【我们的酱油】【Chinese Soy Sauce】 天玉之2021-01-08 23:43:36
【我们的酱油】
文/天玉之
中美混血的儿子捧着一碗白米饭 问
为什么西班牙人的米饭 美国人的米饭
都有各种味道 而中国人爱吃白米饭？
我说：我们有酱油拌饭。已经吃了三千年多年了
五六十年代 三年大饥荒时
正在医学院读书的母亲 以酱油加水充饥
文革时 母亲因出身不好 遭到捆绑批斗
同事抱着襁褓中的我 以酱油水替代母乳 喂我
七八十年代 妹妹与我中学放学后
最喜欢的零食 便是酱油和芝麻香油拌米饭
就像美国人饿了 吃一碗 cereal 一样
只是 我们的牛奶和肉 都是限量配给 稀缺的
现在 我们可以成桶地购买牛奶 鸡蛋 和酱油了
而且还拥有许多别的东西：房产 股票 和选举权
只吃酱油加水的日子 大概
永远不会再来了。但愿。
【Chinese Soy Sauce】
By Tian Yu Zhi
My half Chinese half American son asked me,
holding a bowl of white rice
why Spanish rice, American rice
are all flavored, but Chinese like to eat plain white rice?
I answered: we have soy sauce. We have been eating it
for more than three thousand years
During the Great Chinese Famine*
in the 1950s and 1960s
my mother, studying in medical school
added soy sauce to water to satisfy her hunger
During the Cultural Revolution*, my mother was taken away
denounced and beaten in public
only because she came from a family of landlords
her colleague fed me, a new born infant
using soy sauce water to replace breast milk
In the 1970s and 1980s
my sister and I attended middle school
our favorite after school snack was
a bowl of rice mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil
much like Americans eat a bowl of cereal
only that milk and meat were all rationed and scarce for us
Now we are able to buy milk, eggs, and soy sauce
in buckets; and own many other things ——
houses, stocks, and voting rights
the days when we only eat soy sauce water for dinner
may never be back again. I hope.
2021.1.8
* The Great Chinese Famine (1958-1962）is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history, with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions (15-55 millions+) (from Wikipedia)
* The Culture Revolution (1966-1976), estimates of the death toll in Cultural Revolution, including civilians and Red Guards, vary greatly, ranging from hundreds of thousands to 20 million (from Wikipedia)
