《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 21 (42):享受意大利大綱

The amount of pleasure this eating and speaking brought to me was inestimable, and yet so simple. I passed a few hours once in the middle of October that might look like nothing much to the outside observer, but which I will always count amongst the happiest of my life. I found a market near my apartment, only a few streets over from me, which I'd somehow never noticed before. There I approached a tiny vegetable stall with one Italian woman and her son selling a choice assortment of their produce—such as rich, almost algae-green leaves of spinach, tomatoes so red and bloody they looked like a cow's organs, and champagne-colored grapes with skins as tight as a showgirl's leotard.

這樣的飲食與說話帶給我至高無上卻又簡單樸素的快樂。我在十月中旬度過的幾個小時，對旁觀者來說或許沒啥大不了，但我始終認爲是自己生命中最愉快的時期。我在公寓附近發現一個市場，僅幾條街之遠，我先前不曾注意到它。我走近有個意大利婦女的小蔬菜攤，她和她兒子販賣各式各樣的產品——像是葉片豐潤、綠藻色的菠菜，血紅有如動物器官的番茄，外皮緊繃的香檳色葡萄。

I selected a bunch of thin, bright asparagus. I was able to ask the woman, in comfortable Italian, if I could possibly just take half this asparagus home? There was only one of me, I explained to her—I didn't need much. She promptly took the asparagus from my hands and halved it. I asked her if I could find this market every day in the same place, and she said, yes, she was here every day, from 7:00 AM. Then her son, who was very cute, gave me a sly look and said, "Well, she tries to be here at seven . . ." We all laughed. This whole conversation was conducted in Italian—a language I could not speak a word of only a few months earlier.

我挑了一捆細長鮮豔的蘆筍。我輕鬆地用意大利語問這位婦女，能不能帶半捆蘆筍回家？我向她說明，我只有一個人，分量無需太多。她立即從我手中拿過蘆筍，分成兩半。我問她每天能否在老地方找到市場？她說，是的，她每天都在這裏，從早上七點開始。而後她俊俏的兒子表情詭祕地說：“這個嘛，她儘量想在七點來這裏……”我們全笑了。 整段談話以意大利語進行。才幾個月前，這語言我還無法講半個字呢。

I walked home to my apartment and soft-boiled a pair of fresh brown eggs for my lunch. I peeled the eggs and arranged them on a plate beside the seven stalks of the asparagus (which were so slim and snappy they didn't need to be cooked at all). I put some olives on the plate, too, and the four knobs of goat cheese I'd picked up yesterday from the formaggeria down the street, and two slices of pink, oily salmon. For dessert—a lovely peach, which the woman at the market had given to me for free and which was still warm from the Roman sunlight. For the longest time I couldn't even touch this food because it was such a masterpiece of lunch, a true expression of the art of making something out of nothing. Finally, when I had fully absorbed the prettiness of my meal, I went and sat in a patch of sunbeam on my clean wooden floor and ate every bite of it, with my fingers, while reading my daily newspaper article in Italian. Happiness inhabited my every molecule.

我走回公寓，把兩個蛋煮嫩吃午餐。我剝了蛋殼，排放在盤子上，擺在七條蘆筍旁邊（它們又細又美，根本無須烹煮）。我還在盤子裏放了幾顆橄欖，以及昨天在路上的乳酪鋪買來的四小團羊乳酪，還有兩片粉紅油嫩的鮭魚。飯後點心是一顆漂亮的桃子，是那位市場婦女免費送我的：桃子曬了羅馬的陽光，餘溫猶存。好長一段時間，我甚至無法碰這餐飯，因爲這頓午餐像是大師傑作，真正表現了無中生有的藝術。最後，充分享受菜餚之美色後，我在乾淨的木頭地板上一塊陽光中坐下，用手指頭吃掉每一口菜，一面閱讀每日的意大利語報紙。幸福進駐我的每個毛細孔中。

Until—as often happened during those first months of travel, whenever I would feel such happiness—my guilt alarm went off. I heard my ex-husband's voice speaking disdainfully in my ear: So this is what you gave up everything for? This is why you gutted our entire life together? For a few stalks of asparagus and an Italian newspaper?

直到——如同頭幾個月的旅行期間，每當我感覺到此種幸福時，經常發生的那樣——我的罪惡感警報便響起。我聽見前夫的聲音在我耳邊不屑地說： 所以，你放棄一切就爲了這個？這就是你把我們的共同生活一手摧毀的理由？爲了幾條蘆筍和一份意大利語報紙？

I replied aloud to him. "First of all," I said, "I'm very sorry, but this isn't your business anymore. And secondly, to answer your question . . . yes."

Eat, Pray, Love

我高聲回覆他：“首先，我很抱歉，這已不干你的事。其次，讓我回答你的問題……沒錯！”