【译习】 达贡 Dagon

作者：H. P. Lovecraft 译者：CaptainSnafu 未经允许，不要转载 I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer; and shall cast myself from this garret window into the squalid street below. Do not think from my slavery to morphine that I am a weakling or a degenerate. When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess, though never fully realise, why it is that I must have forgetfulness or death. 我正处于显著的精神紧张下撰写着此文，因为在今夜过后，我将不复存在。身无分文的我，在那唯一使我能承受此生的药物耗尽后，无法再忍耐折磨，我将会从阁楼的窗户把自己投向那肮脏的街道。不要因为我对吗啡的屈服而判定我是一个弱者或堕落之人。当你读到这些仓促的潦草纸页时，你或许会有所揣度，但你永不能悉知，为何我必须去遗忘，或死亡。 It was in one of the most open and least frequented parts of the broad Pacific that the packet of which I was supercargo fell a victim to the German sea-raider. The great war was then at its very beginning, and the ocean forces of the Hun had not completely sunk to their later degradation; so that our vessel was made a legitimate prize, whilst we of her crew were treated with all the fairness and consideration due us as naval prisoners. So liberal, indeed, was the discipline of our captors, that five days after we were taken I managed to escape alone in a small boat with water and provisions for a good length of time. 在广袤的太平洋上一片最为开阔和最人迹罕至的海域中，我所押运的货船沦为了德国掠洋舰的受害者。那时世界大战才刚刚打响，德国蛮子的海上力量还未全然沉沦至后来的衰落模样。我们的载具便再合理不过地被缴获，同时作为船员的我们也被公正而周全地被当作海军俘虏处置。对我的捕获者们而言，仿佛自由主义便是他们的纪律。这使得我在被拿下的第五天，就得以用一艘小船带上充足的水和补给品独自逃亡。 When I finally found myself adrift and free, I had but little idea of my surroundings. Never a competent navigator, I could only guess vaguely by the sun and stars that I was somewhat south of the equator. Of the longitude I knew nothing, and no island or coast-line was in sight. The weather kept fair, and for uncounted days I drifted aimlessly beneath the scorching sun; waiting either for some passing ship, or to be cast on the shores of some habitable land. But neither ship nor land appeared, and I began to despair in my solitude upon the heaving vastnesses of unbroken blue. 当我最终发现自己已在自由地漂流时，我对周围环境几近一无所知。我从来都不是一个合格的航海家，只能通过太阳和星辰估测出我在赤道以南的某个地方。至于经度，我无从得知，视野中也不见任何岛屿或海岸线。天气保持着晴和，我于灼日之下漫无目的地漂泊了数不清的时日，等待着一些经过的船只，或等待着被推至宜居陆地的海岸上。但这两者均未出现，我开始在这起伏于无垠的不灭蔚蓝上的孤寂之中绝望。 The change happened whilst I slept. Its details I shall never know; for my slumber, though troubled and dream-infested, was continuous. When at last I awaked, it was to discover myself half sucked into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire which extended about me in monotonous undulations as far as I could see, and in which my boat lay grounded some distance away. 变化发生在寐息之间，而其细节我将永远无法知晓。尽管遭受着不安和梦境的侵扰，我的睡眠仍在继续。当我最终醒觉，便发现我已半边身子陷入了一片漆黑粘稠的泥沼地狱中。它以单调而起伏不定的形态在我周围延展，波及我目所能及之处，而我的船也搁浅在远处的泥泞上。 Though one might well imagine that my first sensation would be of wonder at so prodigious and unexpected a transformation of scenery, I was in reality more horrified than astonished; for there was in the air and in the rotting soil a sinister quality which chilled me to the very core. The region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish, and of other less describable things which I saw protruding from the nasty mud of the unending plain. Perhaps I should not hope to convey in mere words the unutterable hideousness that can dwell in absolute silence and barren immensity. There was nothing within hearing, and nothing in sight save a vast reach of black slime; yet the very completeness of the stillness and the homogeneity of the landscape oppressed me with a nauseating fear. 尽管有人会想象我的第一感觉会是对这出乎意料的场地巨变感到惊讶，但事实上，是恐悸甚于诧异。因为空气和腐土间都蕴含着一种使我寒颤透骨的险恶气质。整个区域连同其中腐败的鱼尸一并朽坏着，还有其它更加难以名状的死物从这无尽平原的恶臭淤泥中伸出。或许我不该寄望于能用只言片语来传递出栖息在这绝对寂静和浩瀚荒芜中那不可言喻的狰狞。除了那触及广远的黑色黏泥以外，我再听不到任何声响，也看不到别的东西。而这完全的静谧和景观的同质，伴随着一种令人恶心的恐惧，将我压抑。 The sun was blazing down from a sky which seemed to me almost black in its cloudless cruelty; as though reflecting the inky marsh beneath my feet. As I crawled into the stranded boat I realised that only one theory could explain my position. Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval, a portion of the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface, exposing regions which for innumerable millions of years had lain hidden under unfathomable watery depths. So great was the extent of the new land which had risen beneath me, that I could not detect the faintest noise of the surging ocean, strain my ears as I might. Nor were there any sea-fowl to prey upon the dead things. 太阳炽耀地从天空照射下来，但在我眼里，那无云的残酷苍穹却几近发黑，仿佛正映射着我脚下的的墨色沼泽。当我爬进那搁浅的小船时，我意识到只有一个理论能够解释我的处境。一定是通过某种空前的火山剧变，部分的海床被抛升至表面，暴露出这片无数个百万年来隐藏在深不可测的水底之区域。在我身下隆起的新陆是何等广阔，以至于我竭尽耳力也无法探觉到来自汹涌海洋的半点噪响。也没有任何海鸟来捕食这些死物。 For several hours I sat thinking or brooding in the boat, which lay upon its side and afforded a slight shade as the sun moved across the heavens. As the day progressed, the ground lost some of its stickiness, and seemed likely to dry sufficiently for travelling purposes in a short time. That night I slept but little, and the next day I made for myself a pack containing food and water, preparatory to an overland journey in search of the vanished sea and possible rescue. 我坐在船上沉思念想了好几个小时。当太阳穿行于天幕，侧翻着的小船则提供了少许的荫庇。随着时日推移，地面失去了一些黏性，似乎也足够干燥地可供我短期迁行。当晚我浅睡辄止，第日便收拾好配有食物和水的行囊，准备好一场跨陆旅行，旨在寻找那消失的海洋和潜在的救援。 On the third morning I found the soil dry enough to walk upon with ease. The odour of the fish was maddening; but I was too much concerned with graver things to mind so slight an evil, and set out boldly for an unknown goal. All day I forged steadily westward, guided by a far-away hummock which rose higher than any other elevation on the rolling desert. That night I encamped, and on the following day still travelled toward the hummock, though that object seemed scarcely nearer than when I had first espied it. By the fourth evening I attained the base of the mound, which turned out to be much higher than it had appeared from a distance; an intervening valley setting it out in sharper relief from the general surface. Too weary to ascend, I slept in the shadow of the hill. 第三天早上，我发现泥壤已经足够干燥，可以轻松地行走其上。鱼尸的腥臭让人发狂，但我一心想着那些更严峻的事情，它便相形见轻。我大胆地朝着一个未知的目标出发。这一整天里，我以远处那座比其它高地更为突出的圆丘作为指引，在起伏的荒地上向着西方稳步前进。当晚露营而过，并在接下来的一天继续朝圆丘前行，尽管看上去目标几乎没比我初见它时相离更近。在第四天的晚上，我终于到达了山丘脚下，并发现它更比其在远处所显现的要高峻，还有一座横在其中的山谷使它的轮廓在普泛的地表中更显鲜明。我过于疲惫，无力登爬，便在山影下入眠。 I know not why my dreams were so wild that night; but ere the waning and fantastically gibbous moon had risen far above the eastern plain, I was awake in a cold perspiration, determined to sleep no more. Such visions as I had experienced were too much for me to endure again. And in the glow of the moon I saw how unwise I had been to travel by day. Without the glare of the parching sun, my journey would have cost me less energy; indeed, I now felt quite able to perform the ascent which had deterred me at sunset. Picking up my pack, I started for the crest of the eminence. 不知为何当晚我的梦境如此诡异。但在那亏凸的残月奇特地渐缺着，高高升挂在东部平原的上空之前，我便在冷汗中惊醒。无法再承受所目睹的诸般幻景，我决定不再入睡。在月辉的照耀下，我察觉到先前在日间旅行是多么地不智。如果没有那炙热的太阳，我的旅途诚将消耗更少的能量。而如今，我感觉自己已有能力去执行那在日落时分让我望而却步的登山计划。我拾起行囊，开始向山顶进发。 I have said that the unbroken monotony of the rolling plain was a source of vague horror to me; but I think my horror was greater when I gained the summit of the mound and looked down the other side into an immeasurable pit or canyon, whose black recesses the moon had not yet soared high enough to illumine. I felt myself on the edge of the world; peering over the rim into a fathomless chaos of eternal night. Through my terror ran curious reminiscences of Paradise Lost, and of Satan’s hideous climb through the unfashioned realms of darkness. 我曾提到，那单调而连绵的起伏原野，对我来说是一种蒙眬的恐惧的来源。但当我到达山丘的顶峰，向另一侧俯瞰那道无法估量的深渊或峡谷，而月亮亦未升到足够的高度以照亮它的幽深，我的恐惧更为深厚。我顿觉自己处在世界的边缘，越过它往下凝望，只见一片深不见底的混沌永夜。在畏惧之中，我奇怪地回想起了《失乐园》的篇章，还有撒旦的嫌恶造物攀行于未成形的黑暗领域。 As the moon climbed higher in the sky, I began to see that the slopes of the valley were not quite so perpendicular as I had imagined. Ledges and outcroppings of rock afforded fairly easy foot-holds for a descent, whilst after a drop of a few hundred feet, the declivity became very gradual. Urged on by an impulse which I cannot definitely analyse, I scrambled with difficulty down the rocks and stood on the gentler slope beneath, gazing into the Stygian deeps where no light had yet penetrated. 随着月亮攀升到更高的天际，我开始看清峡谷的斜面并不如想象中的陡峭。岩架和出露的岩层为下坡提供了相当便利的立足点，而在下降了几百英尺后，斜坡则变得十分平缓。被一种我无法明晰的冲动催促着，我艰难地往下攀爬并落脚在相对平坦的坡面上，注视着那未有丝毫光明涉足的冥河深渊。 All at once my attention was captured by a vast and singular object on the opposite slope, which rose steeply about an hundred yards ahead of me; an object that gleamed whitely in the newly bestowed rays of the ascending moon. That it was merely a gigantic piece of stone, I soon assured myself; but I was conscious of a distinct impression that its contour and position were not altogether the work of Nature. A closer scrutiny filled me with sensations I cannot express; for despite its enormous magnitude, and its position in an abyss which had yawned at the bottom of the sea since the world was young, I perceived beyond a doubt that the strange object was a well-shaped monolith whose massive bulk had known the workmanship and perhaps the worship of living and thinking creatures. 对面的山坡在我前方约100码的地方陡然拔升，我的注意力立即被此巨大而奇特的物体所吸引，它在冉升之月所新赋予的照射中闪着白茫。顷刻间我就确认这不过是一块巨大的石头，但我也注意到一种迥然相异的观感：它的轮廓和位置都并非全是大自然的匠作。当我抵近端详，无以名状的觉识却充盈了我。尽管它极其巨大，并且坐落在自世界初成以来就于海底豁开的深渊之中，但我压下疑虑地领悟到这个陌异的物件曾是一块外形精美的独石柱，其庞大的主体经由精湛的匠艺所塑造，也许还被活生生的智慧生物祭拜过。 Dazed and frightened, yet not without a certain thrill of the scientist’s or archaeologist’s delight, I examined my surroundings more closely. The moon, now near the zenith, shone weirdly and vividly above the towering steeps that hemmed in the chasm, and revealed the fact that a far-flung body of water flowed at the bottom, winding out of sight in both directions, and almost lapping my feet as I stood on the slope. Across the chasm, the wavelets washed the base of the Cyclopean monolith; on whose surface I could now trace both inscriptions and crude sculptures. The writing was in a system of hieroglyphics unknown to me, and unlike anything I had ever seen in books; consisting for the most part of conventionalised aquatic symbols such as fishes, eels, octopi, crustaceans, molluscs, whales, and the like. Several characters obviously represented marine things which are unknown to the modern world, but whose decomposing forms I had observed on the ocean-risen plain. 带着茫然与惶恐，但也不无科学家或考古学家那种特有的兴奋和乐趣，我进一步地调查着周遭事物。月亮现已接近天顶，月光奇美而淋漓地洒照于环绕在鸿沟边缘的峥嵘悬壁上。一条在谷底广远流淌的的水体被揭示出来，向着视野的两边蜿蜒铺开，水流几乎能飞溅到我站在岩坡上的双脚。水体的微波横越裂谷，冲刷着那座巨型石柱的基底。而在石基的表面，我发现了铭文和粗糙的雕刻。那是一种我不知晓的象形文字系统，也不与我在书本上见过的任何文字相像。大部分是样式化的水生符号，如鱼、鳗鱼、章鱼、甲壳类动物、软体动物、鲸鱼等。有几个字符则显然地代表某些现代世界所未知的海洋生物，而我曾于那片从海底升起的平原中见识过它们的腐烂形态。 It was the pictorial carving, however, that did most to hold me spellbound. Plainly visible across the intervening water on account of their enormous size, were an array of bas-reliefs whose subjects would have excited the envy of a Doré. I think that these things were supposed to depict men—at least, a certain sort of men; though the creatures were shewn disporting like fishes in the waters of some marine grotto, or paying homage at some monolithic shrine which appeared to be under the waves as well. Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in detail; for the mere remembrance makes me grow faint. Grotesque beyond the imagination of a Poe or a Bulwer, they were damnably human in general outline despite webbed hands and feet, shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall. Curiously enough, they seemed to have been chiselled badly out of proportion with their scenic background; for one of the creatures was shewn in the act of killing a whale represented as but little larger than himself. I remarked, as I say, their grotesqueness and strange size; but in a moment decided that they were merely the imaginary gods of some primitive fishing or seafaring tribe; some tribe whose last descendant had perished eras before the first ancestor of the Piltdown or Neanderthal Man was born. Awestruck at this unexpected glimpse into a past beyond the conception of the most daring anthropologist, I stood musing whilst the moon cast queer reflections on the silent channel before me. 最令我着迷的是其中的雕绘。由于它们硕大的尺寸，透过水面仍能清晰地看见那一排浮雕，其题材理应能激发起多雷（注1）的妒忌。我认为这些作品旨在描绘人类——至少是某种人类，尽管这些生物被展现着像鱼一般在海底石窟中嬉戏，或是在某些似乎也于浪潮之下的巨石神龛前致敬。至于他们的面容和体态，我不敢详述，即使是最简浅的回想也会使我头昏目眩。他们的怪诞超越了坡或布沃尔（注2）的想象。这些受诅咒的造物在总体上有着人类的轮廓，然而他们手足长蹼，嘴唇宽松得吓人，呆滞的眼睛隆隆鼓起，还有其它更令人不愿记起的体征。奇怪的是，他们在背景下被刻画得严重地不成比例，例如他们的其中一员被展现在猎杀一头仅比自身大上少许的鲸鱼。如上所述，我的确注意到了他们那荒唐而怪异的尺寸，但在那么一瞬间，我还是判断他们只是一些原始的渔猎或航海部落所想象的神明。而这些部落的末裔早在皮尔丹人或尼安德特人的始祖诞生之前便已灭亡。我肃然地敬畏不已，这对过去的意外一瞥，超越了最大胆的人类学家的构想。我站在那里沉思冥想，而月亮在我面前静寂的峡道上投下了奇异的倒影。 注1：应指古斯塔夫·多雷 注2：应指埃德加·爱伦·坡和爱德华.乔治.布尔沃-利顿 Then suddenly I saw it. With only a slight churning to mark its rise to the surface, the thing slid into view above the dark waters. Vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome, it darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith, about which it flung its gigantic scaly arms, the while it bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measured sounds. I think I went mad then. 然后，我突然就看到了它。那个东西滑入黑水之上的光景，只有细微的涟漪为它的出水留下痕迹。硕大无朋，面目可憎，它就像是古希腊神话中独眼巨人，也像一只从噩梦中冲出的彪形怪物。它飞奔到独石柱前，猛地挥舞着它那有鳞的庞然巨臂，同时低下那狰狞的颅首，发出某种有节奏的声响。我想我当时便堕入了疯狂。 Of my frantic ascent of the slope and cliff, and of my delirious journey back to the stranded boat, I remember little. I believe I sang a great deal, and laughed oddly when I was unable to sing. I have indistinct recollections of a great storm some time after I reached the boat; at any rate, I know that I heard peals of thunder and other tones which Nature utters only in her wildest moods. 关于那段我发狂地攀上峡坡和峭壁并神志错乱地回到搁浅的船上的旅程，我记忆甚少。我相信我曾一路大肆呜鸣，而当我无力再呼啸时，便代之以怪笑。在我那迷离的记忆中，一场宏大的风暴在我回到船上的一段时间后骤然来临。至少我确信自己听到了阵阵轰雷，以及其它大自然仅在最狂野的情绪中才会爆发出的音调。 When I came out of the shadows I was in a San Francisco hospital; brought thither by the captain of the American ship which had picked up my boat in mid-ocean. In my delirium I had said much, but found that my words had been given scant attention. Of any land upheaval in the Pacific, my rescuers knew nothing; nor did I deem it necessary to insist upon a thing which I knew they could not believe. Once I sought out a celebrated ethnologist, and amused him with peculiar questions regarding the ancient Philistine legend of Dagon, the Fish-God; but soon perceiving that he was hopelessly conventional, I did not press my inquiries. 当我从阴影中走出来时，我已在旧金山的一家医院里。是一艘美国船只在大洋中捞起了我的小船，也是它的船长将我送医。在我谵妄不清时，我说了许多，但它们并没有得到重视。对于太平洋中的陆地激变，我的救援人员都一无所知，而我也不认为有必要在一件我知道他们不会相信的事情上纠缠。有一次，我找到一位著名的民俗学家，尝试用关于古代非利士人的鱼神达贡传说这种不同寻常的问题来引他开怀，但很快就发现他那无可救药的迂腐和保守，便不再逼问。 It is at night, especially when the moon is gibbous and waning, that I see the thing. I tried morphine; but the drug has given only transient surcease, and has drawn me into its clutches as a hopeless slave. So now I am to end it all, having written a full account for the information or the contemptuous amusement of my fellow-men. Often I ask myself if it could not all have been a pure phantasm—a mere freak of fever as I lay sun-stricken and raving in the open boat after my escape from the German man-of-war. This I ask myself, but ever does there come before me a hideously vivid vision in reply. I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things that may at this very moment be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed, worshipping their ancient stone idols and carving their own detestable likenesses on submarine obelisks of water-soaked granite. I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows to drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny, war-exhausted mankind—of a day when the land shall sink, and the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst universal pandemonium. 我是在晚上——尤其是在月亏之时，看到了那东西。我试过吗啡，但这种药物只能给予我短暂的缓解，并使我沦为一个无望的奴隶般卷入它的魔掌中。所以，现在我将结束这一切，并写下完整的记录，供我的同胞们知悉或轻蔑地取笑。我时常自问，这一切会否只是纯粹的幻觉？仅仅是我从德军战舰逃脱后中暑着躺在开蓬的小船上的时候，我那热症激发的畸形臆想？我询问着自己，但只得到栩栩如生的骇人幻象作为回答。每当我想到深海，我便禁不住颤栗地想象到此时此刻那只不可名状之物正在它那泥泞黏滑的海床上爬行、翻腾，崇拜着它们那远古的石制偶像，在海水浸泡的花岗岩上刻画着它们的憎恶模样。我梦见终有一日，它们会从巨浪中跃起，用发臭的利爪将那些弱小且被战争耗尽的人类残员拖入水底。在那天，陆地将会沉没，而黑暗的洋底将在普世的混乱中崛升。 The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window! The window! 终幕已近。我听到了门那边传来的噪声，就像是某个巨大而黏滑的躯体正抵着它蹒行。它不应能找到我。神啊，是那只手！在那窗户那边！窗户那边！