《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 34 (72):悲傷的氣氛大綱
Thanksgiving turkey, though he's seen them in pictures. He thinks it should be easy to replicate such a feast (especially with the help of me, a real American). He says we can use the kitchen of his friends Mario and Simona, who have a nice big house in the mountains outside Rome, and who always host Luca's birthday parties.
盧卡•斯帕蓋蒂今年的生日正好是美國感恩節，因此想爲自己的生日派對準備火雞大餐。他從未吃過肥美的美國感恩節烤火雞，儘管他曾在圖片上看過。他認爲複製這類大餐並不難（尤其有我這道地的美國人協助）。他說我們可以用他朋友馬里奧和席莫娜的廚房，他們在羅馬郊區山上有棟大房子，總是爲盧卡辦生日派對。So here was Luca's plan for the festivities—he would pick me up at around seven o'clock at night, after he'd finished work, and then we would drive north out of Rome for an hour or so to his friends' house (where we would meet the other attendees of the birthday party) and we'd drink some wine and all get to know each other, and then, probably around 9:00 PM, we would commence to roasting a twenty-pound turkey . . .
爲了準備這頓大餐，盧卡的計劃是——下班後，晚間七點過來接我，而後開車北上，出城約一個小時後抵達朋友家（我們將在那裏遇上出席派對的其他人），然後我們將喝些酒，認識彼此，而後在九點左右開始烤二十磅的火雞……I had to do some explaining to Luca about how much time it takes to roast a twenty-pound turkey. I told him his birthday feast would probably be ready to eat, at that rate, around dawn the next day. He was destroyed. "But what if we bought a very small turkey? A just-born turkey?"
我不得不跟盧卡說明，烤一隻二十磅的火雞必須花多少時間。我跟他說，以這種速度，大概隔天黎明時分才吃得到火雞大餐。他大失所望。“那買一隻很小的火雞如何？一隻出生不久的火雞？”
I said, "Luca—let's make it easy and have pizza, like every other good dysfunctional American family does on Thanksgiving."
我說：“盧卡——我們弄簡單點，吃比薩餅吧，美國的每個病態家庭在感恩節都這麼吃。”But he's still sad about it. Though there's a general sadness around Rome right now, anyway. The weather has turned cold. The sanitation workers and the train employees and the national airline all went on strike on the same day. A study has just been released saying that 36 percent of Italian children have an allergy to the gluten needed to make pasta, pizza and bread, so there goes Italian culture. Even worse, I recently saw an article with the shocking headline: "Insoddisfatte 6 Donne su 10!" Meaning that six out of ten Italian women are sexually unsatisfied. Moreover, 35 percent of Italian men are reporting difficulty maintaining un'erezione, leaving researchers feeling very perplessi indeed, and making me wonder if SEX should be allowed to be Rome's special word anymore, after all.
但他依然感到悲傷。儘管近來的羅馬也瀰漫着一種悲傷氣氛。天氣變冷了。清潔工、火車僱員和國內航空全在同一天鬧罷工。近來發布的一則研究報導指出，百分之三十六的意大利孩童對製作麪食、比薩和麪包必不可少的麪筋過敏，讓人對意大利文化憂心忡忡。最近我看到一篇文章，標題令人震驚：“Insoddisfatte 6 Donne su 10!”意思是“十個意大利女人有六個慾求不滿”。此外，百分之三十五（勃起），令研究人員大感“perplessi（困惑），也令我懷疑“性”是否應該繼續作爲羅馬的特殊用詞。In more serious bad news, nineteen Italian soldiers have recently been killed in The Americans' War (as it is called here) in Iraq—the largest number of military deaths in Italy since World War II. The Romans were shocked by these deaths and the city closed down the day the boys were buried. The wide majority of Italians want nothing to do with George Bush's war. The involvement was the decision of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister (more commonly referred to around these parts as l'idiota). This intellect-free, soccer-club-owning businessman, with his oily film of corruption and sleaze, who regularly embarrasses his fellow citizens by making lewd gestures in the European parliament, who has mastered the art of speaking l'aria fritta ("fried air"), who expertly manipulates the media (not difficult when you own it), and who generally behaves not at all like a proper world leader but rather like a Waterbury mayor (that's an inside joke for Connecticut residents only—sorry), has now engaged the Italians in a war they see as none of their business whatsoever.
更嚴重的壞消息是，十九名意大利士兵最近在“美國人的戰爭”（這裏的人如此稱呼）中，喪命於伊拉克——自二戰以來，意軍最高的死亡數字。這些士兵的死令羅馬人大感震驚；埋葬這些年輕人的當天，全城歇業。絕大部分的意大利人都不想和布什的戰爭有任何瓜葛。介入戰爭是意大利前首相貝盧斯科尼（Silvio Berlusconi；這地方的人更常稱他爲“l'diota”［白癡］）所下的決定。這個愚蠢、擁有足球會的生意人，以其卑鄙腐敗的行徑，經常在歐盟議會上做出下流之舉，使他的人民同胞感到難堪。他精通空口說白話的藝術，熟練地操控媒體（這一點都不難，只要你擁有媒體），他的一舉一動絲毫不像體面的世界領袖，倒像是瓦特伯利市（Waterbury）市長（康州居民才聽得懂這個笑話——抱歉），如今讓意大利人介入一場在他們看來跟他們毫不相干的戰爭。"They died for freedom," Berlusconi said at the funeral of the nineteen Italian soldiers, but most Romans have a different opinion: They died for George Bush's personal vendetta. In this political climate, one might think it would be difficult to be a visiting American. Indeed, when I came to Italy, I expected to encounter a certain amount of resentment, but have received instead empathy from most Italians. In any reference to George Bush, people only nod to Berlusconi, saying, "We understand how it is—we have one, too."
“他們爲自由而死。”貝盧斯科尼在十九位意大利士兵的葬禮上說道。不過多數的羅馬人看法不同：“他們爲小布什的個人恩怨而死。”在這種政治氣氛下，你或許認爲對一個美國訪客而言並不好過。我來意大利時，的確預期會遭遇許多憎恨情緒，但卻發現多數意大利人都感同身受“我們瞭解你的感受——因爲我們也有一個這樣的總統。”We've been there.
我們到過那裏。
