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Books and arts
文藝
New fiction
最新小說
Comfort food
溫馨食物
COOKING is a sensual experience.
烹飪是一種感官體驗。
It has the power to comfort, unite and anchor a family in tradition.
傳統上認為，它具有安逸、粘合和支撐一個家庭的力量。
In his new novel, Amit Majmudar uses food to tell a larger story about life, death and the immigrant experience.
Amit Majmudar在他的新小說中，通過食物講述了一個關于生命、死亡和移民經歷的宏大故事。
At the centre of the book is an unnamed Indian mother who makes dahi the traditional way, curdling each new pot of yogurt with a spoonful from the one before it.
故事的中心是一位無名的印度母親，她用傳統的方式制作家鄉的酸奶，即從之前一罐酸奶中取用一匙來發酵新一罐酸奶。
To ensure this dynastic succession, she smuggled some in a test-tube when she emigrated from Gujarat to Ohio.
在她從古吉拉特邦移民至俄亥俄州時，為了保證酸奶的世代更迭，她悄悄用試管帶入了一些老酸奶。
Now, with two grown children who have their own families, she colonises grandchildren with the magical cultures.
現在，隨著她的兩個孩子長大成人并組建家庭，她開始給孫輩們灌輸這神奇的文化。
This small but significant attempt at cultural continuity becomes more meaningful when she is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
這舉動雖小，卻對文化連續性非常重要，尤其當她被確診為癌癥晚期時，更顯得意義重大。
Feeding her family allows her to maintain some normality during the slow sloppy business of dying.
在緩緩步入衰亡的過程中，教育她的家庭使她在一定程度上保持了正常狀態。
As the narrator grows weaker, her daughter, Mala, becomes determined to learn all of her mother's recipes.
隨著主人公漸漸衰弱，她的女兒Mala決心學習她所有的食譜。
A doctor like her father, she is strong-willed but deferential.
和她父親一樣，她是位醫生，意志堅強卻又謙恭。
They fight, but they always have done.
她們經常爭執，又很快停止。
Harshness, paradoxically, is intimate. The ailing mother's son Ronak, however, rebuffs the family's traditions.
所謂苛刻反而是因為親密。
He lives as a gambling banker in Manhattan with his pale-faced American wife.
患病母親的兒子Ronak卻抵制家庭的傳統。
His affection for his mother is more distant.
他是一個投行家，和面青唇白的妻子住在曼哈頓。
Despite these slight fractures, the mother longs to preserve the semi-dysfunctional status quo.
他對母親的感情比較疏遠。盡管有些許裂痕，這位母親依然渴望能維持這半失調的家庭現狀。
But her cancer casts everything in shadow, and tests the relationships that matter most.
但癌癥給一切都籠罩上陰影，考驗著最重要的親情。
The narrative is slow, but sumptuous with recipes and reflection.
小說敘事節奏很慢，但充滿了對烹飪以及沉思的描寫。
Mr Majmudar, who is also a poet, imbues his prose with phrases and metaphors that linger with the warmth of spices.
作者Majmudar先生也是一個詩人，短語和隱喻混合著調味品的溫香，彌漫在字里行間。
Tension rises from the pages as his characters struggle to enjoy the present with the knowledge that everything must soon change.
文中的角色努力享受著當下，相信一切將會很快改變，情節愈加充滿張力。
But the simple repetition of cooking and eating brings the family together, softening the hard edges like boiling water on rice.
不過烹調和用餐的簡單慣例能讓一家人聚在一起，軟化矛盾，就像沸水煮大米一樣。
Was America better for the family or did the move make everything harder?
來到美國讓這個家庭更好，還是讓一切更糟？
This country gave us clean quiet luxury and charged us nothing but our children, the mother observes.
母親評述說；這個國家帶給我們清靜祥和的享受，沒有索取我們任何東西，但帶走了我們的孩子。
Mala and Ronak are in many ways alien to their parents, and sometimes to themselves. Ohio has offered them wealth and opportunity.
Mala和Ronak與他們的父母在很多方面都大相徑庭，有時候與他們自己都格格不入。
For nourishment and love, they have the bowls of dahi and dishes of bhindi at the family table.
俄亥俄州給予了他們財富和機遇，至于食物和愛，家里的餐桌上，有一杯杯的家鄉酸奶和一碟碟的羊角豆。
