《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 冬 11

《四季隨筆》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中對隱士賴克羅夫特醉心于書籍、自然景色與回憶過去生活的描述，其實是吉辛的自述，作者以此來抒發(fā)自己的情感，因而本書是一部富有自傳色彩的小品文集。

吉辛窮困的一生，對文學(xué)名著的愛好與追求，以及對大自然恬靜生活的向往，在書中均有充分的反映。本書分為春、夏、秋、冬四個部分，文筆優(yōu)美，行文流暢，是英國文學(xué)中小品文的珍品之一。

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It angers me to pass a grocer's shop, and see in the window a display of foreign butter. This is the kind of thing that makes one gloom over the prospects of England. The deterioration of English butter is one of the worst signs of the moral state of our people. Naturally, this article of food would at once betray a decline in the virtues of its maker; butter must be a subject of the dairyman's honest pride, or there is no hope of its goodness. Begin to save your labour, to aim at dishonest profits, to feel disgust or contempt for your work—and the churn declares every one of these vices. They must be very prevalent, for it is getting to be a rare thing to eat English butter which is even tolerable. What! England dependent for dairy-produce upon France, Denmark, America? Had we but one true statesman—but one genuine leader of the people—the ears of English landowners and farmers would ring and tingle with this proof of their imbecility.

經(jīng)過食品店，看到櫥窗里面陳列著外國黃油，我感到一陣憤怒。正是這種事情讓人擔(dān)憂英格蘭的未來，英國黃油的衰退是我們民族道德狀態(tài)最糟糕的象征之一。自然，這種食品也同時反映出它的制造者美德上的墮落；黃油一定要是乳牛場主的驕傲，否則不能指望它的品質(zhì)優(yōu)良。如果他開始節(jié)省勞力，依靠不誠實手段獲利，厭惡或鄙視自己的工作，那攪乳器會將這些惡習(xí)一一反映出來。這種行為一定是非常普遍的，因為僅僅是讓人可以容忍的英國黃油，現(xiàn)在也越來越難以吃到了。什么！英格蘭食用的乳制品竟然要依賴從法國、丹麥和美國進(jìn)口？假使我們有一個真正的政治家——一個真正的人民領(lǐng)袖——英國的地主和農(nóng)場主的耳朵，就會聽到對他們愚蠢低能的指證而隱隱作痛了。

Nobody cares. Who cares for anything but the show and bluster which are threatening our ruin? English food, not long ago the best in the world, is falling off in quality, and even our national genius for cooking shows a decline; to anyone who knows England, these are facts significant enough. Foolish persons have prated about "our insular cuisine," demanding its reform on Continental models, and they have found too many like unto themselves who were ready to listen; the result will be, before long, that our excellence will be forgotten, and paltry methods be universally introduced, together with the indifferent viands to which they are suited. Yet, if any generality at all be true, it is a plain fact that English diet and English virtue—in the largest sense of the word—are inseparably bound together.

沒有人在意這個，除了預(yù)示我們毀滅的跡象和恐嚇外，誰還在乎其他呢？不久前還是世界頂級的英國食物，質(zhì)量正在退步，甚至我們國家烹飪天才的水平也顯示出退步；對任何了解英格蘭的人來說，這些都是意義重大的情況。愚蠢的人們空談“我們島國的烹飪術(shù)”，要求它按照歐洲大陸模式進(jìn)行改革，而且還找到了許多和他們一樣的人愿意聽；結(jié)果是，我們的優(yōu)良傳統(tǒng)不久之后會被遺忘，不高明的烹調(diào)方法和與之搭配的平庸食品，會被廣泛引進(jìn)。但是，如果確實有任何正確的普遍結(jié)論，那這個事實是很明顯的，英國飲食和英國美德——在這個詞最廣泛的意義上——是不可分割地結(jié)合在一起的。

Our supremacy in this matter of the table came with little taking of thought; what we should now do is to reflect upon the things which used to be instinctive, perceive the reasons of our excellence, and set to work to re-establish it. Of course the vilest cooking in the kingdom is found in London; is it not with the exorbitant growth of London that many an ill has spread over the land? London is the antithesis of the domestic ideal; a social reformer would not even glance in that direction, but would turn all his zeal upon small towns and country districts, where blight may perhaps be arrested, and whence, some day, a reconstituted national life may act upon the great centre of corruption. I had far rather see England covered with schools of cookery than with schools of the ordinary kind; the issue would be infinitely more hopeful. Little girls should be taught cooking and baking more assiduously than they are taught to read. But with ever in view the great English principle—that food is only cooked aright when it yields the utmost of its native and characteristic savour. Let sauces be utterly forbidden—save the natural sauce made of gravy. In the same way with sweets; keep in view the insurpassable English ideals of baked tarts (or pies, if so you call them), and boiled puddings; as they are the wholesomest, so are they the most delicious of sweet cakes yet invented; it is merely a question of having them well made and cooked. Bread, again; we are getting used to bread of poor quality, and ill-made, but the English loaf at its best—such as you were once sure of getting in every village—is the faultless form of the staff of life. Think of the glorious revolution that could be wrought in our troubled England if it could be ordained that no maid, of whatever rank, might become a wife unless she had proved her ability to make and bake a perfect loaf of bread.

我們在餐桌上的霸權(quán)，得來沒費什么思量?，F(xiàn)在我們要做的，就是思考那些過去曾是本能的東西，體會我們優(yōu)秀的原因，并著手重建它。當(dāng)然，這個王國最糟糕的烹飪在倫敦可以找到，許多惡習(xí)不正是由于倫敦的過度擴(kuò)張，才在這塊國土蔓延嗎？倫敦是家庭理想的對立面，社會改革者甚至都不愿朝那個方向掃上一眼，而把所有的熱情放在小鎮(zhèn)和鄉(xiāng)村地區(qū)，社會病害在那里或許會得到抑制，從那里重建的國民生活，有一天可能會影響到腐敗中心。比起普通學(xué)校，我更愿意看到英國遍地都是烹調(diào)學(xué)校，這樣一來，這件事成功的希望就大大增加了。比起讀書，我們應(yīng)該教授女孩子更用心地學(xué)習(xí)烹煮烘焙。但要根據(jù)偉大的英國原則——只有調(diào)出食物最天然的特有味道，才算正確的烹飪方法。徹底禁用調(diào)味料吧——除了肉湯做成的天然調(diào)味料。同樣也禁用糖果吧，請牢記烤果餡餅（或派，如果你這么叫的話）和煮布丁這些無法超越的英國理想食物吧，它們是最健康的，也是迄今發(fā)明出的甜蛋糕中最美味的，問題只在于正確地準(zhǔn)備和制作它們。再來說說面包，我們正習(xí)慣于吃粗制濫造的劣質(zhì)面包，而最好的英國面包——就是你曾經(jīng)在每一個村莊都能吃到的那種——它是生活中最完美無缺的主食。如果規(guī)定每個未婚女子，不管屬于哪個社會階層，必須證明自己能夠制作并烤出一塊完美的面包，然后才能嫁作人婦，那想想在我們堪憂的英格蘭會發(fā)生怎樣一場光榮的革命吧！