【每天读一点英文】gnuhpc注释版：Appetite

Appetite

By Laurie Lee(1914—1997)

One of the major pleasures in life is appetite, and one of our major duties should be to preserve it. 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（[mul·ti·tu·di·nous || ‚mʌltɪ'tjuːdɪnəs]adj. 大量的; 多种多样的; 群集的） flavors and juices.

By appetite, of course, I don’t mean just the lust（[lʌst]n. 贪欲, 色欲, 欲望） 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. 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.
For appetite, to me, is this state of wanting, which keeps one’s expectations alive. I remember learning the lesson long ago as a child, when treats and orgies（['ɔ:dʒi] n. 纵酒狂欢, 放荡） were few, and when I discovered that the greatest pitch of happiness was not in actually eating a toffee（[tof·fee || 'tɑfɪ /'tɒf-]n. 乳脂糖, 太妃糖） but in gazing at it beforehand. 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. No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an inexhaustible treasure-house of flavors.

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. 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（bludgeon ['blʌdʒən] n. 棍棒vt. 棒击, 胁迫） into insensibility by satiation and over-doing it.

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. A day of fasting（禁食; 斋戒） is not for me just a puritanical（[pu·ri·tan·i·cal || ‚pjʊrɪ'tænɪkl /‚pjʊə-]adj. 道德上严格的; 禁欲的） device for denying oneself a pleasure, but rather a way of anticipating a rare moment of supreme indulgence.

Fasting is an act of homage（[hom·age || 'hɑmɪdʒ /'hɒm-]n. 尊崇, 效忠, 尊敬） to the majesty（majesty ['mædʒisti] n.最高权威, 威严, 庄严） of appetite. 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. For this is the moment that renews and refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves. Sailors and travelers enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose. 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. 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. The cave was empty of men for days on end; nobody ate, or knew what to do. The women crouched by the fire, the wet smoke in their eyes; the children wailed; everybody was hungry. Then one night there were shouts and the barking of dogs from the hills, and the men came back loaded with meat. 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. Now we go off to the office and come home in the evenings to cheap chicken and frozen peas. Very nice, but too much of it, too easy and regular, served up without effort or wanting. We eat, we are lucky, our faces are shining with fat, but we don’t know the pleasure of being hungry any more.

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. Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of its guardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death. So if we are to enjoy this short life we should respect the divinity（[di·vin·i·ty || dɪ'vɪnətɪ]n. 神; 神性; 神学） of appetite, and keep it eager and not to much blunted.

It is a long time now since I knew that acute moment of bliss that comes from putting parched（['pɑrtʃt /'pɑːt-]adj. 炒过的, 干透的, 焦的） lips to a cup of cold water. The springs are still there to be enjoyed—all one needs is the original thirst.

转翻译：论“欲”

原著：（英）劳里•李（1914—1997）

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欲之所尽，乃人生一大快事。欲之所存，乃人生一大追求。欲为何物？对生活的热诚，对万物的好奇以及渴望的热切。心中所想的是“吃”遍天下，尝尽世间的酸甜苦辣、人生百味。

欲者，并非专指食欲，而乃渴望而不及之状态，以及那证明你永不满足、活力依旧的满腔热血。王尔德曾言：梦不圆者我同情之，圆梦者我愈加同情之。圆梦对我来说只有一次，却也差点要了我的命。之后的我，更喜向往而非拥有。

在我心里，欲即“向往进行时”——无时无刻不充满期待。这点我很早就意识到了。孩提时代没什么乐子，要说最大的乐子，莫过于眼睛骨碌碌地盯着太妃糖吞口水，而不动嘴咬一口。要是咬了，当然第一口回味无穷，然而几口过后，不单糖没有了，味儿也荡然无存。况且，不知不觉中，太妃糖独特的“太妃味”也被舌头、牙齿悄悄赶跑了。所以不如倚身而坐，痴痴观之，切切盼之，用心享受那无穷无尽的珍奇百味。

于是在我看来，欲之极乐最见于向往之时，而非心随所愿之刻。一只蜜桃，一盏浊酒，一匹好布，一曲销魂，一友相伴，此等种种，向往便是极乐。因我深知：向往之时，心中之人、之物总是处于完美无瑕的最高境界。正是因为此等向往，我甚至可以不吃不喝，以存食欲。只因欲之极乐，唯恐失去；欲之不易，唯恐纵欲饱食而失其敏锐。

这样一来，我所向往的便不是一日三餐都大鱼大肉，而是每隔几天，比如四天，备好一大桌美味佳肴，尽享狂欢之乐，听那满载美食的桌子吱嘎吱嘎的欢唱。敢问佳肴何时再来，把酒问青天。对我而言，禁食一天远非清教式的节欲，而是通向不可多得的极乐世界的阶梯。

禁欲乃是为了尊重欲望之庄严。因此，无论是对于佳肴美食，三朋四友，或是花前月下，我们都可以每隔一段时间，有意地节制其中之乐，以确保乐之强烈，留住重获极乐的时刻。唯有此时此刻，我们全身上下才焕然一新，我们心爱之人才光彩照人，我们心怡之物才令人耳目一新。此等快感，我想那些水手、旅客和猎人定深有体会。世人也许都看腻了彼此面孔，吃腻了山珍海味，所以充满着倦意。而一旦忍饥挨饿，背井离乡，他们才懂得珍惜，珍惜桌上的美食，家中的亲人。想想原始时代，男人们时常挥手告别女人和孩子，带上猎狗外出狩猎。接连数日男人不归，洞中的家人忍饥挨饿，不知所措。只见女人蜷缩在火堆旁，烟雾浸湿双眼；又闻孩子饿得哭个不停，人人肚子饿得直叫。直到某天晚上，他们听见山里有人在呼喊、狗在嚎叫。男人们回来啦！有肉吃啦！这顿饭成了一顿丰盛的团圆饭，饥饿让他们胃口大开，大家狼吞虎咽，不可理喻。这顿饭仿佛等了好几个世纪，如此丰盛，刻骨铭心，几乎成了生活的神圣庆典。但是现在的人们，白天上班，晚上回家，吃的却是廉价鸡肉和冷冻青豆之类的东西。这些菜固然美味，但做法简单，轻而易举即可上桌，经常食用，食欲消失殆尽。我们非常幸运，顿顿饱餐，油光满面。但是我们再也体会不到饥肠辘辘时的乐趣了。

凡事多不得——音乐欣赏多了，娱乐享受多了，零食享用多了，或是与朋友相处久了，人就会变得对生活力不从心，再也无法聆听世间美妙的声音，无法品尝人间百味，无法饱览天下美景，无法经历花前月下，无法留住片片回忆。人生在世，短短数十年；生命可贵，需欲望之神将其守护。欲在人在，欲亡人亡。生命诚短暂，我们仍可乐在其中，只要我们将欲望之神供奉，让欲望之火熊熊燃烧，永不熄灭。

很早以前我就懂得，当我们干裂的双唇触碰到冰凉的甘泉，都按捺不住心中的狂喜。甘泉还是甘泉，等待着人们的品尝——而人类所需要的正是那种原始的饥渴，原始的欲望。