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| Excerpt：The Book of Imaginary Beings https://www.bookdepository.com/Book-Imaginary-Beings-Classics-Deluxe-Edition-Jorge-Luis-Borges/9780143039938 The Book of Imaginary Beings (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) By (author) Jorge Luis Borges , Translated by Andrew Hurley , Illustrated by Peter Sis In a perfect pairing of talent, this volume blends twenty illustrations by Peter Sís with Jorge Luis Borgess 1957 compilation of 116 strange creatures conceived through time and space by the human imagination, from dragons and centaurs to Lewis Carrolls Cheshire Cat and the Morlocks of H. G. Wellss The Time Machine. A lavish feast of exotica brought vividly to life with art commissioned specifically for this volume, The Book of Imaginary Beings will delight readers of classic fantasy as well as Borgess many admirers. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. 前些日子從圖書館借閱了波赫士的《想像的動物》(楊耐冬翻譯)，新潮文庫編號202，1979年由志文出版。 可惜的是這本書目前已經絕版，因而我就試著找到英譯本來收藏吧！ 雖然號稱是Classics Deluxe Edition，但裝幀不算特別，只有封面有個名為 Buraq 的馬形神獸插圖，這隻神獸曾被記載在《古蘭經》中，它載著先知穆罕默德一夜之間往返於麥加和耶路撒冷。 我另外挑了兩篇大家可能比較熟的神話，一起看看波赫士如何說故事吧。 【Excerpt】 The Minotaur The idea of a house built expressly so that people will become lost in it may be stranger than the idea of a man with the head of a bull, and yet the two ideas may reinforce one another. Indeed, the image of the Labyrinth and the image of the Minotaur seem to “go together”: it is fitting that at the center of a monstrous house there should live a monstrous inhabitant. The Minotaur, half man, half bull, was born out of the lovemaking of Pasiphaë the queen of Crete, with a white bull sent by Poseidon from the sea. Daedalus, the artificer who built the device that allowed such a passion to be consummated, also built the Labyrinth destined to house, and hide, the monstrous offspring. The Minotaur ate human flesh; to satisfy its hunger, the king of Crete required that Athens render Crete a yearly tribute of seven youths and seven maidens. Theseus resolved to save his kingdom from that terrible taxation, and volunteered to go. Ariadne, the daughter of the king, gave the young man a spool of thread so that he would not become lost in the mazy corridors of the Labyrinth; the hero killed the Minotaur and follow the thread out of the maze. Ovid, in an attempt at a witty turn of phrase, speaks of the “man half bull and the bull half man”; Dante, who was familiar with the words of the ancients but no with their coins and monuments, pictured the Minotaur with the head of a man and the body of a bull (Inferno XII, 1-30). The worship of the bull and the double-headed axe (whose name was labrys, and so might well have evolved into “labyrinth”) was characteristic of pre-Hellenic religions, which held sacred festivals in their honor, known as Tauromachias. To judge from murals, human figures with the heads of bulls figured in Cretan demonology. The Greek fable of the Minotaur is probably a late and somewhat uncouth version of very ancient myths—the shadow of other, still more horrific, dreams. 〈人身牛頭怪物邁納托〉 造一棟房子讓人們迷失在裡面的想法，也許比一個人配個牛頭的構想更為非凡，但是這兩種想法卻被人們連想在一起，即迷宮配上一個人身牛頭怪物，而這巨大的怪物就住在這巨大的房屋中央。 邁納托這半牛半人的怪物，生來就有克利特王后派西斐那種狂熱猛性，因為這白牛是海神從海上帶來。底達拉斯展此迷宮超藝是在滿足克利特王后的奇異熱望，同時用來監禁她那畸形巨兒。邁納托是以人肉來餵養的怪物，因此，克利特王要雅典人每年進貢七個青年和七個處女。當色蘇斯被指定為貢品以滿足這怪物的饑餓時，他下定了決心為他的國家解除此一進貢之負擔。公主亞麗亞登給他一根線，使他能在迷宮曲折的走道上找到出路；這位英雄殺死了邁納托，並且逃出了迷宮。 奧維德曾有一語，說得很具有智慧：人即半牛，牛即半人。但丁熟悉古人著述，而並不熟悉古代錢幣與碑文，說邁納托是人頭牛身 (但丁「神曲」地獄第十二章中語)。 牛的崇拜與二頭斧 (此名Labrys可能與 Labyrinth同語根) 的崇拜均為前希臘宗教典型，舉行鬪牛獻祭，人身配以牛頭，從壁晝上可以判斷出來，也可以從克利特的魔鬼學讀到。大概希臘邁納托這一寓言是晚近傳說中最為笨拙的古代神話，其他的遠古的夢囈陰影則更為可怕。 The Norns In medieval Norse mythology, the Norns were the Fates. Snorri Sturluson, who brought order to that inchoate mytho1ogy in the early thirteenth century, tells us that there are three principal Norns, whose names are Past, Present, and Future. It seems likely that this assertion is a refinement (or addition) of a theological nature; the ancient Germanic tribes were not generally given to such abstractions. Snorri portrays three maidens beside a fountain at the foot of the great tree Yggdrasil, which is the world. They inexorably weave our fate. Time (the stuff of which these creatures were made) gradually forgot these maidens, but in 16o6 William Shakespeare wrote his tragedy Macbeth, in the first scene of which they reappear. They are the three Witches who foretell the fate that awaits the soldiers. Shakespeare calls them the “Weird Sisters,” which is as much as to say “The Fates.” Wyrd, for the Anglo-Saxon people, was the silent deity that presided over both mortals and immortals. 〈諾因〉 根據北歐神話，諾因是命運三女神。史諾里‧史透魯森於十三世紀之初，散播北歐神話，說這三位命運女神是歐絲 (知過去)、浮占地 (知現在) 和史卡爾德 (知未來)。這三個神性的諾因，掌管人世間的命運，當有人出生時，這三個諾因都在場，為這個人的一生立下命運預言。據懷疑者認為，諾因一名經後世附加的神話概念而改變過，謂古代日耳曼人不可能有這種抽象的想法。史諾里說，這三個女神就在世界之樹義格絕色爾的基地噴泉旁。命中註定，她們掌管我們的命運。 她們是由時間塑造而成，卻似乎已為時間所遺忘。大約一六○六年，莎士比亞寫『麥克帕斯』悲劇時，就將這三位女神安排在該劇的第一幕裡。她們是三個女巫，預言班奈與麥克帕斯已註定的命運。莎翁稱她們為命運三姐妹： 命運三姐妹手牽著手， 海上陸上傳報吉凶， 她們此這樣東奔西走…… 按盎格魯薩克遜人的說法，命運女神掌管諸神與人的命運，但卻緘默寡言。 |
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