正文
经济学人下载:牧羊人阿吉图·古蒂塔(2)
The Mochena region was a closed place, still inhabited by descendants of Bavarians who ate dumplings, lived in chalets and spoke a dialect of German.
莫切纳地区交通闭塞,那儿仍然生活着巴伐利亚人的后代,他们吃德国饺子,住木屋,说着德语方言。
They distrusted all strangers, including the regular pedlars who sold fabric out of their vans.
他们对所有的陌生人都心怀戒备,包括那些经常开货车卖布料的小贩。
And they had never seen a black face except on Shrove Tuesday, when carnival was led by the betscho and betscha,
除了忏悔日,他们从来没有见过一张黑人面孔,当时的忏悔日是由贝塔和贝莎主持的,
one in a skirt, one with a tall goatskin hat and a false hump made of straw, both in blackface, who clowned to bring prosperity.
她们一个穿着裙子,一个戴着高高的山羊皮帽子,用稻草做出假的驼背,两人都涂成了黑脸,他们用滑稽的动作,以期为当地带来繁荣。
Now here among them was a real black woman, an Ethiopian refugee, living in the mountains alone with her goats.
如今,一个真正的黑人妇女出现了,她是个埃塞俄比亚难民,和羊群独自住在山里。
Well, she thought as she worked away, herding and milking and scrubbing, she could bring in prosperity too.
她一直觉得,一边放牧、挤奶、清洗,一边干活,她也能为当地繁荣贡献力量。
Her parents had gone to California; she had come here.
她的父母去了加利福尼亚;她来到了这里。
She had fled from Ethiopia in 2010 with nothing, determined to leave nostalgia behind and reinvent herself.
2010年,她一无所有地逃离了埃塞俄比亚,决心抛开故国情怀,重塑自我。
Her work back there, menaced by trigger-happy police and a warrant for her arrest,
在那里,她的工作受到了暴力的警察和逮捕令的威胁,
had been to defend nomadic herders whose grazing lands were being grabbed and leased to corporations by the government.
她的工作是为那些游牧牧民辩护,他们的牧场被政府抢夺并租给公司。
Neo-colonialism, in a word. But in Italy too land was being squandered, good green land, as people left.
总之,这简直就是新殖民主义。但是在意大利,随着人们离开,土地被搁置。
So she did what her herding grandparents would have done:
所以她重拾了祖父母放牧为生的旧行当:
put her goats on communal pastures that had been abandoned, and let their munching and manuring gradually restore them.
把她的山羊驱赶到被遗弃的公共牧场上,通过羊群啃食和排便逐渐恢复了土地的生机。
The Mochena breed were not abundant milkers, but she soon had milk and yogurt to sell.
莫切纳山羊的产奶量并不高,但她很快就有牛奶和酸奶可以卖了。
Then came cheese, eventually 15 different kinds adapted to local tastes—of which her special treasures were the primo sale,
然后是奶酪,最终她自制了15种不同的奶酪来迎合当地人的口味——其中她的热卖品就是primo sale,
the first fresh salted ones, which tasted completely different in a week.
首批原创新鲜咸奶酪,这种奶酪的新鲜口感仅能维持一周。