“Perfect Breakfast”
You won’t wait for the light to slip through the window.
你不会等待光线从窗户溜进来。
You will look at Takashi sleeping beside you.
你会看着熟睡在你身边的隆。
It’s good he’s resting, you’ll think, because he has a long day of work ahead.
你会想，他能休息真好，因为他还有一整天的工作要做。
You’ll get up from the futon without a sound, and walk light-footed across the tatami to the kitchen, and you’ll dress there so as not to tear Hiro and Takashi’s paper sleep.
你会悄无声息地从蒲团上站起来，轻快地穿过榻榻米来到厨房，然后在那里穿好衣服，以免撕破阿宏和高志的睡纸。
A perfect breakfast calls for fresh fish and the freshest of all is around the Tsukiji market.
完美的早餐需要新鲜的鱼，而最新鲜的鱼就在筑地市场附近。
It’s mackerel season.
现在是鲭鱼季节。
You’ll take the train to Tsukiji for a perfect mackerel.
您将乘坐火车前往筑地，品尝完美的鲭鱼。
There, every single one will look lovely to you.
在那里，每一个对你来说都会看起来很可爱。
That blue shimmer, the tiger stripes on black that is wet, always wet, like a recollection that never dries, a memory of the sea.
那蓝色的微光，黑底老虎的条纹，湿漉漉的，永远湿漉漉的，就像永不干涸的回忆，关于大海的记忆。
You will shut your eyes, and choose.
你会闭上眼睛，然后选择。
You won’t allow yourself to be carried away entirely by what you see alone.
你不会让自己完全被你所看到的东西迷惑。
You’ll travel back home with the perfect mackerel in a bag, hoping for no delays.
您将带着完美的鲭鱼回家，希望不会有任何延误。
That would be a loss of freshness.
那样就会失去新鲜感。
A crack in the smoothness of your plans.
你计划的顺利程度出现了裂痕。
Back home, you will slice the mackerel in half and salt it, so it retains the spirit of the sea.
回到家，你会把鲭鱼切成两半并加盐，这样它就保留了大海的气息。
You’ll leave the rice to soak, having washed your hands with that coconut soap Mariko gave you.
你将把大米浸泡在水中，然后用真理子给你的椰子肥皂洗手。
How lucky you are.
你真幸运。
How many Japanese women wash their face and hands in the morning with coconut soap?
有多少日本女性早上用椰子皂洗脸和洗手？
You will imagine a beach like the ones in travel-agent advertisements and focus your imagination up at the tips of the palm trees: you’ll see the coconuts, the ones they used for making the soap so that your hands could be soft this morning.
你会想象一个像旅行社广告中那样的海滩，并将你的想象力集中在棕榈树的尖端：你会看到椰子，他们用它们来制作肥皂，这样你的手今天早上就会柔软。
You will wish that something of this beach and this coconut whiteness might pass into the rice through your hands as you wash it and leave it to rest.
您会希望在您清洗并放置米饭时，海滩和椰子的白色部分可以通过您的双手进入米饭中。
The resting is important.
休息很重要。
In all things.
在一切事物中。
To make the miso shiru, you will scent the water with small, dried anchovies.
为了制作味噌汁，您需要在水中加入小干凤尾鱼来调味。
You will imagine the dance of the coconut’s sweetness with the anchovies’ salty taste.
您会想象椰子的甜味与凤尾鱼的咸味的舞蹈。
As if that same sea that caresses the feet of the palms were doing it now in Tokyo, in your house.
就好像那片抚摸着棕榈脚的大海现在也在东京，在你的家里做着同样的事情。
You won’t put many anchovies in the water because otherwise that dance of flavors will turn into a battle.
你不会在水中放入很多凤尾鱼，否则味道的舞蹈就会变成一场战斗。
Next you go to open the natto, and the packet of nori, the one you saved up to buy.
接下来，你去打开纳豆和你存钱买的那包紫菜。
Nori of a perfect blackness, death like, without the green glints of more common seaweed.
海苔呈现出完美的黑色，就像死亡一样，没有更常见海藻的绿色闪光。
There’s something arrogant in that gesture and you will be embarrassed, but the idea of a perfect breakfast will once again convince you that you did the right thing, that just a single component of a different quality would mean the work on all the others was wasted.
这种姿态有些傲慢，你会感到尴尬，但完美早餐的想法将再次让你相信你做了正确的事情，仅仅一个不同质量的成分就意味着所有其他成分的工作都被浪费了。
Which is also why you will use the tea from the first flush, that tea from the south of Japan.
这也是为什么您会使用来自日本南部的初冲茶。
You’ll take the water off the stove before it boils, you’ll just moisten the leaves and after pouring on the water you will let them rest.
在水沸腾之前，你将把水从炉子上取出，你只需润湿叶子，然后倒在水上，让它们休息。
They’ll stretch and their flavor will be allowed to emerge, their scent, their green essence in your grey kitchen.
它们会伸展，它们的味道、它们的气味、它们的绿色精华将在你灰色的厨房里显现出来。
You will go to your son’s room.
你会去你儿子的房间。
You’ll stay there a little while, kneeling beside the futon watching his breaths.
你会在那里呆一会儿，跪在蒲团旁边观察他的呼吸。
Truly you could spend all the time in the world here, let the breakfast rot in the kitchen and the rest of the meaningless world fall apart out there and you’d just keep on kneeling beside Hiro’s futon.
确实，你可以在这里度过世界上所有的时间，让早餐在厨房里腐烂，让其他毫无意义的世界分崩离析，而你只是继续跪在阿宏的蒲团旁边。
As if he belonged to you and not to the waiting world, of which he is just one more cog.
就好像他属于你，而不属于等待的世界，他只是其中的一颗齿轮。
You’ll put a hand on his skinny little shoulder.
你会把一只手放在他瘦小的肩膀上。
The boy will say “hey” and you’ll answer in a voice neither loud nor quiet that it’s time to get up.
男孩会说“嘿”，你会用既不大声也不安静的声音回答说，该起床了。
He will rub his eyes and say “OK, mamá,” and then he’ll pull the covers back up, to laze about for just one more minute.
他会揉揉眼睛说“好吧，妈妈”，然后他会把被子拉起来，再懒一会儿。
Then you will come back to the kitchen and listen as Hiro and your husband ready themselves for their days that are filled with obligations, the way trees are filled with fruit or flowers.
然后你会回到厨房，聆听阿宏和你的丈夫为他们充满义务的日子做好准备，就像树木结满了水果或鲜花一样。
You will mix the mustard into the natto: a sword dance.
您将把芥末混入纳豆中：剑舞。
A sharp tinkling in your nose.
鼻子里传来尖锐的叮当声。
You will place everything on the table with the same care as every other morning, only now seeking something different.
你会像平常早上一样小心翼翼地将所有东西放在桌子上，只是现在寻求不同的东西。
Not one angle must be out of tune, not one color must clash or be erased, they should flow toward Hiro and his papá.
任何一个角度都不能失调，任何一种颜色都不能冲突或被擦除，它们应该流向阿宏和他的爸爸。
The scents should seduce like something hidden.
气味应该像隐藏的东西一样诱人。
The ordering should be pleasant like the voices of the elevator girls in department stores.
点餐的声音应该像百货公司电梯小姐的声音一样悦耳。
You will place a small flower down beside the natto dish.
您将在纳豆盘旁边放一朵小花。
Almost an act of vanity that you will be unable to avoid.
这几乎是一种你无法避免的虚荣行为。
A sign, perhaps.
也许是一个迹象。
Your husband and Hiro will kneel beside the breakfast.
你的丈夫和阿弘会跪在早餐旁边。
You will enjoy watching them eat.
你会喜欢看他们吃东西。
Hiro, a little ungainly as if still nestled in sleep, will rub his face with the back of the hand in which he’s holding the ohashi.
宏有点笨拙，好像还在睡觉，他会用拿着大桥的手背擦脸。
You will crack an egg into his bowl.
你会把一个鸡蛋打进他的碗里。
A whole sun will spread across a small rice world.
整个太阳将洒满一个小小的稻米世界。
You will see Hiro finish waking up as he chews, and you’ll see him realise that this is a perfect breakfast.
你会看到阿宏在咀嚼时醒来，你会看到他意识到这是一顿完美的早餐。
Your husband will eat everything down to the last grain of rice, every last bit of the natto, every last fiber of the mackerel and he will nod while he does it.
你的丈夫会吃掉所有的东西，直到最后一粒米，最后一点纳豆，最后一点鲭鱼纤维，他一边吃一边点头。
“Oishi,” Hiro will say, and you’ll be content and you will thank him, just tipping your head and smiling more with your eyes than with your lips that do not part.
“Oishi，”Hiro 会说，你会心满意足，你会感谢他，只需低下头，用眼睛微笑，而不是用双唇微笑。
“Oishi,” the boy will say again, and you’ll feel a puffer fish in your chest.
“Oishi，”男孩会再说一遍，你会感觉到胸口里有一条河豚鱼。
Your husband will nod again.
你丈夫会再次点头。
The table will be left empty.
该表将留空。
Only the bowls, cups, small dishes, all empty as skeletons.
只剩下碗、杯、小碟子，空空如也。
And the flower, open like a yelling mouth.
还有那朵花，像一张大喊大叫的嘴一样张开。
Mute of meaning in its beauty.
美丽中蕴藏着无声的意义。
Hiro will say he’s got English class and he’ll race from the table.
Hiro 会说他有英语课，他会在桌子上比赛。
Your husband will wait a little, as if he were resting, like the rice, like the tea.
你的丈夫会等一会儿，就好像他在休息，就像米饭，就像茶一样。
You will rinse your hands to say goodbye to them.
您将洗手以与它们告别。
You will use your coconut soap one more time.
您将再次使用椰子皂。
Hiro will have his backpack and his baseball cap.
阿宏会带着他的背包和棒球帽。
You’ll tell him to take it off before going into school.
你会告诉他在上学之前把它摘下来。
He’ll nod and tell you his friend’s waiting for him on the next block.
他会点头告诉你他的朋友在下一个街区等他。
Your husband, already at the door, will tell you before putting on his shoes that it was a perfect breakfast.
你的丈夫已经在门口了，他会在穿鞋之前告诉你这是一顿完美的早餐。
You’ll thank him for that.
你会为此感谢他的。
Alone in the house, you will clean with great care, as always, only differently.
独自一人在房子里时，您将像往常一样小心地打扫卫生，只是有所不同。
Things can always be better.
事情总是可以变得更好。
What a lack of humility it would be not to try.
如果不去尝试，那就太缺乏谦逊了。
When you have finished, you go sit beside the oven and open the door, which comes down like a drawbridge.
完成后，你坐在烤箱旁边，打开门，门像吊桥一样下降。
You’ll turn the knob and rest your head on the door as if it were a pillow on which you were going to nap.
你转动门把手，把头靠在门上，就像你要在上面小睡的枕头一样。
The note of apology will have been written already and you’ll have left it on the table.
道歉信已经写好了，你会把它放在桌子上。
You will think about sun-filled beaches and very tall palm trees.
您会想到充满阳光的海滩和非常高大的棕榈树。
At their tips you will see coconuts and you’ll guess at their white insides and their scent.
在它们的尖端，您会看到椰子，您会猜测它们的白色内脏和气味。
You’ll look at the sea, and feel that strange smell as it comes and goes.
你会看着大海，感受它来来往往的奇怪气味。
From The Fallen Trees Are Also the Forest , originally published as Los árboles caídos también son el bosque by Bajo La Luna in Buenos Aires, 2015.
摘自《倒下的树也是森林》，最初由 Bajo La Luna 在布宜诺斯艾利斯出版，名为 Los árboles caídos también son el bosque，2015 年。
Copyright Alejandra Kamiya, 2015; English translation copyright Daniel Hahn, 2026.
版权所有亚历杭德拉·卡米亚，2015 年；英文翻译版权所有 Daniel Hahn，2026。
First published by Pushkin Press in 2026.
普希金出版社于 2026 年首次出版。