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随着电视剧《长安的荔枝》的热播，我们在追剧之余，也对荔枝这一小小的水果产生了更多兴趣。这让我想起曾经读过的以水果或蔬菜为主题的英文小说和诗歌。虽然数量不多，但仍想在这里列举一些，与大家分享这些看似平凡的果实所带来的别样趣味与文化意味。
李子（Plum）
提到李子，我立刻会想到 William Carlos Williams 的经典小诗《This Is Just To Say》。诗中用极其生活化的语言，把一种略带愧疚却又无法抗拒的享受娓娓道来，清新而真实。
This Is Just To Say
By William Carlos Williams
[Excerpt]
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
桔子 (Orange)
Gary Soto 的诗《Oranges》是他最著名的作品之一，发表于诗集Black Hair。全诗通过橘子的色彩、温度与质感，将冬日的寒冷与初次约会的紧张和温情巧妙地联系在一起，画面感强烈。以下是诗的结尾部分节选。
Oranges
by Gary Soto
[Excerpt]
Outside,
A few cars hissing past,
Fog hanging like old
Coats between the trees.
I took my girl’s hand
in mine for two blocks,
Then released it to let
Her unwrap the chocolate.
I peeled my orange
That was so bright against
The gray of December
That, from some distance,
Someone might have thought
I was making a fire in my hands.
芒果 (Mango)
Joy Sullivan的诗《Mango》收录在她的畅销诗集Instructions for Traveling West: Poems里。诗人借芒果这一日常水果，回忆深沉而含蓄的母爱，果香中透出无言的深情。
Mango
by Joy Sullivan
[Excerpt]
The fruit sweating like lungs in my palm. My god,
she let me slice them in the kitchen, the air
sticky with scent. A form of love, I think—
how she’d stand in the doorway and watch
me eat. Juice on my chin. Finding the fleshy
heart. Sucking the pit.
西兰花 (Broccoli)
Lara Vapnyar的短篇小说《Broccoli》我在 The New Yorker 杂志中最喜爱的一篇。作者借一位年轻少妇移民美国后对西兰花的执念，映射出她在异乡对新生活和归属感的渴望。
Broccoli
By Lara Vapnyar
[Excerpt]
“Do you want me to go to the supermarket?” the man asked. Nina shook her head. Now that everything had been exposed to her in all its absurdity, she knew that it would never work.
A bunch of broccoli was stuck between the third shelf and the back of the refrigerator. It hung upside down, the florets nearly touching the shelf below. The man saw it first and pointed it out to Nina. The broccoli wasn’t yellow or covered with slime. During the weeks that it had hung between the shelves, it had become darker and dryer. In a few more weeks it would have become a broccoli mummy. It smelled all right—or, rather, it didn’t smell of anything.
“I’m sure we can still cook it,” the man said.
番石榴 (Guava)
同样是关于移居他乡的作品，Esmeralda Santiago的回忆录 When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir 的序言《How to Eat a Guava》通过在美国超市里看到熟悉又陌生的番石榴，唤起了对童年青涩时光的回忆，也流露出对身份的困惑和对故乡文化的思念。
How to Eat a Guava
By Esmeralda Santiago
[Excerpt]
As children, we didn’t always wait for the fruit to ripen. We raided the bushes as soon as the guavas were large enough to bend the branch.
A green guava is sour and hard. You bite into it at its widest point, because it’s easier to grasp with your teeth. You hear the skin, meat, and seeds crunching inside your head, while the inside of your mouth explodes in little spurts of sour.
苹果 (Apple)
畅销书作家 Theresa Weir 以惊悚、悬疑和超自然题材著称，但她的回忆录The Orchard: A Memoir 却真切凄美，饱含深情。都市女孩Theresa嫁给苹果农场主，逐渐学会应对农场的各种挑战和家庭的复杂变化。书里有不少田园景色的生动描写。
The Orchard: A Memoir
By Theresa Weir
[Excerpt]
Fifteen minutes later, Adrian and I came upon a small grouping of apple trees hardly bigger than twigs.
“They’re straight from every angle,” I said, amazed.
“It’s called checking. The trees are lined up with string. It’s kind of a lost art since most people don’t plant orchards by hand anymore.” He bent to examine a sapling, then straightened. “Do you know you could sow every seed from every apple on a single tree and you wouldn’t get the original variety? In fact, no two seeds would grow the same tree.”
“Why’s that?”
“Apple seeds don’t contain genetic DNA.”
“Would you get something better?”
“One in a million chance. Most likely all the seedlings would be inferior to the original.”
I imagined an orchard where no two trees were alike. Each tree would have a different name, a new name.
这些以水果或蔬菜为意象的文字，无论是诗歌里的清凉李子还是小说里隐喻孤独的西兰花，都是作家们在日常中感受生活的方式。就像朱自清《背影》里父亲送别时放在我的皮大衣上的那些桔子，果实不只是味觉的享受，更承载着情感、文化，和人与人之间的连接。
[相关阅读:关于母亲的英文短篇小说]
[相关阅读: 关于父亲的英文短篇小说]
[相关阅读: 英文写作技巧：如何通过阅读提高英文写作]
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