美人鱼的传说(中英双语)

美人鱼的传说

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.

美人鱼的故事不管是在民间传说、传奇故事，还是在童话故事里，都已经流传了数百年。无数艺术家和作家都煞费苦心地通过艺术形象和文字向大众还原美人鱼之谜、美人鱼之美，还有美人鱼的情挑一面（千真万确！）。直至今天，仍然有人声称世上有美人鱼。

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.

如同众多神话一样，关于雌性和雄性美人鱼的传奇故事始于天神崇拜。对如今这一广为人知的生物的最早描述可以追溯到公元前八世纪，在那个时代，人们最开始视其为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.

古巴比伦人敬奉一个名为“奥尼斯”或“伊亚”的海神。据说，奥尼斯从厄立特里亚古海上升起，向人类传授艺术与科学知识。如今在卢浮宫里，人们还可以看到一幅创作于八世纪的壁画，画中的奥尼斯是一条雄性人鱼，上身为人形，长着一条貌似鱼尾的尾巴。

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.

众所周知，叙利亚人和腓力斯人敬奉一位闪米特美人鱼月神。叙利亚人称她为“阿塔哥提斯”，而腓力斯人则把她叫作“得塞托”。潮水随着月亮的阴晴圆缺而涨退，古今皆如此，所以美人鱼被那个时代的人称为月神也很正常，不足为奇，而美人鱼也因这一点在古代腓力斯艺术创作和文学作品中被诠释为神的化身。阿塔哥提斯是最早被记载的美人鱼之一。传说称她的第一个孩子斯米拉米斯是一个普通人，她因此感到羞愧不已，先杀死了情人，后抛弃了还是婴儿的孩子，自己完完全全地变成了鱼形。

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.

日本和中国的传说故事里不仅有美人鱼，还有海龙王和龙母。日本的美人鱼叫“人鱼”，有着人头鱼身的形象。玻利尼西亚神话里则有一个名叫“维提”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