48 烏荊子

48

blackthorn

烏荊子

Prunus spinosa

薔薇科

Rosaceae

Prum spinosa

βράβυλον

48

 希臘文是: βράβυλον，LSJ字典條目如下:

sloe, Prunus spinosa, Theoc.7.146 (wrongly expld. by Sch. as damson), 12.3, Antyll. ap. Orib.10.20.4, Gal.6.621.

II. = κοκκύμηλον (q.v.), Seleuc. ap. Ath.2.50a, Clearch.82.

主題: 巨石擋住洞口

《奧德賽》第九卷第193-271行描述Odysseus和他的同伴登上獨眼巨人島，這倒每樣東西都是巨大的，真像大人國遊記。他們燃起火堆，準備祭祀，這是古代旅人求安全的方式，乞求眾神保佑。巨人回來了，放下乾木材，發生巨大的聲響，大家嚇成一團，躲到一角。巨人把母羊趕進山洞擠奶，其餘留在外面的畜欄，然後隨手抓一塊巨石堵住洞口。詩人對這塊石頭的描述十分精采，就是用22輛精心打造的四輪馬車也難以搬動。這就是「馬力」的概念。

馬力（英語：horsepower，hp），俗稱匹，是一個古老的功率單位。目前使用標準的國際功率單位瓦特。換算方式：1 hp = 745.69987158227022 W。

  此外我更有興趣的是古希臘的四輪馬車，古代的馬車大多是兩輪，四輪馬車可是史詩年代的高檔車喔! Honda也以Odyssey命名一款車。

  這塊巨石太特別了，王煥生的翻譯讓我不解: 「巨人就是用這樣一塊生滿烏荊子的巨石當洞門」，烏荊子是甚麼? 烏荊子李（學名：Prunus insititia）嗎? 原文完全沒提到巨石上長滿烏荊子。另依照《烏克蘭的林型分類 》(January 1958)第37頁，烏荊子可能是 Prum spinosa L ，正式學名是Prunus spinosa，中文也翻譯成黑刺李。這也是翻譯過程一個美麗的錯誤吧!

     Baumann的書中有提到Prunus spinosa (頁135, 138, 144)，插圖編號274，英文是sloe，又稱作野梨(wild pear)，味道很澀，勉強可吃，傳說中新石器時代義大利附近的人就把它當成水果。

Baumann, Hellmut. The Greek Plant World in Myth, Art and Literature. Trans. William T. Stearn and Eldwyth Ruth Stearn. Portland: Timber Press, 1993.

字彙:

ἄντρον: cave

ὀρυμαγδός: loud noise, din

δείδω: to fear

ἀμέλγω: milk

θυρεός: stone put against a door

ὄβριμος: strong, mighty

εἴκοσι: twenty

ἄμαξα: wagon

τετράκυκλος: four-wheeled

ὀχλίζω: move by a lever, heave up

ἠλίβατος: high, steep

θύρα: door

οὖδας: surface of the earth, ground

ἄγγος vessel

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0135%3Abook%3D9%3Acard%3D231

ἔνθα δὲ πῦρ κήαντες ἐθύσαμεν ἠδὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ

τυρῶν αἰνύμενοι φάγομεν, μένομέν τέ μιν ἔνδον

ἥμενοι, ἧος ἐπῆλθε νέμων. φέρε δ᾽ ὄβριμον ἄχθος

ὕλης ἀζαλέης, ἵνα οἱ ποτιδόρπιον εἴη,

ἔντοσθεν δ᾽ ἄντροιο βαλὼν ὀρυμαγδὸν ἔθηκεν:

ἡμεῖς δὲ δείσαντες ἀπεσσύμεθ᾽ ἐς μυχὸν ἄντρου.

αὐτὰρ ὅ γ᾽ εἰς εὐρὺ σπέος ἤλασε πίονα μῆλα

πάντα μάλ᾽ ὅσσ᾽ ἤμελγε, τὰ δ᾽ ἄρσενα λεῖπε θύρηφιν,

ἀρνειούς τε τράγους τε, βαθείης ἔκτοθεν αὐλῆς.

αὐτὰρ ἔπειτ᾽ ἐπέθηκε θυρεὸν μέγαν ὑψόσ᾽ ἀείρας,

ὄβριμον: οὐκ ἂν τόν γε δύω καὶ εἴκοσ᾽ ἄμαξαι

ἐσθλαὶ τετράκυκλοι ἀπ᾽ οὔδεος ὀχλίσσειαν:

τόσσην ἠλίβατον πέτρην ἐπέθηκε θύρῃσιν.

ἑζόμενος δ᾽ ἤμελγεν ὄις καὶ μηκάδας αἶγας,

πάντα κατὰ μοῖραν, καὶ ὑπ᾽ ἔμβρυον ἧκεν ἑκάστῃ.

αὐτίκα δ᾽ ἥμισυ μὲν θρέψας λευκοῖο γάλακτος

πλεκτοῖς ἐν ταλάροισιν ἀμησάμενος κατέθηκεν,

ἥμισυ δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἔστησεν ἐν ἄγγεσιν, ὄφρα οἱ εἴη

πίνειν αἰνυμένῳ καί οἱ ποτιδόρπιον εἴη.  (Odyssey 9. 231-249)

http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/homer/odyssey9.htm

We lit a fire and offered sacrifice.

Then we helped ourselves to cheese and ate it.

We stayed inside the cave and waited there,

until he led his flocks back home. He came,

bearing an enormous pile of dried-out wood

to cook his dinner. He hurled his load

inside the cave with a huge crash. In our fear,

we moved back to the far end of the cave,

into the deepest corner. He then drove

his fat flock right inside the spacious cavern,

just the ones he milked. Rams and billy goats

he left outside, in the open courtyard.

Then he raised up high a massive boulder 

and fixed it in position as a door.  

It was huge—twenty-two four-wheeled wagons,

good ones, too, could not have shifted it

along the ground—that’s how immense it was,

the rock he planted right in his doorway.

He sat down with his bleating goats and ewes

and milked them all, each in turn, setting

beside each one its young. Next, he curdled

half the white milk and set aside the whey

in wicker baskets, then put the other half

in bowls for him to drink up with his dinner.

下面圖片與資料來源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damson

The damson or damson plum (Prunus domestica subsp. insititia, or sometimes Prunus insititia)

下面圖片與資料來源: https://archive.org/details/wukelandelinxing00lafu

《烏克蘭的林型分類 》(January 1958)第37頁

下面圖片與資料來源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa

Prunus spinosa (blackthorn, bair or sloe) is a species of Prunus native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa. It is also locally naturalised in New Zealand and eastern North America.