For in this condition, of course, I know that the object of desire is always at its most flawlessly perfect.

　　因为，我知道在这种情况下，心中渴求之物总是完美无缺的。

　　Which is why I would carry the preservation of appetite to the extent of deliberate fasting, simply because I think that appetite is too good to lose, too precious to be bludgeoned into insensibility by satiation and over-doing it.

　　怀着这种渴望，我特意安排了斋戒。原因很简单，我觉得渴望是极好的事，不能丧失，它弥足珍贵，不能饱食生腻，耗费过度使其沦为麻木无知之境。

　　Fasting is an act of homage to the majesty of appetite. So I think we should arrange to give up our pleasures regularly—our food, our friends, our lovers—in order to preserve their intensity, and the moment of coming back to them. 禁欲是对欲望的神圣的一种膜拜。所以，我认为我们应该安排不时地放弃一些享乐之事—食物，朋友，爱人，这样的话我们才能保持我们对他们的浓烈感情，才能保留与他们重聚的那一刻。

　　For this is the moment that renews and refreshes both oneself and the thing one loves. Sailors and travelers enjoyed this once, and so did hunters, I suppose. Part of the weariness of modern life may be that we live too much on top of each other, and are entertained and fed too regularly. 因为，这一刻让我们自己和我们钟情之物都焕然一新，充满新鲜感。我想不管是水手，游客还是猎人都曾有过这种体会。或许现代生活的一部分令人厌倦之处就在于我们的生活太接近彼此了，我们的娱乐，我们的饮食都太有规律了。

　　Too much of anything—too much music, entertainment, happy snacks, or time spent with one’s friends—creates a kind of impotence of living by which one can no longer hear, or taste, or see, or love, or remember. Life is short and precious, and appetite is one of its guardians, and loss of appetite is a sort of death.

　　任何一样东西—-音乐、娱乐、零食、与朋友在一起的时光---若是太多，就会形成一种无趣的生活，这种生活中，人们再也不能去听，去品尝，去看，去爱，去记忆。生命是如此短暂如此珍贵，而欲望就是它的一名守护者，失去欲望生命就近乎死亡。

　　So if we are to enjoy this short life we should respect the divinity of appetite, and keep it eager and not to much blunted.

　　因此，如果我们想要享受我们短暂的一生，我们就应该尊重欲望的神圣，让它保持热切程度不被磨钝。

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（编辑：王美娇）