《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 21 (40):做無所事事的高手

Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing here, I admit it.

我承認，有時候我不瞭解自己在這裏做什麼。

While I have come to Italy in order to experience pleasure, during the first few weeks I washere, I felt a bit of panic as to how one should do that. Frankly, pure pleasure is not my cultural paradigm. I come from a long line of superconscientious people. My mother's family were Swedish immigrant farmers, who look in their photographs like, if they'd ever even seen something pleasurable, they might have stomped on it with their hobnailed boots. (My uncle calls the whole lot of them "oxen.") My father's side of the family were English Puritans, those great goofy lovers of fun. If I look on my dad's family tree all the way back to the seventeenth century, I can actually find Puritan relatives with names like Diligence and Meekness.

我來意大利是爲了體驗快樂，但我到這裏的頭幾個星期卻提心吊膽，不知該如何做。老實說，純粹的快樂，並非我的文化概念。我來自一個世世代代超級勤勉的家系。我母親的家族是務農的瑞典移民，相片裏的他們看起來像是，他們若看見任何令人快樂的東西，就用腳上的釘靴一腳踩上去（我舅舅把他們統稱爲“耕牛”）。我的父方家族是英國清教徒，拙於吃喝玩樂。假使把我的父方族譜一路回 溯到17世紀，我確實能找到名叫“勤勉”和“謙恭”的清教徒親戚。

My own parents have a small farm, and my sister and I grew up working. We were taught to be dependable, responsible, the top of our classes at school, the most organized and efficient babysitters in town, the very miniature models of our hardworking farmer nurse of a mother, a pair of junior Swiss Army knives, born to multitask. We had a lot of enjoyment in my family, a lot of laughter, but the walls were papered with to-do lists and I never experienced or witnessed idleness, not once in my whole entire life.

我自己的父母有個小農場，我姐姐和我在工作中長大。我們學會可靠、負責，在班上名列前茅，是鎮上最一絲不茍、最有效率的保姆，是我們那位刻苦耐勞的農人／護士母親的縮影，一對年幼的瑞士刀，天生擅於多種任務。我們在家中擁有許多快樂與歡笑，但牆上貼滿工作清單，因此我從未體驗 或目睹遊手好閒，這輩子從未有過。

Generally speaking, though, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one. Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wars, but that's not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment. Americans work harder and longer and more stressful hours than anyone in the world today. But as Luca Spaghetti pointed out, we seem to like it. Alarming statistics back this observation up, showing that many Americans feel more happy and fulfilled in their offices than they do in their own homes. Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure). Americans don't really know how to do nothing. This is the cause of that great sad American stereotype—the overstressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax.

儘管一般說來，美國人無法放鬆享受全然的快樂。我們是尋求娛樂的國家，卻不見得是尋求快樂的國家。美國人花費數億元逗樂自己，從色情、主題樂園到戰爭，卻和平靜的享受不相干。美國人比世上任何人工作得更賣力、更久、更緊張。正如盧卡•斯帕蓋蒂所說，我們似乎樂此不疲。令人擔憂的統計數字支持此一觀察，顯示許多美國人在公司比在自己家裏的時候感覺更快樂、更滿足。沒錯，我們無疑都工作得太賣力，而後筋疲力竭，必須整個週末身穿睡衣、直接從盒子裏拿粟米片出來吃，頭腦呆滯地盯着電視看（沒錯，跟工作正好對立，但跟快樂可不算同一回事）。美國人不懂得如何無所事事。這是可悲的美國典型 ——壓力過度的即便去度假，卻無法放鬆的起因。

I once asked Luca Spaghetti if Italians on vacation have that same problem. He laughed so hard he almost drove his motorbike into a fountain.

我曾經問過盧卡，度假的意大利人是否有相同的問題。

"Oh, no!" he said. "We are the masters of bel far niente."

他捧腹大笑，幾乎把摩托車撞上噴泉。“喔，沒有！”他說“我們是‘bel far niente’的能手。”

This is a sweet expression. Bel far niente means "the beauty of doing nothing." Now listen—Italians have traditionally always been hard workers, especially those long-suffering laborers known as braccianti (so called because they had nothing but the brute strength of their arms—braccie—to help them survive in this world). But even against that backdrop of hard work, bel far niente has always been a cherished Italian ideal. The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement. You don't necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either. There's another wonderful Italian expression: l'arte d'arrangiarsi—the art of making something out of nothing. The art of turning a few simple ingredients into a feast, or a few gathered friends into a festival. Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only the rich.

這是個漂亮的措辭。“bel far niente”是“無所事事之美”的意思。聽我道來——傳統來說，意大利人自古以來一直存在着勤奮工作的人，尤其是那些長期受苦的勞動者，即所謂“braccianti”（因爲他們除了手臂［braccie］的蠻力能幫助他們倖存於世之外，別無所有，故名）。但即使在艱苦勞動的背景下，“無所事事”始終是大家抱持的一個意大利夢想。無所事事的美好，是你全部工作的目標，是你備受祝賀的最後成果。你愈是閒暇舒適地無所事事，你的生活成就便愈高。你也不見得要有錢才能體驗其中的奧妙。另有一個美妙的意大利措辭：“l'arte d'rrangiarsi”——“無中生有的藝術”。將幾種簡單配料變成一場盛宴，或是幾個聚在一起的朋友變成一場喜慶的藝術。任何有快樂天賦的人都能上手，這並非有錢人的玩意兒。