美国语文第五册 第316期:论烤猪(6)

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　　The thing took wing, and now there was nothing to be seen but fire in every direction. 这样稀罕之事简直像长了翅膀。这下好了，城里不时有此起彼伏的火光冒出，

　　Fuel and pigs grew enormously dear all over the district. 劈柴与猪崽价格眼见突突地涨个不停，

　　The insurance offices one and all shut up shop. 保险当铺一家家倒闭关门；

　　People built slighter and slighter every day, 日复一日，居民窝棚越发粗制潦草，

　　until it was feared that the very science of architecture would in no long time be lost to the world. 甚至有人开始担忧，这门盖房技艺无需良久就会失传，无人承继。

　　Thus this custom of firing houses continued till in process of time, 于是，焚烧房屋的习俗延续下来，直到后来的文明进步才得以废除。

　　says my manuscript, a sage¹ arose, like our Locke, who made a discovery that the flesh of swine, or indeed of any other animal, 一位类似西方洛克的圣人横空出世，我的那本手抄本如此描述，那位睿者发现，不管猪肉，还是其他动物的肉，

　　might be cooked (burnt, as they called it) without the necessity of consuming a whole house to dress it. 无须点燃整座房屋，同样可通过烹制为食（或如中国人所说的炙烤）。

　　Then first began the rude form of a gridiron. 由此，粗陋的食物烤架最先问世，

　　Roasting by the string or spit came in a century or two later; I forget in whose dynasty. 一两百年后，成行成串的炙烤烹制方法开始流行，我可真忘了这些事发生在哪朝哪代。

　　By such slow degrees, concludes the manuscript, do the most useful, and seemingly the most obvious, arts make their way among mankind. 不过，那部手抄本给出以下结论，伴随缓慢的文明进步，那些人类生活中最为实用、似乎最为显见的生存技艺，就是这样逐渐地完善起来。

　　Without placing too implicit² faith in the account above given, 无须对上述历史尘封过分当真，

　　it must be agreed that if a worthy³ pretext⁴ for so dangerous an experiment as setting houses on fire (especially in these days) 然而，对于那种放火燃尽茅舍窝棚的危险实验（尤其在原始蛮荒时期），

　　could be assigned in favor of any culinary object that pretext and excuse might be found in Roast Pig. 我们还是深以为然；因为，如果说这类冒险价有所值，那么，烹饪史上的烤乳猪显然值得一书。

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