《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 26 (51):遺失的箱子大綱
I had shipped ahead a box of books to myself, right before I left New York to move to Italy. The box was guaranteed to arrive at my Roman apartment within four to six days, but I think the Italian post office must have misread that instruction as "forty-six days," for two months have passed now, and I have seen no sign of my box. My Italian friends tell me to put the box out of my mind completely. They say that the box may arrive or it may not arrive, but such things are out of our hands.
在我離開紐約、移居意大利之前，我事先運去一箱書給自己。這箱書擔保四至六天內抵達我的羅馬公寓，但我想意大利郵局肯定把指示誤解成“四十六天”，因爲兩個月過去了，卻不見箱子的蹤影。 我的意大利朋友告訴我，把箱子一事拋諸腦後吧。 他們說箱子或許會寄達或許不會寄達，這類事情不在你的掌控之中。
"Did someone maybe steal it?" I ask Luca Spaghetti. "Did the post office lose it?"
“或許被人偷了？”我問盧卡“郵局搞丟了？”
He covers his eyes. "Don't ask these questions," he says. "You'll only make yourself upset."
他矇住眼睛。“別問這些問題，”他說，“只會讓自己心煩罷了。”
The mystery of my missing box prompts a long discussion one night between me, my American friend Maria and her husband, Giulio. Maria thinks that in a civilized society one should be able to rely on such things as the post office delivering one's mail in a prompt manner, but Giulio begs to differ. He submits that the post office belongs not to man, but to the fates, and that delivery of mail is not something anybody can guarantee. Maria, annoyed, says this is only further evidence of the Protestant-Catholic divide. This divide is best proven, she says, by the fact that Italians—including her own husband—can never make plans for the future, not even a week in advance. If you ask a Protestant from the American Midwest to commit to a dinner date next week, that Protestant, believing that she is the captain of her own destiny, will say, "Thursday night works fine for me." But if you ask a Catholic from Calabria to make the same commitment, he will only shrug, turn his eyes to God, and ask, "How can any of us know whether we will be free for dinner next Thursday night, given that everything is in God's hands and none of us can know our fate?"
關於我遺失箱子之謎，有天晚上引發了我、我的美國朋友瑪莉亞和她先生朱利歐之間的長篇議論。瑪莉亞認爲在一個文明社會，你理當能仰賴郵局儘速遞送郵件這類事情，朱利歐則不以爲然。他辯稱，郵局不屬於人，而是屬於命運，郵件的遞送不是任何人能擔保的事情。瑪莉亞頗是生氣，她說這只是進一步證明新教徒和天主教徒的分歧。她說，此一分歧的最佳明證是意大利人——包括她自己的丈夫在內——永遠無法做未來的計劃，即使僅僅是一個禮拜後的事情。如果你請求美國中西部的新教徒答應下禮拜選一天吃晚飯，相信自己是自身命運主宰的新教徒會說：“週四晚上我方便。”但如果你請求卡拉布里亞（Calabria）的天主教徒做出相同承諾，他只會聳聳肩，擡頭仰望上帝，問道：“我們怎能知道下週四晚間是否有空一起吃飯？既然一切都在上帝掌控中，我們誰也不會曉得自己的命運。”
