Calvin Trillin: US poet defends Chinese food poem

The work - Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet? - was published in the latest edition of the New Yorker.

最新一期的《纽约客》上刊登了一篇名为《中国人还没有玩够省的把戏吗？》的诗歌。

In it he name-checks a number of branches of regional Chinese cookery. Critics attacked the poem as unfunny and prejudiced.

这篇诗歌细数了中国部分区域的美食。批评家认为这首诗无趣而且充满偏见。

But Trillin told the Guardian it "was simply a way of making fun of food-obsessed bourgeoisie".

但特里林告诉《卫报》，说这首诗“只不过是向迷恋食物的资产阶级开的一个玩笑”。

A food writer as well as regular contributor to the New Yorker, he added: "Some years ago, a similar poem could have been written about food snobs who looked down on red-sauce Italian cooking because they had discovered the cuisine of Tuscany."

作为一名食物专栏作家和《纽约客》的定期供稿人，特里林在此事上还说道：“几年前也有类似批评食物的诗歌被发表，那些对食物吹毛求疵的人撰文抨击、鄙视在意大利菜中加红酱的做法，因为他们发现了更加高雅的托斯卡纳（注：意大利的一个区，首府是佛罗伦萨）美食。”

His latest work begins: "Have they run out of provinces yet? If they haven’t, we’ve reason to fret."

特里林的这篇作品开篇写道：“中国人还没有玩够省的把戏吗？如果是，那么，我们就有的烦了。”

It continues with a culinary tour around China. "But then food from Szechuan came our way / Making Cantonese strictly passe," he writes, later forming rhymes around "Szechuanese", "Shanghainese" "Hunan" and "Fukien".

这首诗随后开始描述中国各地的食物。特里林写道：“后来遇到四川菜，粤菜我们再不爱，”此后的诗句都围绕着四川人、上海人、湖南和福建押韵。

"Could a place we extolled as a find," he asks, "Be revealed as one province behind?"

他在诗中发问道：“是否应该赞美新发现的彼方，而糟践抛弃熟悉的己方？”

Trillin and the New Yorker have come under fire from writers and critics.

来自作家和批评家的口诛笔伐把特里林和《纽约客》推到了风口浪尖。

Poet and performer Franny Choi responded with her own poem, Have They Run Out of White Poets Yet? which mirrors the structure of Trillin’s work.

诗人、表演家Franny Choi用自己的诗做了回应。她的新诗《白人还没有玩够诗歌的把戏吗？》完全复制特里林的结构，给与了他辛辣的讽刺。

In it she describes Trillin as "a sad send-up of Dr Seuss decked in his finest anti-Asian regalia".

在她的诗歌里，Franny描述特里林是“一个悲哀的、装饰着最精美反亚裔徽章的、苏斯博士的追随者。”

Others though were baffled by the response and agreed with Trillan’s defence.

尽管特里林受到很多批评，但还是有人相信他写这首诗是为了讽刺资产阶级，而不是歧视亚裔。

And Chinese-American writer Kaiser Kuo wrote he "honestly can’t fathom why some Chinese-Americans take such affront at Calvin Trillin’s Chinese food poem".

华裔美国作家Kaiser Kuo写道，他“实在弄不明白为什么一些华裔会因为特里林批评中国食物的诗受到如此的侮辱。”

完成阅读

来源:BBC爱语吧作者:陶祥飞