民以食为天

       

      读完下面这首有关中餐的打油诗,作为中国人,你觉得被冒犯了吗?还是觉得中国土地富饶人口众多?抑或是中国人的太多精力和创造力放在了吃上,毕竟民以食为天?就是有趣的打油诗那么简单?
先介绍一下作者Calvin Trillin,自1963年起就是纽约客的常年撰稿人,内容包括幽默段子和纪实等广泛题材。当然他也是许多其它杂志的投稿人。他出版了18本书(有小说有纪实有专栏文集),很多书是畅销书。Calvin Trillin 写过不少关于吃的文章,而且也很好中餐。
Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?
BY CALVIN TRILLIN

 Have they run out of provinces yet?
If they haven’t, we’ve reason to fret.
Long ago, there was just Cantonese.
(Long ago, we were easy to please.)
But then food from Szechuan came our way,
Making Cantonese strictly passé.
Szechuanese was the song that we sung,
Though the ma po could burn through your tongue.
Then when Shanghainese got in the loop
We slurped dumplings whose insides were soup.
Then Hunan, the birth province of Mao,
Came along with its own style of chow.
So we thought we were finished, and then
A new province arrived: Fukien.
Then respect was a fraction of meagre
For those eaters who’d not eaten Uighur.
And then Xi’an from Shaanxi gained fame,
Plus some others—too many to name.
 Now, as each brand-new province appears,
It brings tension, increasing our fears:
Could a place we extolled as a find
Be revealed as one province behind?
So we sometimes do miss, I confess,
Simple days of chow mein but no stress,
When we never were faced with the threat
Of more provinces we hadn’t met.
Is there one tucked away near Tibet?
Have they run out of provinces yet? 

中文版:
他们的省份到底有完没完?
没完我们就会很烦。
很久以前只有广东餐,
(很久以前我们很容易意足心满)。
但是后来来了个四川,
搞得广东菜成了旧欢。
四川菜是我们的新宠,
虽然麻婆豆腐会把你的舌头辣穿。
然后冒出来个上海菜,
啜小笼汤包得把腮帮鼓圆。
再然后是毛的家乡湖南,
又是一种独特的佳馔。
我们以为差不多了,然后
又来个新省叫福建。
再之后没吃过维吾尔菜的人,
就不怎么遭人待见。
然后声名鹊起的是陕西的西安,
还有其他的省份-太多了数不完。
现在每当新的省份出现,
都会带给我们紧张和不安: 
每次我们发现一个新的地方,
背后是否都有一个新省遮掩?
所以我承认有时候我们会怀念,
那些只有炒面而没紧张的简单,
那时我们不需面对新的威胁,
不需和没见过的省份打个照面。
西藏附近是否还藏着个省份?
他们的省份到底有完没完?

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