我把《广安日报》周末版的一篇生活亲情类文章翻译成了英文，希望和大家探讨。有喜欢学习英语的，请微信关注“翻译大傻”公众号。
父亲的晚餐 Father's Dinner
有时节假日或刚下班回家，父亲就打来电话，邀请我和弟弟一家去他那里吃晚饭。这不，今天又接到了父亲的邀请电话。
Sometimes on holidays or right after coming home from work, I will receive a call from my father inviting my younger brother's family and mine to his place for dinner. What a coincidence! Here was an invitation call again from my father today.
穿过好几条街，步行半小时才走到父亲家，弟弟一家早已经到达。
After walking through several blocks for half an hour to get to my father’s residence, I found my brother had already arrived with his family.
听到敲门声，9岁的侄儿和3岁的侄女总是争着来开门，看见是我，两人都十分亲热，拍着小手开心地喊了起来：“嬢嬢，嬢嬢！”看着白净帅气而懂事的侄儿，我忍不住狠狠地亲了他一口夸到：“嗯，真乖！”小侄女忽闪着一对水汪汪的大眼睛，用稚嫩的嗓音喊到：“孃孃，还有我，还有我呢！”于是我又赶紧在她那胖乎乎、圆嘟嘟的小脸上亲了一口说：“三妹也乖！”两个小家伙这才屁颠屁颠地开心离开了。
Hearing the knock on the door, my 9-year-old nephew and 3-year-old niece scrambled to open the door. Seeing the visitor was me, they both appeared very affectionate, clapping their little hands and shouting happily, “Aunt! Aunt!” Looking at my fair-skinned, smart-looking and sensible nephew, I couldn’t help but give him a big kiss, saying, “Oh, lovely good boy!” My little niece, her big dewy eyes glistening, screeched in a childish voice, “Aunt, there’s me, there’s me!” So I immediately imprinted a kiss her on her chubby, round little face, commending, “You are also a good girl!” Only then did the two little demons scuttle off happily.
厨房里浓浓的饭菜香味沁人心脾，我赶紧走了过去。此时弟弟已经洗好了菜，正在切香肠，这是爸爸专门去街上买回来的。煮熟的香肠在菜板上正冒着热气，已切好的部分一片片整齐地摆放在盘子里。我迫不及待地抓了一片放进嘴里，哇——肉质细腻，咸香爽口，麻辣味中略带一丝甜味，好生舒爽。不一会儿，爸爸就炒了许多菜摆上餐桌。
The food in the kitchen exuding assailing and refreshing aroma, I hurried over to have a look. By then, my brother had already cleansed the food materials and was cutting the sausages, which my father had bought from the market. The cooked sausage was still steaming on the chopping board, and the pieces of sausage cut were neatly placed on the plate. I couldn’t wait to grab a piece and flung it in my mouth, wow - it was delicate, salty and crisp, spicy with a savor of sweetness, so refreshing! In a short time, my father had prepared many dishes and laid them on the table.
看着满桌父亲的“杰作”，我和弟弟常常背过身去偷偷笑着。父亲视力不好，又怕没有炒熟，所以经常把菜炒得黑糊糊的，切的肉又宽大又厚实，让我们望而生畏。
Seeing the table full of my father's “masterpieces”, my brother and I turned our backs and sneered. My poorly sighted father, fearing that the dishes might be undercooked, often overcooks the dishes, so the dishes look black and sticky. The meat slices are often wide and thick, making us look away.
摆好碗筷，给两个小家伙舀了饭后，父亲总要问我们：“你们喝酒不？”虽然每次我和弟弟都说不，但他还是坚持去储藏室舀来几杯酒放在我们面前。这酒是他自己泡制的，里面放了很多药材，他说适量喝酒有益于健康。为了不让父亲失望，我们只得陪着他慢慢品起酒来。
After laying the table and serving rice for the two little guys, my father will always ask us, “Drink some, eh?” Although my brother and I say no every time, he still goes to the pantry to fetch a few cups of wine and puts them in front of us. He brewed the wine himself and put a lot of medicinal herbs in it, saying that moderate drinking is good for health. We have, in order not to let our father down, to sip the wine with him.
父亲知道他炒的菜没有卖相，总是笑着歉意地说：“呵呵，炒久了点，下次一定注意了。”他一会儿叫我们多吃一些牛肉，一会儿又叫我们多吃一些鸡肉，说这些肉有营养，吃多了也不会长胖。见我们没有行动，他就亲自上阵夹到我们碗里。
Knowing that his dishes do not look good, my father always smiles his apology, “Oh, I overcooked them; I’ll be more cautious next time.” He asks us to have more beef at this moment, and then he tells us to eat more chicken, saying that these kinds of meat are nutritious and we won’t put on weight even if we have more. Seeing that we are not eating, he will pick some dishes and put them in our bowls.
不知从何时起，我们眼中严厉的父亲变得如此慈祥、温柔与体贴，我注意到父亲的动作比以前缓慢了不少，头发也更加稀疏，听力也衰退了许多。母亲走后，他就活成了母亲的模样，这让我有些伤感。
I don't know when the strict father in our eyes became so kind, gentle and considerate. I noticed that my father was much slower in his movements than before, his hair had thinned and his hearing had worsened. After my mother departed, my father has been living a life she had lived, which saddened us somewhat.
父亲炒的菜难看，但不影响我们的食欲。他喜欢按以前在乡村生活时的习惯来做饭菜，比如用红苕蒸粉蒸肉、绿豆煮南瓜、腊肉煮芋头、碎花生米煮稀饭等，里面不放任何佐料，看起来卖相不好，但吃起来却清甜爽口。
The dishes our father makes look not so eye-friendly, but they do not affect our appetite. He likes to cook the way he did when living in the countryside. To mention just a few, he tends to make steamed pork slices with glutinous rice powder, with sweet potatoes underneath, to cook pumpkin with mung beans, to cook bacon with taros, and to cook congee with crushed peanuts. He puts no condiment in these dishes, so they do not look attractive, but they taste sweet and refreshing.
我们边吃边聊，在温馨愉快的氛围中品尝浓浓的老家风味，寻找着我们童年的丝丝缕缕，股股清香直戳心底，如初恋般的纯净甜蜜。感受着亲人间似水般的柔情，心也不由变得湿润柔软起来。
We ate and chatted, savoring the strong flavor we used to have in the countryside home in a cozy and snug atmosphere, in search of traces of our childhood. The food smell went straight to the bottom of the heart, evoking a feeling of purity and sweetness experienced in my first romantic relationship. Bathed in the tender-as-water love of loved ones, my heart also became soft and warm.
窗外，鳞次栉比的建筑被纷飞迷离的雨笼罩着，此刻仿佛也有了一种无法言喻的情思。原来生命的许多美好也可以在一些身边的日常小事中品味到。
Blocks of buildings outside the window were shrouded in the misty drifting rain, and an unutterable sentiment was surging up in my mind at this very moment. It turned out that many beautiful things in life could be perceived in daily trivialities.
时光悄悄地从指尖滑过，我希望时间可以慢一些，再慢一些，让这份平淡与祥和慢慢地流淌在每一个寻常日子里。
Time was stealing by from my fingertips. How I wished it could slow down a little bit, and a little bit more, so that this feeling of serenity and plainness could permeate in everyday life.
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本贴仅代表作者观点，与麻辣社区立场无关。
(匿名发布)
发表于 2021-7-31 11:15
(匿名发布)
发表于 2021-7-31 18:35
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