2015-06-14

【Aiden in English】

        If you have a fear of lemons, then one place you shouldn’t go is anywhere in Southern Italy area around the Mediterranean Sea. Lemons literally control society there, and it’s a huge export. And just saying, I love lemons from the bottom of heart.

        Tangy lemons look so cool. But when they’re the size of my face, it gets… strange. People planted lemon trees around their houses. Lemonade stands were placed everywhere more common than soda’s. The gorgeous island of Capri probably had more lemon trees than the population. The tourist numbers were also more than the population. So it’s safe to say that coming to this random, isolated island wasn’t strange since it’s not completely random or isolated anymore. 

        Capri is an island jutting out of the Gulf of Naples in the Tyrrhenian Sea. One moment there was a tidal wave. The next thing you knew, you crashed against a sheet of rock rising up hundreds of feet in the air. And guess what? There were lemon trees on the edge of the cliff. The main center town of Capri was tiny, lively village of people sipping lemon slush or iced lemonade. The narrow streets were full of bustling tourists with frantic tour guides trying to keep the group together. Cozy little shops crammed side of side, their workers scrambling around to attract tourists. This tiny town had more to it than just shops. The vibe it gave off was positive, and hotels around the island were all 4 to 5 stars exclusively. Lemons seemed to pop up as decoration in the pictures if you looked close enough. They surrounded mansions, showing a splash of yellow on the canvas. Lemons tied together by the dozen on a rope created a border to a doorway or an entrance. It sounded crazy but true in every three people there was a cup of lemon slush. Something told me that if Capri didn’t have lemons, it wouldn’t be on the map.

        A society is based upon a special product in each country that is exported for money. Italy has many, but lemons are around the tippy-tippy top. This crucial item provides the thing that all humans want: money. People now can do basically everything with money, even illegal stuffs. Money equals wealth, and wealth equals power. There is a simple math equation, and let’s add another variable in front of money. Exported goods equal money, money equals etc ... And Capri has a ton of lemons that have absolutely no use to them anymore. So they have a ton of exporting goods. However, lemons aren’t exactly crucial like oil. The bad thing of society is the fact of depending on one source and using one source of product more than the product is produced. Oil is that product, and it takes over a millennium to make a new batch of oil. Oil in the earth is running out. By far, electrical cars are a possibility. It doesn’t seem like wait a minute, and your car charges. A hydrogen powered automobile technology has been there for years, but the price of manufacturing one is too great. The world government is in no shape to make a large decision like this at the moment either. 

        Lemons become indispensible in Capri, and it doesn’t look as if they’re running out any time soon. The locals can be replanted and harvested every year. But the world has to choose the only supply of energy for cars, which is gonna run out for us, huh?

【红霞译文】

        如果你对柠檬心存恐惧，那么千万不要去意大利南部地中海沿岸一带，在那里柠檬绝对举足轻重，多到出口的地步，顺便提一句，我打心眼里喜爱柠檬。

        清香扑鼻的柠檬看上去很爽，可一旦个头大如我的脸蛋，心里难免感觉别扭。人们在房前屋后种植柠檬树，柠檬汁货摊比卖苏打水更为流行，秀丽的卡普里岛柠檬树遍地开放，大大超过当地人口，观光客流排山倒海，汹涌淹没岛民数量，可以说即使鬼使神差来到这样一个茕茕孑立的岛屿也不会感到孤独，因为卡普里岛一向生机勃勃。

        卡普里岛坐落于第勒尼安海那不勒斯湾，四面环海，眼前潮起潮落，背后几百英尺高的山石拔地而立，你猜怎么着？柠檬树傲然挺立在悬崖边上。小镇中心不大，异族同胞们有滋有味嘬着柠檬冰沙；狭窄的街道人声鼎沸，导游歇斯底里地召集观光队伍；舒适的小商店一家挨着一家，其员工为招揽生意，争先恐后地吸引顾客。卡普里岛不光商家林立店铺栉比，生活气息高涨档次节节攀升，弹丸之地尽是四、五星级旅馆。如果你稍加留意，柠檬似乎还被当成绘画素材，黄灿灿地闪现在画布上，点缀着亭台楼阁；用绳子将十几个柠檬捆绑在一起悬挂门前，借以区分左邻右舍。耳听为虚眼见为实，这里每三个人中定有一个人在享受柠檬冰沙。凭直觉而论，如果没有柠檬，世上恐怕就没有卡普里岛。

        一个社会依靠出口国宝级特产换取经济利益，意大利有多种多样，但在卡普里岛柠檬绝对首屈一指，它给人们带来生活所需：金钱，有钱才能做任何事情，甚至非法行当。金钱意味着财富，财富代表权力，这个简单的数学公式足以说明问题，让我们在钱财上再添加另一个变量，即出口的商品带来收入，收入支配其它……卡普里岛有取之不尽用之不竭的柠檬，出口业兴旺发达，然而，柠檬毕竟不像石油至关重要，事情坏就坏在现有社会必须依赖一项资源，而该项资源恰好处于濒于枯竭状态，石油正是这种资源，需要一千多年才能自然形成，难怪全球石油产量日趋减少。到目前为止，电力汽车有可能摆脱对汽油的依赖，但这并非指日可待，你总得充电吧；氢气汽车技术已问世多年，但生产成本一直悬而未决，天底下尚无任何政府具有实力解决这种纠结。

        卡普里岛离不开柠檬，其产量在短期内不会改变，再说当地居民可以年年栽培年年收获，但世人偏偏选用石油来充当汽车能源，而石油终将会出现危机，对吗？