雙語散文欣賞:美人魚的傳說
Stories of mermaids have been told for centurie be it in the form of folklore, legends or fairy tales. Images of this creature have plagued artists and writers in their efforts to bring to life the mystery, beauty, and, ye eroticism of the mermaid to their audiences. Some still claim, even today, that they exist.
美人魚的故事不管是在民間傳說、傳奇故事，還是在童話故事裏，都已經流傳了數百年。無數藝術家和作家都煞費苦心地通過藝術形象和文字向大衆還原美人魚之謎、美人魚之美，還有美人魚的情挑一面（千真萬確！）。直至今天，仍然有人聲稱世上有美人魚。The mermaid and merman legends begin with the worship of god as have many mythologies. The earliest representations and descriptions of these now well-known creatures can be traced back as far as the eighth century BC, where merfolk got their beginnings as pagan water deities and supernatural female water beings.
如同衆多神話一樣，關於雌性和雄性美人魚的傳奇故事始於天神崇拜。對如今這一廣爲人知的生物的最早描述可以追溯到公元前八世紀，在那個時代，人們最開始視其爲原始水神和具有超自然能力的雌性水怪。The Babylonians were known to worship a sea-god called Oanne or Ea. Oannes was reputed to have risen from the Erythrean Sea and taught to man the arts and sciences. In the Louvre today can be seen an eighth century wall-scene depicting Oannes as a merman, with a fish-like tail and the upper-body of a man.
古巴比倫人敬奉一個名爲“奧尼斯”或“伊亞”的海神。據說，奧尼斯從厄立特里亞古海上升起，向人類傳授藝術與科學知識。如今在盧浮宮裏，人們還可以看到一幅創作於八世紀的壁畫，畫中的奧尼斯是一條雄性人魚，上身爲人形，長着一條貌似魚尾的尾巴。
The Syrians and the Philistines were also known to have worshiped a Semitic mermaid moon-goddess. The Syrians called her Atargatis while the Philistines knew her as Derceto. It is not unusual or surprising that this moon-goddess was depicted as a mermaid as the tides ebbed and flowed with the moon then as it does now, and this was incorporated into the god-like personifications that we find in their art and ancient literature. Atargatis is one of the first recorded mermaid and the legend says that her child Semiramis was a normal human and, because of thi Atargatis was ashamed and killed her lover. Abandoning the infant she became wholly a fish.
衆所周知，敘利亞人和腓力斯人敬奉一位閃米特美人魚月神。敘利亞人稱她爲“阿塔哥提斯”，而腓力斯人則把她叫作“得塞託”。潮水隨着月亮的陰晴圓缺而漲退，古今皆如此，所以美人魚被那個時代的人稱爲月神也很正常，不足爲奇，而美人魚也因這一點在古代腓力斯藝術創作和文學作品中被詮釋爲神的化身。阿塔哥提斯是最早被記載的美人魚之一。傳說稱她的第一個孩子斯米拉米斯是一個普通人，她因此感到羞愧不已，先殺死了情人，後拋棄了還是嬰兒的孩子，自己完完全全地變成了魚形。In Japanese and Chinese legends there were not only mermaids but also sea-dragons and dragon-wives. The Japanese mermaid known as Ningyo was depicted as a fish with only a human head. Polynesian mythology includes a creator named Vatea who was depicted as half-human and half-porpoise.
日本和中國的傳說故事裏不僅有美人魚，還有海龍王和龍母。日本的美人魚叫“人魚”，有着人頭魚身的形象。玻利尼西亞神話裏則有一個名叫“維提”的半人半海豚形怪物。Greek and Roman mythology is often placed together as the two are very similar, and it is in the literature from these cultures that one finds the first literary description of the mermaid and, indeed, mermen. Poseidon and Neptune were often depicted as half-man and half-fish, and Homer mentions the Sirens during the voyage of Odysseu although he fails to give a physical description.
因爲古希臘和古羅馬神話非常相似，因此人們常常把兩者放在一起討論。對於雌性美人魚與雄性美人魚的文字描述最早便出現在這兩種文化的文學作品裏。古希臘海神波塞冬和古羅馬海神尼普頓常常被描述成半人半魚的形象。荷馬在講述奧德修斯的海上征程時提到了塞壬，只可惜他並沒有對其外形作具體描述。The British Isles too had their fair share of merfolk mythology. The Cornish knew mermaids as Merrymaids; the Irish knew them as Merrows or Muirruhgach and some sources write that they lived on dry land below the sea and had enchanted caps that allowed them to pass through the water without drowning. While the women were very beautiful, the men had red nose piggy eye green hair and teeth, and a penchant for brandy.
不列顛羣島也不缺美人魚的傳說。康沃爾人把美人魚稱爲“梅麗少女”，而愛爾蘭人則稱之爲“梅爾蘿”或者“梅如加”。有資料稱，這些美人魚住在海底乾燥的陸地上，因爲頭戴魔帽而不會在水中溺斃。雌性美人魚都異常驚豔，而雄性美人魚則是紅鼻小眼，綠髮青牙，還酷愛喝白蘭地。Germanic mythology has the Meerfrau, the Nix and the Nixe who were male and female fresh-water inhabitant and it was believed that they were treacherous to men. The Nixe lured men to drown while the Nix could be in the form of an old dwarfish character or as a golden-haired boy and, in Iceland and Sweden, could take the form of a centaur. The Nix also loved music and could lure people to him with his harp; if he was in the form of a horse he would tempt people to mount him and then dash into the sea to drown them. While he sometimes desired a human soul he would often demand annual human sacrifices. There was also the more elven-like Nixies that would sometimes appear in the market; she could be identified by the corner of her apron being wet. If she paid a good price it would be an expensive year, but if she paid a low price the prices for that year would remain cheap. In the Rhine were to be found the Lorelei from which the town took its name. The Germans also knew the Melusine as a double-tailed mermaid as did the British heraldry as well.
梅爾弗、尼克斯和尼斯則是日爾曼民族神話中的美人魚，他們是生活在淡水中的雄性和雌性美人魚，據說對人類奸詐兇險。雌性美人魚會把男人引誘到水中使其溺斃，而雄性美人魚則會變成年邁的侏儒或者金髮男孩引誘人類；在冰島和瑞典，他還會以人首馬身的樣子出現。雄性美人魚喜愛音樂，會彈奏豎琴以誘惑人類。如果他以馬的形象出現，他就會誘人騎到馬背上，再衝到海里，把人淹死。有時候，他想要獲得人的靈魂，於是就要求人類每年以活人作爲供品。雌性美人魚有時會以類似小精靈的形象在集市上出現，圍裙一角溼答答的就是她。如果她支付了大價錢，那這一年集市的商品價格就會走高；而如果她出了低價，那這一年的價格就低。在萊茵河流域，其中一個小鎮的名字就是源自美人魚羅日雷。日爾曼人還知道“梅爾露辛”是條雙尾美人魚，而英國的紋章上也有雙尾美人魚。With the growth of science, the fantastic became childish amongst the writers of the growing educated, especially during the eighteenth century, but began to flourish again with the Romantic Movement at the turn of the century. It was also the time, however, for the scientifically-minded to do their utmost to dispel the myth of the mermaid, claiming that all the recorded sightings were simply men who'd been at sea too long and wanting to believe, and so, when a seal, porpoise, dugong or manatee was spotted from the ship, they'd swear they'd seen a mermaid.
隨着科學的日益發展，對於學識日漸豐富的作家來說，那些稀奇古怪的說法顯得幼稚可笑，這一點在十八世紀尤爲突出，但這些關於美人魚的說法在十八世紀末的浪漫主義運動中卻又重新擡頭了。但也正是在那個時候，有科學頭腦的人力求盡最大努力去解開美人魚之謎。他們稱，所有記錄在案的美人魚目擊事件，只不過是因爲人在海上漂流的時間過長，沒有精神寄託，於是，當他們在船上看到一隻海豹、海豚、儒艮或海牛時，他們就信誓旦旦地宣稱自己看到了美人魚。It is not until the twentieth century that the mermaid is tossed back and forth between those that believe, or want to believe, and those that stand behind their logic and scientific proof that a creature such as the mermaid simply cannot exist. A wonderful film of these two meeting is the film Splash, with Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks. No matter how the mermaid is used or what role she plays she will always retain her mysterious air. Perhaps the next move is a more feminine one, bringing back the myth of the mermaid protecting women, or the soul of the woman drowned before her natural time of death…
到了二十世紀，美人魚存在與否一直是一個爭論不休的話題。相持不下的雙方是篤信者——或者那些想要相信的人——和那些以邏輯和科學實證爲原則、堅稱像美人魚這樣的生物根本不存在的人們。由達麗爾·漢納和湯姆·漢克斯主演的電影《美人魚》讓雙方的爭論得到了很好的表現。不管美人魚被如何利用，或是扮演着怎樣的角色，她身上的神祕感仍將揮之不去。在傳說中，美人魚守護女性，或者那些在正常死去前就被溺死的女性的靈魂。也許這個爭論的下一步發展會體現出更多的女性關懷，讓這個女性守護者的傳說重獲新生……
