向中国家庭介绍美国感恩节 Translating a US Thanksgiving to family in China

“Well, we have this big meal together with family, and we eat things like turkey and cranberries…”

“嗯，我们和家人一起吃顿大餐，我们会吃火鸡，蔓越莓……”

As I tried describing Thanksgiving Day, one of the most quintessential American holidays, to my in-laws in China, I could already see their eyes glaze over with confusion and sense the questions forming in their minds. Turkey? Cranberries? Even though I expressed these perfectly in Chinese, the result was still gibberish because they had never seen a turkey or tasted cranberries in their entire lives.

我试图向我的中国家人描绘美国最具代表性的节日之一——感恩节，我已经能读出他们眼神中的困惑和疑问。火鸡？蔓越莓？即使我将这些食物用中文表述得再好，他们还是不能明白，因为他们有生以来从未见过火鸡，也没有尝过蔓越莓。

So I attempted to translate the holiday through more familiar Chinese counterparts. I described the roast turkey as something akin to Beijing duck. I equated the sweet-tart goodness of cranberries to Chinese hawthorn in the candied fruit skewers oftang hulu. I called stuffing a savory version of eight-treasures rice. I likened pumpkin pie to the pumpkin cakes, ornangua bing, popular across their province of Zhejiang. I compared the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade to the yearly Spring Festival Gala on Chinese New Year’s Eve. And I characterized the entire celebration as an American version of Winter Solstice in China, as both holidays emphasize food and family and also herald the start of the holiday season in our respective countries.

所以在介绍感恩节时，我尝试着用他们熟悉的中国食物来代替感恩节的传统食物。我将烤火鸡描述成类似北京烤鸭这样的食物，蔓越莓的酸酸甜甜的味道描述成中国糖葫芦中的山楂的味道，把主食描绘成八宝饭，将南瓜派比喻成南瓜蛋糕，或者是在浙江省比较受欢迎的南瓜饼。我将一年一度的梅西感恩节大游行比喻成中国除夕夜的春节联欢晚会，我把整个庆祝活动描述为美国版冬至日，因为人们在这两个节日里都注重传统食物和家庭氛围，感恩节和冬至日也预示着美国和中国的节日季的开始。

Yet as much as my in-laws nodded and smiled in acknowledgment, I recognized that even these explanations were a poor substitute. It wasn’t just that some of the food didn’t have a clear analog in Chinese culture, such as mashed potatoes with gravy or the traditional green bean casserole sprinkled with crispy fried onions. No words could ever fully encompass the Thanksgiving celebrations I had known in the US.

尽管家人们点头微笑致意，但是我知道这些中国食物还是无法代替万圣节的传统食物。这并不仅仅是因为中国食物与美国食物很少有类似之处，比如土豆泥和肉汁，传统青豆砂锅菜和洋葱酥其实并不一样。没有言语能够充分描述我所了解的美国感恩节庆祝活动。

No matter how much I said, I could never transport them back to my uncle and aunt’s home, and sit them down in the same long, rectangular tables draped with festive burgundy or white tablecloths. They would never be able to stand along with me at the buffet table, where we would serve ourselves from the steaming hot dishes lined up along the wall. We wouldn’t have the chance to bow our heads together as someone recited a Thanksgiving Day prayer before the meal, or engage in delicious conversations over dinner about plans for the coming holidays.

不论我说了多少，我都无法将真正的感恩节氛围传递到叔叔和婶婶家，让他们坐在同样长的长方形桌子上，铺着具有感恩节特色的紫红色或白色桌布。他们永远也不能和我一起围站在自助餐桌旁，享用沿着墙壁排列的热气腾腾的食物。当有人在用餐前背诵了一篇感恩节祈祷文时，我们不会一起低头祷告，也不会在晚餐时同我一起讨论即将到来的假期的计划。

All of these rituals and the people behind them would forever remain out of their reach, and they would never personally encounter the delights of Thanksgiving Day, to truly understand why it was my favorite American holiday.

所有这些感恩节的仪式及其庆祝的活动是他们永远无法理解的，他们也永远不会亲身体验感恩节的快乐，也无法真正理解为什么感恩节是我最喜欢的美国节日。

This is the kind of disappointment you face when you straddle two different countries, where you have experiences – like spending Thanksgiving Day with family -- that you cannot pack up in your suitcase like a souvenir or render into a perfect verbal description. As much as I wished I had more than my woefully inadequate introduction to the holiday, it would have to do.

当你跨越两个不同的国家时，你会感到失望，你会有这样的经历——比如和中国家人一起过感恩节——你不能把真正的感恩节像纪念品一样放在行李箱里，也不能把它们完美地用语言描述出来。尽管我希望我对节日的介绍能够更加充分。

Still, I had to remember the positive side to this exchange with my in-laws. It’s a precious thing when you can sit down with people from another country, and they’re actually open to learning about your culture, including the holidays you love most. So in the spirit of my American holiday, I silently gave a moment of thanks for having such incredible in-laws, who cared enough to listen to their foreign daughter-in-law talk about Thanksgiving Day.

不过，我也会记住与家人们交流的积极一面。能和其他国家的人坐下来交谈是一件很珍贵的事情，实际上他们很乐于了解你的文化，包括你最喜欢的节日。因此，本着我的美国假期的精神，我默默地感谢这些善良友好的家人，他们十分关心并且乐于倾听他们的外国儿媳谈论感恩节。