考研英语作文:Appetite(欲望)

       Appetite

    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 numerous flavours and juices. By appetite, of course, I don’t mean just the desire 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 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. For appetite,for me,  is this state of wanting, which keeps one’ s expectations alive.

    I  remember  learning this lesson long ago as a child, when treats and indulgence were few,  and when I discovered that the greatest  pitch  happiness was not in actually eating a toffee but in gazing at it beforehand. True, the first bite was delicious, but once the toffee was gone one was left with nothing, neither toffee nor lust.Besides, the whole toffeeness of toffees was imperceptibly diminished by the gross act of having eating it. No, the best was in wanting it, in sitting and looking at it, when one tasted an endless treasure house of flavours. So, for me, one of the keenest pleasures of appetite remains in the wanting, not the satisfaction. 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. For that matter, I don’t want three square meals a day -- I want one huge, delicious, orgiastic, table groaning blow out, say every four days, and then not be too sure where the next one is coming from. A day of fasting is not for me just a device for denying oneself a pleasure, but rather a way of anticipating a rarer moment of supreme enjoyment.

    欲望

    生活中一项最大的乐趣便是有个好胃口，而我们的主要职责之一便是保持这一好胃口。食欲是对生活的一种强烈的愿望，这是一种感觉，它告诉你你仍渴望着，你还有许多渴望尚待实现，还想继续生活在这世界上，品尝各种风味。所谓胃口，当然，我不仅仅指对食物的热望，而且指任何未满足渴望的情况，任何血液的沸腾都证明了你要的不仅仅是这些，你还未好好享受人生。王尔德说他对那些从未得到满足者表示遗憾，但对那些已经心满意足的人更感到悲哀。欲望对我来说，是一种渴求的状态，它使这种希望永远存在。

    我记得懂得这一点是在很久以前，还是个孩子的时候，那时有人款待和纵酒享乐的机会很少。而我发觉最大的幸福不在于吃太妃糖，而在于吃前凝视它的那一段时间。诚然，咬第一口时味道不错，但一旦太妃糖吃完了，一切皆化为乌有，无论是太妃糖还是欲望全都没了。此外，太妃糖的味道也在大口咀嚼中毫无觉察地消失了。不，最重要的是对它的渴望和坐下来盯着它看时的感觉，这是踏入荚食宝库遍尝天下美味佳肴时才有的感觉。所以对我而言，食欲的最大乐趣之一在于对之渴求，而非满足感。我要故意禁食来保持食欲，原因是食欲太好而不能丧失，太珍贵而不能过度吃喝以至麻木。对此，我不想过一天三顿的正常生活，而想每四天来一顿丰富可口的荚味佳肴，大吃大喝一顿，接下来不知下一顿从何而来。一天的禁食对我来说并非像清教徒那样被剥夺了快乐，而是期待更多纵情享乐的一种方式。