那不勒斯的美为人期待,为人赞叹,为人仰慕,除了绮丽的风光,瑰丽的文化,还有就是那些以“很久很久以前”作开头,让人兴奋的传说。传说中在那不勒斯出没,以天籁般的歌声送人上黄泉路的女妖塞壬为这个美丽的地方抹上了一丝迷幻又残忍的色彩。然而,也就是这些“杀人如麻”的女妖也会为爱丧命——帕耳忒诺珀爱上了尤利西斯,为追寻爱情,这一次投入海里的不是别人,而是她自己。有人说“不看那不勒斯,就没有资格谈爱情、人生、艺术、甚至死亡”,而在我看来,那不勒斯的美不应是“口口相传”而形成的一种“印象”,而应是用心去感受的,就如感受塞壬在残暴外表下隐藏着的一颗“等爱”的心……
——Mac
文字难度：★★★☆
As you round Punta Campanella at the southern tip of the 2)Gulf of Naples—with the isle of Capri 3)looming large in the water to your right just across the strait—you enter the 4)Gulf of Salerno and a 5)stretch of coast and sea known to the ancient Greeks as the “Land of the Sirens.” The area is rich in folklore surrounding a myriad of mysterious creatures.
Modern descriptions of these 6)fabled creatures contribute to the general confusion. Most depictions, including various images in Naples showing Parthenope (the siren for whom the ancient city—before Naples—in this area was named), show them to be 7)mermaids. Actually, ancient descriptions describe them as having bodies of a bird and beautiful human heads.
Their images are frequently found on ancient Greek tombs, suggesting that they might have been funerary 8)divinities (perhaps similar to the human-headed hawk in Egyptian mythology, who 9)incarnated the souls of the dead). Little of any of that remains, however; today, they have come down to us as 10)voluptuous mermaids who made beautiful music to lure passing sailors to their doom. Even the numbers and names of the sirens are not consistent in accounts from classical mythology. There may have two, three, or even as many as nine. By most accounts, local waters harbored three: Parthenope (“virgin”), Leucosia (“white goddess”), and Ligeia (“bright-voiced”); one of them played the lyre, another sang, and another played the flute. The most famous siren story is the one in the 11)Odyssey, where 12)Ulysses has himself 13)lashed to the 14)mast in order to resist their “siren song.”
当你绕过那不勒斯湾南端的康盘尼拉角(音译),随着在你的右边海峡对岸的海面上,一个庞然大物——卡普里岛——赫然出现在你眼前时,你就进入了萨莱诺水域,这里同时也是古希腊人所熟知的“海妖塞壬之域”。大量形形色色关于神秘妖怪的民间传说就在该区域流传。
关于这方面的传说纷纭多样,而现代的各色描绘为人们一直以来存在的困惑更添一分。许多绘画,包括在那不勒斯有关“帕耳忒诺珀”的各种图像里——这名字是这个古老的城池被命名为“那不勒斯”之前的名称——这些妖怪被画成了美人鱼。但事实上,根据古代的描述,她们应该是一些人首鸟身的怪物。
她们的形象也经常出现在古希腊的坟墓上,这似乎暗示她们可能曾经是死神(也许与埃及神话中的“人首鹰”相似,那是死者灵魂的化身。)然而到了今天,这些传说已几乎渺无踪影。现在,出现在我们眼前的她们是娇媚的美人鱼,以天籁般的歌声吸引过往的水手,将他们送上黄泉路。就连这些海妖塞壬的数量与名字也与古代神话不一致。其数量可能是两个、三个,甚至多达九个。根据大部分的传说,当地的海域有三位塞壬:帕耳忒诺珀(“处女”)、路科西亚(“白女神”)和利盖娅(“金嗓子”)。她们一个演奏七弦琴,一个唱歌,另一个吹笛子。最享有盛名的塞壬故事则在《奥德塞》里有记载:尤利西斯为了抵挡“塞壬之歌”的诱惑,不得不把自己绑在船的桅杆上。
小知识：那不勒斯的“死亡谷”
在那不勒斯和瓦维尔诺湖附近，有一个被称为“动物墓地”的死亡谷——对人的生命无威胁，然而每年在这里死于非命的动物却达几千只。它本是一座各种野兽赖以生存的原始森林，风景十分优美。但不知何故，每年在这座山谷中死亡的野兽据统计竟多达三万七千多只。科学家和动物学家们多次入该谷考察想一探究竟，但是，到目前为止都没有查明原因。
There is, however, a more relevant episode, one that “explains” the existence of the three islands along the coast, today called Li Galli islands, but originally called Sirenuse—land of the sirens. 15)Jason and the 16)Argonauts, too, sailed along this coast and were tempted by the sirens. The Argonauts, however, were accompanied by Orpheus, the greatest musician in Greek mythology. Orpheus outplayed and outsang the sirens and dispelled their powers, at which point they either were transformed into the three small islands on the coast, or threw themselves into the sea, washing up on nearby shores: Parthenope at the isle of Megaride in Naples, where the Egg Castle now stands, thus giving her name to the original city; Leucosia, farther south (Punta Licosa is the tip of the southern end of the Gulf of Salerno); and the siren Ligeia still farther south along the 17)Calabrian coast near what is, today, 18)Lamezia Terme.
An account of the episode, with 19)scholarly notes and references, may be found in The Greek Myths, which also notes that the sirens had been 20)banished to those rocks in the first place for having lost an earlier battle of the bands to the 21)Muses! No one can explain how Ulysses could have been tempted by sirens who apparently went out of existence when Jason sailed by many years earlier! They may have resorted to replacement sirens—second 22)stringers, if you will. There must be a message in there somewhere.
不过,倒是有一个听起来更靠谱的故事,它“解释”了沿岸三个岛屿存在的原因。今天,这三个岛统称里戈利(音译),但最初它们叫塞壬那斯(音译),那是“塞壬之地”的意思。伊阿宋和一众亚尔古英雄也曾航行到此,同样受到众塞壬的引诱。但陪伴众亚尔古英雄的是古希腊神话中最杰出的音乐家俄耳甫斯。无论是音乐演奏还是歌唱方面,俄耳甫斯都胜于塞壬,于是他解除了她们的魔力。于是,她们摇身变成了海岸边的三个小岛;或者说她们纵身跳入大海,被冲到了附近的岸边:帕耳忒诺珀到了那不勒斯的马家里德,也就是现在“蛋城堡”耸立的地方,那不勒斯城的原名就源自她的名字;而路科西亚到了更南的地方(利科萨角正是在萨莱诺湾的最南角);塞壬利盖娅则到了比利科萨角还要远的南 边——卡拉布里亚海岸,靠近今天的拉默齐亚。
这段故事在古希腊神话里也能找到,还有学者的注解和引证;同时它还提到这几位塞壬最开始是因为在与缪斯的乐队比赛中失利而被放逐到这里的。但没人可以解释尤利西斯怎么会受到她们的诱惑,因为显然在许多年前伊阿宋来此地时她们早已消失了!也许她们是新一任的塞壬——或者你可以把她们看成是第二梯队。肯定有些线索留在了什么地方。
Less mythologically, the 23)archipelago consists of three small islands, 1.5 miles off the coast, 3.5 miles southwest of the town of 24)Positano. Today, all three of the islands—Gallo Lungo, La Castelluccia, and La Rotonda—are part of a protected marine national preserve. There is also a fourth small island, Isca, much closer to the shore, as well as another prominent, smaller rock sticking up out of the water between Li Galli and Isca, called Vetara.
Both Gallo Lungo and Isca have structures on them and this has caused some modern confusion, as well, as to who owned what, when. There are some Roman fragments on Gallo Lungo, but the first modern construction on the island consists of a large villa and secondary building, built in the 1930s by the Russian 25)choreographer and dancer 26)Leonid Massine (1896-1979). That property later passed to another Russian dancer 27)Rudolf Nuryev (1938-1993), who apparently wanted to set up a dance academy on the premises, an idea that did not come to 28)fruition. Isca has a lovely villa and garden on the side facing the cliff (and, thus, not visible if you sail behind the island, as most do). It was the property at one time of the great Neapolitan playwright, 29)Eduardo De Filippo (1900-1984) and is described in a delightful volume entitled, In mezzo al mare un’isola c’è... (There is an island in the sea…) by the playwright’s wife, Isabella.
In any event, the coast from Punta della Campanella all the way past siren country and on to the modern city of Salerno is of great beauty. Places such as Positano and 30)Amalfi dot the shore below high cliffs along which, alas, far too many post-siren seekers after paradise have decided to build too many houses.
而与神话没有太大关系的是,这个群岛由三个小岛组成,离海岸一英里半,距离波西塔诺镇西南方三英里半。今天,这三个小岛——盖洛·伦戈(音译)、拉·卡斯特卢西亚(音译)和 拉·罗通达(音译)——是意大利国家海洋保护区的一部分。另外,还有第四个小岛,叫艾斯卡,它离岸边近多了。除了这四个小岛,还有一块小一些,但很显眼的大石屹立在里戈利与艾斯卡之间的水域,它叫维塔拉(音译)。
加洛·伦戈和艾斯卡这两个岛上都有建筑物,这也使今人有点摸不着头脑;究竟谁在什么时候拥有这些建筑物。在加洛·伦戈岛上,有一些古罗马人留下的遗迹,但这个岛上的第一座现代建筑是一座大的别墅和一幢小一点的建筑,都是上世纪30年代由俄罗斯舞蹈家、舞蹈指导列昂尼德·马西涅(1896—1979)建造的。该物业后来转手到另一位俄罗斯舞蹈家鲁道夫·纽瑞耶夫(1938—1993)手里。他似乎想在此办一所舞蹈学校,但这个想法没有变成现实。艾斯卡岛上有一座漂亮的别墅,一侧的花园面对着悬崖(所以如果你像大部分人那样在岛的背面航行是不会看到它的)。这座别墅曾一度属于那不勒斯优秀的剧作家爱德华·多·菲立波(1900—1984),而且它曾出现在该剧作家的妻子伊莎贝拉写的一本有趣的书册中,书名为《海上有一个岛……》。
不管此地的历史渊源是什么,从康盘尼拉角一直到塞壬之地,再到现代城市萨莱诺,这一段海岸,风光绮丽。而波西塔诺和阿马尔这些地方则点缀着高高悬崖下面的海岸线,唉,可惜的是,同样散布在沿岸的是太多太多的房子,而这些房子是由那些怀着“寻找塞壬”不成而转向“寻找天堂”梦的探求者在此地建起的。
小知识：那不勒斯美食
说道那不勒斯，不得不提匹萨，因为这个享誉全球的意大利美食就是由那不勒斯人发明的。现在，也许只有在那不勒斯才能找到最原始的匹萨。据闻，那不勒斯人吃匹萨的方法也与罗马人或佛罗伦萨人迥然不同。那不勒斯最热门的匹萨店多位于Via dei Tribunali，据说在那里即使很不起眼的小店，也可能已经有上百年的历史。而据闻“最正宗”的那不勒斯匹萨包括两款：玛格丽塔（Margherita），由番茄、新鲜无盐干酪和蓬蒿制成；另一款为海员沙司（Marinara），由番茄、大蒜和牛肉制成。看来去那不勒斯非得尝尝当地地道的美食不可。
