總網頁瀏覽量

2010年4月15日 星期四

Neruda´s Oda a las papas fritas (French Fries)

Neruda is truly a people's poet. He never turns up his nose at such mundane subject as one of the favourite "junk" foods of the modern world: French fries. He even wrote an ode to it. Here it is with my translations:

 

Oda a las papas fritas                         Ode to French Fries                               炸著條之頌

 

Chisporrotea                                     Sizzling                                                    在噗噗之

en el aciete                                        in the bubbling                                         油中噝噝

hirviendo                                          oil                                                             作響

la alegíia                                           the joy                                                       世界之

del mundo:                                       of the world:                                              喜樂:

las papas                                           the French                                                 炸

fritas                                                 fries                                                           薯條

entran                                               are entering                                                正

en la sartén                                       the pan                                                       下鍋

como nevadas                                   like snowfalls                                             猶下雪

plumas                                             feathers                                                       晨鵝

de cisne matutino                             of morning swans                                         之羽

y salen                                             and come out                                               從橄欖

semidoradas por el crepitante           half golden by the crackling                          噼啪的琥珀色

ámbar de las olivas.                          ambers of the the olives.                              冒起其半金黄

 

el ajo                                               the garlic                                                      蒜頭

les añade                                         adds to them                                                 添上

su terrenal fragrancia,                     its earthly fragrance                                         泥土之芬香,

la pimienta,                                     the pepper                                                      古月粉,

polen que atravesó los arrecifes      pollen that crossed the reefs                飄過珊瑚礁之花粉,

y                                                     and                                                               而

vestidas                                           dressed                                                         再添  

de nuevo                                         afresh                                                           大理石

con traje de marfil, llenan el plato   with marble jackets, they fill the plate           外衣,碟上滿載

con la repetición de su abundancia with the repetition of its abundance.              重疊之豐盛

 y su sabrosa sencillez de tierra.    and its delicious simplicity of the earth.   及大地美味的簡樸。

 

In this poem, the commonest and the favourite food of most children and not a few of the adults, the potato chips or French fries, which in Spain is called "patatas fritas" and in South America called "papas fritas"  is made the subject of a poem! This tells us that Neruda is a person who considers that nothing cannot be made the subject of a poem. In fact, in addition to making the French fries the subject of his poem, to my knowledge, he has also written odes to other products of the earth like the onion (cebolla), tomato (tomate), tea (té), corn, (maiíz), apple (manzana) and  orange(naranja)  and sandia (water melon) etc.

 

In this poem, he gives in vivid terms how the white chips went into the boiling and sizzling oil with thousands of tiny bubbles of air as the olive oil heats up in the frying pan.  He compares the uncooked chips to the white feathers of the morning swans and when they come out, they are half'golden. He says that they have taken on a new coat of marble in amber colour. The plates are then filled with what he calls the ¨sabrosa sencillez de tierra¨ the delicious simplicity of the earth,  gifts of its ever repeated abundance and bounty to man. The tiny grains of pepper are compared by him to pollen  crossing a sea filled with  coral reefs of heaped up potato chips! I really like this poet! I don´t think I have ever read any poem by any Chinese poets writing on humble fare served on the platters of the peasant.

沒有留言:

張貼留言