考研英語作文:Appetite(欲望)

       Appetite

    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 numerous flavours and juices. By appetite, of course, I don’t mean just the desire 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 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. For appetite,for me,  is this state of wanting, which keeps one’ s expectations alive.

    I  remember  learning this lesson long ago as a child, when treats and indulgence were few,  and when I discovered that the greatest  pitch  happiness was not in actually eating a toffee 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 eating it. No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an endless treasure house of flavours. 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. For that matter, I don’t 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 is not for me just a device for denying oneself a pleasure, but rather a way of anticipating a rarer moment of supreme enjoyment.

    欲望

    生活中一項最大的樂趣便是有個好胃口，而我們的主要職責之一便是保持這一好胃口。食欲是對生活的一種強烈的愿望，這是一種感覺，它告訴你你仍渴望著，你還有許多渴望尚待實現，還想繼續(xù)生活在這世界上，品嘗各種風味。所謂胃口，當然，我不僅僅指對食物的熱望，而且指任何未滿足渴望的情況，任何血液的沸騰都證明了你要的不僅僅是這些，你還未好好享受人生。王爾德說他對那些從未得到滿足者表示遺憾，但對那些已經心滿意足的人更感到悲哀。欲望對我來說，是一種渴求的狀態(tài)，它使這種希望永遠存在。

    我記得懂得這一點是在很久以前，還是個孩子的時候，那時有人款待和縱酒享樂的機會很少。而我發(fā)覺最大的幸福不在于吃太妃糖，而在于吃前凝視它的那一段時間。誠然，咬第一口時味道不錯，但一旦太妃糖吃完了，一切皆化為烏有，無論是太妃糖還是欲望全都沒了。此外，太妃糖的味道也在大口咀嚼中毫無覺察地消失了。不，最重要的是對它的渴望和坐下來盯著它看時的感覺，這是踏入莢食寶庫遍嘗天下美味佳肴時才有的感覺。所以對我而言，食欲的最大樂趣之一在于對之渴求，而非滿足感。我要故意禁食來保持食欲，原因是食欲太好而不能喪失，太珍貴而不能過度吃喝以至麻木。對此，我不想過一天三頓的正常生活，而想每四天來一頓豐富可口的莢味佳肴，大吃大喝一頓，接下來不知下一頓從何而來。一天的禁食對我來說并非像清教徒那樣被剝奪了快樂，而是期待更多縱情享樂的一種方式。