美国语文第五册 第311期：论烤猪（02）
China pigs have been esteemed a luxury all over the East from the remotest periods we read of.
什么窝棚，猪崽呀，统统在冲天大火中化为乌有。追溯到我们尚且可查的悠久记载中，中国猪一向堪为整个东方世界奢侈生活的象征。
Bo-bo was in the utmost consternation, as you may think, not so much for the sake of the tenement,
不难想象，波波当时的错愕不已，当然他并不担心那间糟糕茅屋；
which his father and he could easily build up again with a few dry branches, and the labor of an hour or two, at any time, as for the loss of the pigs.
随便拈来三两根枯枝干柴，他与父亲只消花上一两个时辰就可重新铺盖完毕。
While he was thinking what he should say to his father,
让波波百般纠结的是，他如何向父亲大人交差，
and wringing his hands over the smoking remnants of one of those untimely sufferers,
因此不停地摩挲双手，不知所措。眼前一具烧焦的猪崽冒出缕缕青烟，
an odor assailed his nostrils unlike any scent which he had before experienced.
一股平生未曾闻到的香味扑鼻而来。
What, could it proceed from? Not from the burnt cottage,— he had smelt that smell before,
天呀，究竟哪里飘来的香味？这味道不是来自灰烬尚存的茅屋，
indeed, this was by no means the first accident of the kind which had occurred through the negligence of this unlucky young firebrand.
那位倒霉孩子的疏忽过失引起火灾频发，当然祝融绝非第一次光顾这间茅庵破窝；
Much less did it resemble that of any known herb, weed, or flower.
至于波波熟悉的那些花草植物，更是八竿子沾不上边；
A premonitory moistening at the same time overflowed his nether lip. He knew not what to think.
波波居然有了某种预感，他的涎水嗒嗒滴地流了下来，尽管眼前一切看来似乎懵懂未知。
He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it.
波波俯身弯腰摸了摸火中小猪，想看看是否猪崽还存有一丝气息，
He burnt his fingers, and to cool them he applied them in his booby fashion to his mouth.
没想到蓦然缩回烫疼的手，于是愠恼地凑在嘴边猛吹；
Some of the crumbs of the scorched skin had come away with his fingers,
烤焦乳猪的零星碎屑碰巧沾到他的手指，
and for the first time in his life (in the world's life, indeed, for before him no man had known it) he tasted—crackling!
于是，他平生第一次品咂到烤乳猪的焦脆美味（这也是人类有史以来第一次体验未曾品尝的口腹之妙）。
