2016年4月, 紐約客雜誌刊了一篇專欄作家凱文崔林所寫的一首詩. 描述近年來在美國餐飲界不斷出現中國各省份的美食. 我當時正好櫻櫻美代子,所以把它翻譯成中文打油詩, 自娛娛人.
Have they run out of provinces yet?
If they haven’t, we’ve reason to fret.
他們的省份全都出場了嗎?
如果沒有, 那豈不讓我們的頭皮持續發麻.
Long ago, there was just Cantonese.
(Long ago, we were easy to please.)
很久以前, 我們只有廣東菜系.
(很久以前. 我們一點都不挑剔.)
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.
然後四川菜開始出場,
讓廣東菜不再受到讚揚.
四川菜廣受我們歌頌,
即使麻婆辣得你的舌頭不管用.
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.
然後上海菜也來湊熱鬧
湯包裡的湯水讓大家吸得噴噴叫.
再來是老毛出生地的湖南,
它獨特的菜餚也出來發難.
So we thought we were finished, and then
A new province arrived: Fukien.
我們以為省份之爭到此消聲,
沒想到又冒出了福建省.
Then respect was a fraction of meagre
For those eaters who’d not eaten Uighur.
然後你這個食客會被批評得一無是處
只因為你從沒嘗過維吾爾食物.
And then Xi’an from Shaanxi gained fame,
Plus some others—too many to name.
近來陝西西安菜開始受到擁戴,
再加上其它省份 ---- 族繁不及列載.
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?
現在每當新的省名出場,
我們就開始心驚膽寒.
會不會我們自認為剛發現的新大陸
竟然是別一個省的候補?
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.
我承認,我們不免會懷念
往日簡單無愁的炒麵,
想當年我們從不感覺有冒任何風險
是否另有那個省我們還沒嘗過鮮.
Is there one tucked away near Tibet?
Have they run out of provinces yet?
有可能在西藏的旁邊還躲著一個省嗎?
他們還有其它的省嗎?
-Joe
