精美英文欣赏:凡事需有度（在线收听）

Appetite

By Laurie Lee

One of the major pleasures in life is appetite, and one of our major duties should be to preserve it. Appetite is the keenness of living; it is one of the senses that tells you that you are still curious to exist, that you still have an edge on your longings and want to bite into the world and taste its multitudinous flavours and juices.

By appetite, of course,I don’t mean just the lust for food, but any condition of unsatisfied desire, any burning in the blood that proves you want more than you’ve got, and that you haven’t yet used up your life. Wilde said he felt sorry for those who never got their heart’s desire, but sorrier still for those who did.

Appetite, to me, is that state of wanting, which keeps one’s expectations alive. In wanting a peach, or a whisky, or a particular texture or sound, or to be with a particular friend. For in this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire is always at its most flawlessly perfect. Which is why I would carry the preservation of appetite to the extent of deliberate fasting, simply because I think that appetite is too good to lose, too precious to be bludgeoned into insensibility by satiation and over-doing it.

Fasting is an act of homage to the majesty of appetite. So I think we should arrange to give up our pleasures regularly — our food, our friends, our lovers — in order to preserve their intensity, and the moment of coming back to them. For this is the moment that renews and refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves. Sailors and travellers enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose. Part of the weariness of modern life may be that we live too much on top of each other, and are entertained and fed too regularly.

Too much of anything — too much music, entertainment, happy snacks, or time spent with one’s friends — creates a kind of impotence of living by which one can no longer hear,or taste, or see, or love, or remember. Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of itsguardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death. So if we are to enjoy this short life we should respect the divinity of appetite, and keep it eager and not too much blunted.

论“欲”

原著：（英）劳里·李（1914—1997）

欲之所尽，乃人生一大快事。欲之所存，乃人生一大追求。欲为何物？对生活的热诚，对万物的好奇以及渴望的热切。心中所想的是“吃”遍天下，尝尽世间的酸甜苦辣、人生百味。

欲者，并非专指食欲，而乃渴望而不及之状态，以及那证明你永不满足、活力依旧的满腔热血。王尔德曾言：梦不圆者我同情之，圆梦者我愈加同情之。

在我心里，欲即“向往进行时”——无时无刻不充满期待。一只蜜桃，一盏浊酒，一匹好布，一曲销魂，一友相伴，此等种种，向往便是极乐。因我深知：向往之时，心中之人、之物总是处于完美无瑕的最高境界。正是因为此等向往，我甚至可以不吃不喝，以存食欲。只因欲之极乐，唯恐失去；欲之不易，唯恐纵欲饱食而失其敏锐。

禁欲乃是为了尊重欲望之庄严。因此，无论是对于佳肴美食，三朋四友，或是花前月下，我们都可以每隔一段时间，有意地节制其中之乐，以确保乐之强烈，留住重获极乐的时刻。唯有此时此刻，我们全身上下才焕然一新，我们心爱之人才光彩照人，我们心怡之物才令人耳目一新。此等快感，我想那些水手、旅客和猎人定深有体会。世人也许都看腻了彼此面孔，吃腻了山珍海味，所以充满着倦意。

凡事多不得——音乐欣赏多了，娱乐享受多了，零食享用多了，或是与朋友相处久了，人就会变得对生活力不从心，再也无法聆听世间美妙的声音，无法品尝人间百味，无法饱览天下美景，无法经历花前月下，无法留住片片回忆。人生在世，短短数十年；生命可贵，需欲望之神将其守护。欲在人在，欲亡人亡。生命诚短暂，我们仍可乐在其中，只要我们将欲望之神供奉，让欲望之火熊熊燃烧，永不熄灭。