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