对我来说，渴求的最大乐趣在于渴望拥有的过程而不是最终的满足[h6] In wanting a peach, or a whisky, or a particular texture or sound, or to be with a particular friend. 渴望吃个桃子，喝口威士忌，拥有某件衣服[h7] ，听到美妙的声音[h8] ，或者某个朋友的陪伴[h9] 。For in this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire is always at its most flawlessly perfect. 这种情况下，我知道我渴望的东西总是不完美的。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.因此我刻意的克制来保留我的渴望。随意的满足或者过度的享用使这种渴望被丢弃或破坏就太可惜了。

  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，我不想要平常的一日三餐。我希望摆满餐桌的美味盛宴。可能每四天一次就足够了。而且不想知道什么时候可以再享用一次。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.。一日的禁食对我而言不是剥夺乐趣的宗教仪式[h10] ，而让我更加期待尽情享受食物的珍贵时刻。

  Fasting is an act of homage to the majesty of appetite. 我们禁食是向我们的胃口致敬。 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.同样的，我们在平时也应克制一下满足我们对食物，友情，爱情的欲望，让这些渴求更为激烈，使再次享有时更有乐趣。For this is the moment that renews and refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves.这时我们自己和渴求的事物都更有活力。 Sailors and travelers enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose.我以为船员，出门旅游的人，包括猎人都曾经享受到这种乐趣。 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. 现代生活给人的厌倦感一部分可能就来自于我们彼此依存，一日三餐，工作、娱乐，生活过于规律[h11] 。Once we were separated by hunger both from our food and families, and then we learned to value both.一旦与家人分离，挨饥受饿，我们就更珍视家人和食物。The men went off hunting, and the dogs went with them; the women and children waved goodbye.远古社会，丈夫们带着狗离家打猎，妻儿们挥手告别。 The cave was empty of men for days on end; nobody ate, or knew what to do.洞穴几日没有丈夫的身影，妻儿没东西吃，不知该做点什么。 The women crouched by the fire, the wet smoke in their eyes; the children wailed; everybody was hungry.妻子们蜷在火堆旁，眼中含泪[h12] ，小孩饿的嚎啕大哭[h13] 。 Then one night there were shouts and the barking of dogs from the hills, and the men came back loaded with meat. 一夜，深山里传来狗吠和欢呼声，男人们满载而归[h14] 。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.这是多欢快的重聚，每个人都吃撑了肚子，胃口得到极大的满足。期待的一餐变成饕餮盛宴，让人铭记的生活庆典。 Now we go off to the office and come home in the evenings to cheap chicken and frozen peas. 现在的我们每天下班回家，晚餐只是炸鸡和冻过的豆子。Very nice, but too much of it, too easy and regular, served up without effort or wanting. 这其实也不错，但是没有精心准备的食物大量的摆在餐桌上，让人没有期待。We eat, we are lucky, o[h15] ur faces are shining with fat, but we don’t know the pleasure of being hungry any more.我们大口的吃到满脸油光，也是很幸运的，但是我们不再了解饥饿后享受食物的愉悦

  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.我们的生活中充斥着过量的音乐，娱乐，食物。我们花大量的时间与朋友相处。这让我们同时对生活有种无力感，难以享受听觉、味觉、视觉的盛宴及爱情带来的幸福感，没有值得记忆的东西。Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of its guardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death. 生活短暂而弥足珍贵[h16] ，渴求是幸福生活的保障，缺乏渴求就是对生活的舍弃。 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.为享受我们短暂的生活，我们要珍视生活中急切的而非愚钝的渴求[h17] 

  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. 当我干渴的嘴唇触碰到一杯冰水时，我感到极大的喜悦。我很久未曾享受到这种时刻了。[h18] The springs are still there to be enjoyed—all one needs is the original thirst.只要有独特的渴望，我们仍然可以享受每一个宜人的春天[h19] [h20] 。