翻译擂台（第51期）——投票！
一年一度，北京城又到了热吃羊肉的时节。
寒意渐浓的晚上，邀上三五好友找一家涮肉馆，煽上一个炭锅，点上两盘羊肉，要上几瓶“小二”，边吃边喝边聊些闲话，其乐也融融。待到微醺时，再多烦心事，也都无影无踪了。
按照《本草纲目》的说法，各类肉食中，凡猪肉：苦，微寒，有小毒。羊肉气味：苦、甘，大热，无毒。黄牛肉气味：甘，温，无毒。
由于羊肉属于大热之物，因此过去北京人讲究冬天吃羊肉，像涮锅子，只有立秋之后才应市，过了立春便再没有地方吃了。这也是遵从孔老夫子的谆谆教诲——不时不食。
——摘自汪曾祺《京城羊肉爆烤涮》
Once again, it’s the season of the year for people in Beijing to enjoy mutton hotpot.
Few things are better than eating out with several friends in a hotpot restaurant as winter is draping a chilly cloak. Sitting around a steamy charcoal pot, you can have fun chatting with friends while tasting mutton and drinking small bottles of Erguotou. By the time you get tipsy, all the troubles would be put behind you.
According to "Compendium of Materia Medica", among all kinds of meats, pork is bitter with slight cold feeling and small poison, while mutton smells bitter, sweet,featuring body-warming and non-toxic, and yellow beef is sweet, body-warming, non-toxic.
The public believes mutton has the therapeutic effect of warming the body, which thus makes it an ideal food for winter. In the past, this kind of food like mutton hotpot was only served during the colder months after the beginning of fall, which goes in tandem with Confucius’ concept of adapting your diet to the changing seasons.
The once-a-year season for mutton came again on time in Beijing.
As night was getting chilly, it would be perfect to gather several friends for chitchat at a mutton restaurant with a boiling charcoal pot, two plates of mutton and bottles of Erguotou severed. How convivial it would be! Moreover, slightly intoxicated as you were, any annoyance would recede by itself.
According to Compendium of Materia Medica, a book about Chinese herbal medicine by Li Shizhen, among varieties of meats, “pork is bitter in flavor, mildly cold in nature, and a little poisonous in toxicity. Mutton is bitter and sweet in flavor, majorly heat in nature and non-poisonous in toxicity. Beef is sweet in flavor, warm in nature and non-poisonous in toxicity.”
Therefore, in the past, residents of Beijing particularly favored this majorly heat food, mutton, during winter days. And they had to wait for mutton hot pot until the Beginning of Autumn and would find no place to have a taste of it after the Beginning of Spring. Such can also respond to the guidance from Confucious: Enjoy food in season in its season.
—An excerpt from Mutton Season in Beijing by Wang Zengqi
It's winter again, when people in Beijing loves to eat mutton.
One can, with several friends, enjoy mutton slices boiled in a charcoal hotpot — and some Erguotou — in a restaurant on a chilly evening, while chatting with pleasure, and all the worries would be chased away when they slightly drunk.
According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, the pork is bitter, and slightly cold and poisonous; mutton smells bitter but tastes sweet, and is of great heat but no poison; and beef smells sweet, and is warm and poisonless.
Of great heat, the mutton is a popular food among the residents of Beijing in winter in the past. For example, mutton hotpot was only on the market after the Beginning of Autumn, and before Beginning of Spring. This also follows the inculcation of Confucius — Have food proper for season.
— Extract from "How to Eat Mutton in Beijing: Frying, Roasting and Hotpot” by Wang Zengqi
In Beijing, the season for mutton comes again.
In the evening when there is a stronger chill in the air, it seems a great pleasure for me to spend few hours with some of my close friends in an instant-boiled mutton restaurant. There, with the instant-boiled mutton and the Erguotou (a kind of Chinese liquor), we could enjoy the food, the liquor and chat with each other at the same time. How joyful it is! Then, all the vexation will go with the wind, when we are slightly drunk.
According to the Great Pharmacopoeia (a Chinese herbology volume written by Li Shizhen during the Ming dynasty), the cold-natured pork tastes bitter, and has little negative effects to one’s health; the hot-natured mutton tastes both sweet and bitter, and will do no harm to one’s health; and similarly, the warm-natured beef tastes sweet and has no bad impact.
Take into consideration that the mutton is hot in nature, in the past, people in Beijing preferred to have it in winter. Take the instant-boiled mutton as an example, it always prevailed in the autumn, but after the beginning of the spring people may failed to find it. That, in fact, is in line with Confucius’s “Seasonal Eating”.
That time of year comes again when mutton finds its way into instant-boiled pots in Beijing.
On a chilly evening, you invite several friends to an instant-boiled mutton restaurant, burn a charcoal pot, order a few plates of mutton and a couple of small-bottled “Erguotou”, a kind of Chinese liquor popular in Beijing. What a joy it is eating, drinking and chatting with friends over the pot. When slightly drunk, you seem to be free from any worries.
According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, among various kinds of meat, the pork is of bitter smell and of slightly cold nature, with a little poison. The lamb, of hot nature and bitter and sweet smell, is non-toxic. The beef, non-toxic is of sweet smell and warm nature.
Mutton is hot in traditional Chinese medicine, so in the past the people of Beijing made it a habit to have it in winter. Instant-boiled mutton, for example, is only seasonal after the Start of Autumn and out of season in the wake of the Start of Spring, which is also in accordance with the wisdom of Confucius—“We should eat seasonally”.
—an excerpt from “Different Cooking Methods of Mutton in Beijing” by Wang Zengqi
Now comes the once-a-year hot spell of eating goat meat in Peking.
On a somewhat chilly evening, it is so happy to share a hot pot with a couple of friends in a hotpot restaurant , chatting over two plates of goat meat and several bottles of Erguotou. Everybody turns to be so carefree when they are slightly intoxicated.
As recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica , pork , known as cold food in China, tastes a bit bitter , being slightly harmful for one’s health ; goat meat , known as hot food in China, tastes a bit sweet, doing no harm to one’s health; beef, being classified as warm food, tastes sweet and does no harm to one’s health either.
With goat meat being characterized by its hot nature, Peking people particularly used to eat goat meat only in winter . Goat meat hotpot was not served in the restaurant until after the beginning of autumn and couldn’t be found after the beginning of spring. Since Confucius assiduously told us to have the food in its best time.