《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 15 (27):世界上最美的語言
The interesting thing about my Italian class is that nobody really needs to be there. There are twelve of us studying together, of all ages, from all over the world, and everybody has come to Rome for the same reason—to study Italian just because they feel like it. Not one of us can identify a single practical reason for being here. Nobody's boss has said to anyone, "It is vital that you learn to speak Italian in order for us to conduct our business overseas." Everybody, even the uptight German engineer, shares what I thought was my own personal motive: we all want to speak Italian because we love the way it makes us feel. A sad-faced Russian woman tells us she's treating herself to Italian lessons because "I think I deserve something beautiful." The German engineer says, "I want Italian because I love the dolce vita"—the sweet life. (Only, in his stiff Germanic accent, it ends up sounding like he said he loved "the deutsche vita"—the German life—which I'm afraid he's already had plenty of.)
我所上的這個意大利語班，其有趣的地方在於，沒有人真的需要在這。我們共有十二人，來自世界各地的各種年齡層，而每個人來羅馬的目的都一樣——只因爲想學意大利語。我們沒有一個人能講出來此地的務實面的理由。沒有任何人的長官告訴他說：“你學會講意大利語，對我們的海外事業經營至關重要。”大家，甚至連保守的德國工程師，都跟我有着相同的個人動機：我們每個人都想說意大利語，因爲我們喜歡它給我們的感覺。一位面容哀傷的俄國婦女告訴我們，她讓自己學意大利語是因爲“我想我應該得到美好的事物”；德國工程師則說：“我要學意大利語，因爲我喜愛‘dolce vita’——甜蜜生活。”（只不過，生硬的德國腔聽起來就像他說他喜愛“deutsche vita”——德國生活——這恐怕他已擁有很多。）
As I will find out over the next few months, there are actually some good reasons that Italian is the most seductively beautiful language in the world, and why I'm not the only person who thinks so. To understand why, you have to first understand that Europe was once a pandemonium of numberless Latin-derived dialects that gradually, over the centuries, morphed into a few separate languages—French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian. What happened in France, Portugal and Spain was an organic evolution: the dialect of the most prominent city gradually became the accepted language of the whole region. Therefore, what we today call French is really a version of medieval Parisian. Portuguese is really Lisboan. Spanish is essentially Madrileño. These were capitalist victories; the strongest city ultimately determined the language of the whole country.
接下來的幾個月，我發現，確實有充分的理由證明，意大利語是世界上最美麗誘人的語言，而且不止我一個人這麼想。想了解原因，你得先了解歐洲曾經混雜無數衍生於拉丁文的方言，在數世紀期間，逐漸變形爲數種獨立的語言——法語、葡萄牙語、西班牙語、意大利語。發生於法國、葡萄牙和西班牙的，是一種有組織的發展過程：最知名的城市所說的方言，逐漸成爲整個地區公認的語言。因此，我們今天所稱的法語，事實上是中古巴黎語的一種版本。葡萄牙語，事實上是里斯本語。西班牙語，基本上是馬德里語。這些都是資本主義的勝利；整個國家的語言，最終取決於最強盛的城市。
Italy was different. One critical difference was that, for the longest time, Italy wasn't even a country. It didn't get itself unified until quite late in life (1861) and until then was a peninsula of warring city-states dominated by proud local princes or other European powers. Parts of Italy belonged to France, parts to Spain, parts to the Church, parts to whoever could grab the local fortress or palace. The Italian people were alternatively humiliated and cavalier about all this domination. Most didn't much like being colonized by their fellow Europeans, but there was always that apathetic crowd that said, "Franza o Spagna, purchè se magna," which means, in dialect, "France or Spain, as long as I can eat."
意大利則不同。其中一個關鍵性的差別在於，意大利有很長一段時間甚至不是一個國家。它在相當晚期才統一起來（1861年），而在此之前，一直都是由地方諸侯或其他歐洲勢力所掌控的諸個敵對城邦所構成的一個半島。意大利的部分地區隸屬於法國，部分地區屬於西班牙，部分地區屬於教會，部分地區則屬於地方要塞或城堡的佔領者。意大利人民對這些統治時而感到屈辱，時而無所憂慮。多數人不太喜歡受他們的歐洲同胞殖民統治，卻始終存在着漠不關心的羣衆，他們說“Franza o Spagna，purchèmagna.”以方言來說，意思是：“管他法國或西班牙，吃得飽就好。”
All this internal division meant that Italy never properly coalesced, and Italian didn't either. So it's not surprising that, for centuries, Italians wrote and spoke in local dialects that were mutually unfathomable. A scientist in Florence could barely communicate with a poet in Sicily or a merchant in Venice (except in Latin, of course, which was hardly considered the national language). In the sixteenth century, some Italian intellectuals got together and decided that this was absurd. This Italian peninsula needed an Italian language, at least in the written form, which everyone could agree upon. So this gathering of intellectuals proceeded to do something unprecedented in the history of Europe; they handpicked the most beautiful of all the local dialects and crowned it Italian.
這一切的內部分歧意味着，意大利未曾統合爲一，意大利語亦然。因此有數世紀的時間，意大利人以彼此無法理解的地方方言說話與書寫。一位佛羅倫薩科學家可能幾乎無法和一位西西里詩人或一位威尼斯商人溝通（當然，除了使用不被認爲是國語的拉丁文之外 ）。16世紀期間，一些意大利知識分子聚集在一起，堅決認爲這個情況荒謬可笑。這個意大利半島需要一種意大利語言，至少必須有一種統一的書寫形式；大家對此達成共識。於是這一羣知識分子就着手進行一件歐洲史無前例的事情：他們親自挑選出最美的方言，稱之爲“意大利語”。
