（书籍翻译）拜占庭的味道：传奇帝国的美食 （第四部分）

作者生平：

          安德鲁·达尔比（Andrew Dalby）是一位古典学者、历史学家、语言学家和翻译家，以他关于食物史（尤其是希腊和罗马帝国）的书籍而闻名。 《Siren Feasts》 是安德鲁·达尔比的第一本美食书籍，获得了 Runciman（朗西曼）奖，他的第二本书《Dangerous Tastes》在2001年获得了美食作家协会年度美食书籍。他还是《The Classical Cookbook》和《Empire of Pleasures》以及巴克斯和维纳斯的传记的作者。

《Tastes of Byzantium ：The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire》于 2003 年首次出版

ISBN: 978 1 84885 165 8

本书完整的 CIP 记录可从大英图书馆、美国国会图书馆获得

由 Thomson Press India Ltd 在印度印刷和装订 

Greeks and others: some travellers to Byzantium

希腊人和其他人：一些前往拜占庭的旅行者

We will never quite know how ancient Greek cuisine tasted to those to whom it was unfamiliar: all we know of these ancestral flavours is what ancient consumers happen to say about them. We have very little idea how the banquets of the Roman Empire tasted to outsiders, since no Indian or Persian adventurer has left us a record of the grandeur and decline of Rome.

          对于不熟悉的人来说，我们永远不会完全了解古希腊美食的味道：我们所知道的这些祖传风味只是古代消费者对它们的评价。我们几乎不知道罗马帝国的宴会在外人眼中是什么样的，因为没有印度或波斯的冒险家给我们留下关于罗马盛大或衰落的记录。

Constantinople marks a new stage in our ability to recreate the past. The Western Roman Empire had collapsed, but its culture still thrived, ever more distinct from that of the east. Egypt and the Levant passed from Byzantine into Arab sway. From both of these regions, culturally independent of and sometimes opposed to the Byzantine Empire, traders, ambassadors and warriors crossed the frontier and visited the city. That is why we know how Constantinople seemed from the outside.

          君士坦丁堡标志着我们重建过去能力的新阶段。西罗马帝国已经崩溃，但它的文化仍然蓬勃发展，与东方的文化更加不同。埃及和黎凡特从拜占庭转入阿拉伯势力。这两个地区在文化上独立于拜占庭帝国，有时甚至相反于拜占庭帝国，贸易商、大使和战士越过边境访问了这座城市。这就是为什么我们知道君士坦丁堡的外观。

We can draw on several such observations. Among the most lively and opinionated are those of Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, who visited Constantinople, acting as ambassador of Berengarius, regent of Lombardy, in 949. Liutprand returned, this time as emissary of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, in 968-9. His two reports are very different in tone. In 949 he was a young man, not at all a practised diplomat, and he had been deliberately starved of funds by his own monarch. It is clear that he was favourably impressed by the real friendship shown to him by the Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos. Here Liutptand describes one of the entertainments at Christmas dinner at the Palace in 949 (we shall hear more of the same dinner later).

          我们可以借鉴几个这样的观察结果。其中最活跃、最有主见的是克雷莫纳主教柳特普兰德，他于 949 年访问君士坦丁堡，担任伦巴第摄政贝伦加里乌斯的大使。柳特普兰德于 968-9年作为神圣罗马帝国皇帝奥托一世的使者回来了。他的两份报告在语气上大相径庭。 949年他还是个年轻人，根本不是一个熟练的外交官，而且他被自己的君主故意剥夺了资金。显然，君士坦丁七世波菲罗根托斯皇帝向他展示的真正友谊给他留下了深刻的印象。在这里，柳特普兰德描述了 949 年在皇宫举行的圣诞晚宴上的一项娱乐活动（稍后我们将听到更多关于同一晚宴的消息）。

A man came in carrying on his head, without using his hands, a wooden pole twenty-four feet or more long, which, a foot and a half from the top, had a cross piece three feet wide. Then two boys appeared, naked except for loincloths around their middles, who went up the pole, did various tricks on it, and then came down head first, keeping the pole all the time as steady as though it were rooted in the earth. When one had come down, the other remained on the pole and performed by himself: that filled me with even greater astonishment and admiration. While they were both performing, their feat seemed barely possible; for, wonderful as it was, the evenness of their weights kept the pole up which they climbed balanced. But when one remained at the top and kept his balance so accurately that he could both do his tricks and come down again without mishap, I was so bewildered that the Emperor himself noticed my astonishment. He therefore called an interpreter, and asked me which seemed the more amazing, the boy who had moved so carefully that the pole remained firm, or the man who had so deftly balanced it on his head that neither the boys' weight nor their performance had disturbed it in the least. I replied that I did not know which I thought thaumastoteron, more amazing; and he burst into a loud laugh and said he was in the same case, he did not know either.

          一个人进来，不用手，头顶着一根二十四尺或更长的木杆，上面有一尺半，有一个三尺宽的横梁。随即出现了两个男孩，赤身裸体，只在他们中间缠着一条腰带，他们上到杆子上，在上面做了各种花样，然后头朝下下来，始终保持杆子的稳定，好像它扎根在土里一样。一个下来，另一个留在杆子上自己表演，这让我更加惊讶和钦佩。虽然他们都在表演，但他们的壮举几乎不可思议。如此美妙，他们重量的均匀性使他们攀登的杆子保持平衡。但是当一个人保持在顶部并保持如此准确的平衡以致既可以发挥作用又可以毫无意外地再次下降时，我感到非常困惑，以至于皇帝本人也注意到了我的惊讶。因此，他叫来了翻译，问我哪个更令人惊奇，是那个男孩移动得如此小心以至于杆子保持牢固，还是那个人巧妙地将杆子放在头上，以至于男孩的体重和他们的表现都没有打扰它。我回答说我不知道哪个奇术更神奇；他放声大笑，说自己也是这种情况，他也不知道。

On his second embassy, twenty years later, a maturer and more cynical Liutprand was faced with Nicephorus II Phocas, who had no liking for Liutprand or Otto I, no interest in their aims and no time left for diplomacy. Nicephorus may be forgiven if he was feeling insecure: he was actually about to be butchered by his wife's lover, who then supplanted him to become John I Tzimisces.

          二十年后，在他的第二个大使馆，一个更成熟、更愤世嫉俗的柳特普兰德面对的是尼基弗鲁斯二世·福卡斯，后者不喜欢柳特普兰德或奥托一世，对他们的目标不感兴趣，也没有时间进行外交。如果尼基弗鲁斯感到不安全，他可能会被原谅：他实际上即将被他妻子的情人谋杀，然后取代他成为约翰一世Tzimisces。

This time, for whatever combination of reasons, Liutprand was treated with mistrust. His report is always critical, often caustic, sometimes bitter, whether he is speaking of Constantinople itself or of a far-off province:

          On the sixth of December we came to Leucas, where, as by all the other bishops, we were most unkindly received and treated by the bishop, who is a eunuch. In all Greece - I speak the truth and do not lie - I found no hospitable bishops. They are both poor and rich: rich in gold coins wherewith they gamble recklessly; poor in servants and utensils. They sit by themselves at a bare little table, with a paximacium in front of them, and drink their own bath water, or, rather, they sip it from a tiny glass. They do their own buying and selling; they close and open their front doors themselves; they are their own stewards, their own donkey-men, their own capones - I meant to say caupones, 'innkeepers', but I have written capones, 'eunuchs', which is all too true and against canon law. And the other is against canon law too. True it is of them:

Of old a lettuce ended the repast: Today it is the first course and the last.

          这一次，无论出于何种原因，柳特普兰德都受到不信任。他的报告总是批评性的，经常是刻薄的，有时是苦涩的，无论他是在谈论君士坦丁堡本身还是一个遥远的省份：

          12 月 6 日，我们来到了勒乌卡斯，在那里，和所有其他主教一样，我们受到了作为太监的主教最无情的接待和对待。在整个希腊——我说真话，不说谎——我找不到好客的主教。他们既穷又富：富于金币，肆无忌惮地赌博；仆人和用具贫乏。他们独自坐在一张光秃秃的小桌子前，面前摆着一个paximacium，喝自己的洗澡水，或者更确切地说，他们从一个小玻璃杯里啜饮。他们自己买卖； 他们自己开关前门；他们是他们自己的管家，他们自己的驴夫，他们自己的奴隶——我的意思是说 capones，“旅馆老板”，但我写了 capones，“太监”，这太真实了，违反了教规。另一个也违反了教会法。确实是他们：

“老主教（生菜代指）结束了晚餐：今天是第一道菜，也是最后一道菜。”

Ambassadors were not supposed to allow themselves to be overawed by Constantinople. Others, generally, found the city impressive, and this is not surprising. With at least half a million inhabitants it was the biggest city they would ever see. More than that, they found it magical and fearsome. Stephen of Novgorod, one of the numerous Russian pilgrims who passed through Constantinople, may be allowed to speak for many of them: 'The entrance to Constantinople is as if you were in a vast forest, and you cannot find your way without a good guide. If you try to find your way cheaply or stingily, you will not be able to see or kiss a single saint, except, perhaps, that you can do so if it is that saint's feast day.' The young Liutprand on his first visit allowed himself to give Constantinople a couple of generous superlatives - 'its inhabitants, as they surpass other peoples in wealth, also surpass them in wisdom' - but another Western visitor, Odo of Deuil, who passed through Constantinople on the Second Crusade in 1147, gives a pejorative twist to the same observation.) 'Constantinople is a city of extremes. She surpasses other cities in wealth, and she surpasses them in vice.'

          大使们不应该让自己被君士坦丁堡吓倒。其他人普遍认为这座城市令人印象深刻，这并不奇怪。它拥有至少 50 万居民，是他们见过的最大的城市。不仅如此，他们还觉得它神奇而可怕。诺夫哥罗德的斯蒂芬是众多经过君士坦丁堡的俄罗斯朝圣者之一，他可能被允许为他们中的许多人说话：“君士坦丁堡的入口就像你在一片广阔的森林中，如果没有一个好的向导，你就找不到自己的路。如果你试图以廉价或吝啬的方式找到自己的路，你将无法看到或亲吻一个圣人，除非，如果那是圣人的节日，你可以这样做。年轻的柳特普朗在他第一次访问时允许自己给君士坦丁堡一些慷慨的最高级评价——“这里的居民，因为他们在财富上超过其他民族，在智慧上也超过他们”——但另一位西方游客，杜伊的奥多，他经历l君士坦丁堡在 1147 年的第二次十字军东征，对同一观察进行了贬义的扭曲。）“君士坦丁堡是一座极端的城市。她的财富超过了其他城市，她的罪恶也超过了他们。

Not only can we see how Constantinople and its food appeared to outsiders. Occasionally we are told how outsiders and their food appeared to those of the City. The adventurers of the Fourth Crusade, though overawed by their first view of Constantinople as Geoffroi de Villehardouin described it, succeeded in seizing the city and its empire in 1204. This is how the Byzantine historian Nicetas Choniates describes them. "They revelled and drank strong wine all day long. Some favoured luxury foods; others recreated their own native dishes, such as an ox rib apiece, or slices of salt pork cooked with beans, and sauces made with garlic or with a combination of other bitter flavours.’ To this meticulous author, filled with bitter hatred for the destroyers of the world he had known, we owe a first precious record of that favourite dish of the wild warriors of southern France, cassoulet.

          我们不仅可以看到君士坦丁堡及其食物在外人面前是如何出现的。有时我们会被告知外人和他们的食物是如何出现在城市的人眼中。第四次十字军东征的冒险家们虽然被 Geoffroi de Villehardouin（杰弗里·德·维尔哈杜安）所描述的第一次看到君士坦丁堡的景象所震撼，但在 1204 年成功地占领了这座城市及其帝国。拜占庭历史学家尼塞塔斯·乔尼亚特斯是这样描述它们的。 “他们整天陶醉并喝着烈酒。一些人喜欢奢侈的食物；另一些人则重新制作了自己的本土菜肴，例如牛肋骨，或用豆子烹制的咸猪肉片，以及用大蒜或其他混合制成的酱汁（苦味）。”这位一丝不苟的作者，对他所知道的世界的破坏者充满了强烈的仇恨，我们欠法国南部野战士最喜欢的那道菜的第一份珍贵记录。（法式慢炖菜）

未完待续！