【我们的酱油】

 

 

                     【我们的酱油】

 

 

                    
                         文/天玉之

 

 

中美混血的儿子捧着一碗白米饭 问

为什么西班牙人的米饭 美国人的米饭

都有各种味道 而中国人爱吃白米饭？

我说：我们有酱油拌饭。已经吃了三千多年了

 

 

五六十年代 三年大饥荒时 

正在医学院读书的母亲 以酱油加水充饥

文革时 母亲因出身不好 遭到捆绑批斗 

同事抱着襁褓中的我 以酱油水替代母乳 喂我

 

 

七八十年代 妹妹与我中学放学后 

最喜欢的零食 便是酱油和芝麻香油拌米饭

就像 美国人饿了 吃一碗 cereal 一样

只是 我们的牛奶和肉都是限量配给 稀缺的

 

 

现在 我们可以成桶地购买牛奶 鸡蛋 和酱油了

还拥有许多别的东西：房产 股票 和选举权

只吃酱油加水的日子 大概

永远不会再回来了。但愿。

 

    

 

                  2021.1.8

 

              

 

 

            【Chinese Soy Sauce】

 

 

                    
                     By Tian Yu Zhi

 

 

My half Chinese half American son asked me, 

holding a bowl of white rice

why Spanish rice, American rice

are all flavored, but Chinese like to eat plain white rice?

I answered: we have soy sauce. We have been eating it 

for more than three thousand years

 

 

During the Great Chinese Famine*

in the 1950s and 1960s

my mother,  studying in medical school

added soy sauce to water to satisfy her hunger

 

 

During the Cultural Revolution*, my mother was taken away 

denounced and beaten in public

only because she came from a family of landlords 

her colleague fed me, a new born infant 

with soy sauce water, in replace of breast milk

 

 

In the 1970s and 1980s

my sister and I attended middle school

our favorite after school snack was 

a bowl of rice mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil

much like Americans eat a bowl of cereal

only that milk and meat were all rationed and scarce for us 
 

 

Now we are able to buy milk, eggs, and soy sauce 

in buckets; and own many other things ——

houses, stocks, and voting rights

the days when we only eat soy sauce water for dinner

may never be back again. I hope.

 

    

 

                           2021.1.8

 

 

 

* The Great Chinese Famine (1958-1962）is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history, with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions (15-55 millions+). （from Wikipedia)

* The Culture Revolution (1966-1976), estimates of the death toll in Cultural Revolution, including civilians and Red Guards, vary greatly, ranging from hundreds of thousands to 20 million (from Wikipedia)