老外在中国：神奇的糖炒栗子

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” is the first line of The Christmas Song, one of my favorite holiday tunes growing up in America. Yet as a child, I never once roasted chestnuts at Christmas, let alone any other time of the year. Before I was born, a blight had devastated the vast majority of American chestnut trees, leaving me and most of my fellow countrymen strangers to the nut, apart from its mention in that timeless song.
“明火上烤着栗子”是《圣诞颂歌》的第一句词。这首兴起于美国的假日小曲是我最爱的歌曲之一。可是孩童时，我从未在圣诞节烤过栗子，更别提其他时间了。我出生之前，一场枯萎病摧毁了美国大部分的栗子树，致使我和大多数美国同胞对栗子感到陌生，更别提那首经典歌曲中所提及的烤栗子场景了。

In fact, it wasn’t until I came to China that I truly understood the wonders of a freshly roasted chestnut, especially those gathered in the wild.
事实上，来到中国后我才真正体会到新鲜出炉的烤栗子的美妙之处，尤其是那些从野外采来的栗子。

Years ago in September, I discovered that wild chestnut trees, a variety native to China, thrived in the hills of my husband’s rural Zhejiang village, and were as close to us as the backyard of the family home. “See, there’s a chestnut tree,” he said, pointing out the window from his old bedroom to its trunk and branches just a few meters away from us. I couldn’t believe this tree, a rare sight in the US, actually grew beside the family garden.
多年前的一个九月，我发现在我丈夫的老家，浙江偏远农村的山丘上就生长着野生栗子树（一种原产于中国的品种），距离近得就和长在自家后院似的。“你看，那儿有棵栗子树，”他从老卧室里指着窗外离我们不过几米远的栗子树的躯干和枝条。我不敢相信这棵树竟然就长在家里的小园子旁，因为这在美国很少见。

So imagine my astonishment when, while hiking some remote hills near the village, I couldn’t walk a few steps without stumbling over chestnuts that littered the ground. It was as if the heavens had decided to rain chestnuts upon the land, instead of water. My husband Jun had the foresight to suggest carrying along a few bags with us, and we began collecting these fall treasures as we meandered up and down the hills. Even though the sky was a melancholy gray, it felt like the sun had shined upon us that afternoon, thanks to the bounty of chestnuts we found and brought home with us.
所以，当我在村子附近的偏僻小山徒步行走时，没走几步就会不可避免地踩到散落一地的栗子，你可以想象我的震惊。就好像老天爷决意要将雨水替换成“栗子”落在地上似的。我的先生军（音译）很有先见之明，他建议带些袋子在身边。我们在山间漫步的时候开始捡拾这些秋天的珍宝。我们捡了一大堆栗子带回家。多亏如此，尽管那个午后天空是阴郁的灰色，但却感觉阳光一直照耀着我们。

The real magic, however, came from my mother-in-law, who helped me experience something close to that iconic line from The Christmas Song in her kitchen. Her wood-burning stove, with a wok on top, was the next best thing to an open fire. She roasted the chestnuts in the wok along with sweet osmanthus blossoms from the front yard, and filled the house with the intoxicating fragrance of flowers mingled with the caramel aroma of the nuts. I’ll never forget the first time I inhaled it -- it was like being all wrapped up in the warmth and coziness of the holidays, even though Dec 25 was still months away.
然而，真正令我感到神奇的是我的婆婆。她让我在厨房中体验到类似于《圣诞颂歌》中那句标志性歌词所描述的场景。她那烧柴火的炉子上架着一口锅，那是仅次于明火的好东西。婆婆把栗子放在锅子里烤，还加了些前院里香甜的桂花，屋子里充斥着桂花醉人的芬芳，其中还夹杂着栗子的焦糖香。我断不会忘了第一次吸入这芬芳的感受——就好像整个人都被假日的温暖和舒适包裹着，尽管距离圣诞节还有好几个月。

That Christmassy feeling was only reinforced by the generous portion my mother-in-law sent up to our room, a huge silver bowl piled high with more roasted chestnuts than anyone could have consumed in one sitting. And even though lunch had finished a few hours ago, we couldn’t resist the natural, sugary goodness of the snack.
那种圣诞的气氛在婆婆给我们的房里送来一大份烤栗子时更加浓烈。一只银色大碗中烤栗子堆得高高的，多得没有谁能坐在那儿一口气吃完。虽然刚吃完午饭不久，我们却抵挡不了这天然、甜蜜的营养小食。

Nowadays, whenever I imagine chestnuts, it’s no longer Christmas that first comes to mind. Instead, my thoughts will turn to my husband’s hometown -- the hills scattered with wild chestnuts, the smell of them roasting in my mother-in-law’s fire-powered wok, and the ambrosial flavor when eating them fresh from the stove. These memories have so completely saturated my brain that it’s fall, not winter, that has become the season I most associate with chestnuts. So as much as I love that first line of The Christmas Song, perhaps it’s time for someone -- maybe me -- to write the lyrics to an autumn melody that sings the praises of freshly roasted chestnuts in China.
如今，无论何时想起烤栗子，首先浮现在我脑海中都的不再是圣诞节。反之，我的思绪会飘向我丈夫的家乡——遍地散落着野栗子的小山丘，婆婆烧火的炒锅里烤着的栗子的香气，以及品尝刚出炉的栗子时的美味。这些记忆完完全全融入我的脑海中，以至于栗子让我最容易联想到的季节变成了秋天，而非冬天。既然我如此喜爱《圣诞颂歌》的第一句词，是时候有个人将这句词填进一首秋天的旋律里，以歌颂中国的新鲜的烤栗子了，也许这个人就是我。

翻译：袁青霞（实习）
编审：董静 丹妮
音频编辑：焦洁
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About the author & broadcaster

Jocelyn Eikenburg is a copy editor for China Daily. She has written extensively about cross-cultural topics, including for The Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post. A US native, she has called China home for over nine years and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.