bubble50 DH Freelance 中翻英 英翻中

     This creation story comes from the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Togo and Benin. In the religion of the Yoruba, the supreme being is Olorun, and assisting Olorun are a number of heavenly entities called orishas. This story was written down by David A. Anderson/ Sankofa, who learned it from his father, who learned it from his mother, and so on back through the Yoruba people and through time.

這個創世故事來自於奈及利亞、多哥和貝南的約魯巴人。在約魯巴的宗教中，最高的存在是奧羅倫，而幫助奧羅倫的是一群被稱為奧里沙的神聖實體。這個故事是由David A. Anderson /桑科法從他父親那裡知道後寫下來的，他父親則是從自己的母親那裡知道的，以此類推，追溯到約魯巴人的過去和追溯到時間。

The Golden Chain[1]

金鏈子

      Long ago, well before there were any people, all life existed in the sky. Olorun lived in the sky, and with Olorun were many orishas. There were both male and female orishas, but Olorun transcended male and female and was the all-powerful supreme being. Olorun and the orishas lived around a young baobab tree. Around the baobab tree the orishas found everything they needed for their lives, and in fact they wore beautiful clothes and gold jewelry. Olorun told them that all the vast sky was theirs to explore. All the orishas save one, however, were content to stay near the baobab tree.

很久以前，在人類還沒出現的時候，所有的生命都存在天上。奧羅倫與許多的奧里沙都住在天上。奧里沙有男有女，但奧羅倫卻是超越男女的存在，是無所不能、至高無上的存在。奧羅倫和奧里沙住在一棵幼小的猴麵包樹周圍。在這棵樹的周圍，奧里沙能找到一切他們生活所需的東西，事實上他們穿戴著漂亮的衣服和黃金首飾。奧羅倫告訴他們，所有廣闊的天空都是他們得以探索的地方。然而，除了其中的一個奧里沙，其他的都滿足於住在猴麵包樹附近。

      Obatala was the curious orisha who wasn't content to live blissfully by the baobab tree. Like all orishas, he had certain powers, and he wanted to put them to use. As he pondered what to do, he looked far down through the mists below the sky. As he looked and looked, he began to realize that there was a vast empty ocean below the mist. Obatala went to Olorun and asked Olorun to let him make something solid in the waters below. That way there could be beings that Obatala and the orishas could help with their powers.

奧巴塔拉就是那個好奇的奧里沙，他並不滿足於在猴麵包樹旁幸福地生活。如同所有的奧里沙，他也有一定的力量並想使用它們。當他在思索著該做些什麼的時候，透過天空下方的迷霧，他遠遠的俯視著下方。看呀看的，他發現到迷霧的下面有一片空曠廣大的海洋。奧巴塔拉去找奧羅倫並要求奧羅倫讓他做些實心的東西放在下面的水中。這樣一來，可能會出現能讓奧巴塔拉和奧里沙用他們的力量去幫助的生物。

      Touched by Obatala's desire to do something constructive, Olorun agreed to send Obatala to the watery world below. Obatala then asked Orunmila, the orisha who knows the future, what he should do to prepare for his mission. Orunmila brought out a sacred tray and sprinkled the powder of baobab roots on it. He tossed sixteen palm kernels onto the tray and studied the marks and tracks they made on the powder. He did this eight times, each time carefully observing the patterns. Finally he told Obatala to prepare a chain of gold, and to gather sand, palm nuts, and maize. He also told Obatala to get the sacred egg carrying the personalities of all the orishas.

被奧巴塔拉想做些有建設性的事情所感動，奧羅倫同意將奧巴塔拉送到下面充滿水的世界。然後奧巴塔拉去問能知未來的奧里沙，歐倫米拉，他該如何為這個任務做準備。歐倫米拉拿出了一個聖盤，並在其上撒上猴麵包樹的根所製成的粉。他將十六個棕櫚樹的果仁擲在聖盤上，並查看它們在粉末上所產生的記號和痕跡。重複這個動作八次，每次都仔細地觀察顯示的圖樣。最後，他告訴奧巴塔拉準備一條金鏈子，並收集沙子、棕櫚果和玉米。他還告訴奧巴塔拉帶上裝有所有奧里沙個性的聖蛋。

      Obatala went to his fellow orishas to ask for their gold, and they all gave him all the gold they had. He took this to the goldsmith, who melted all the jewelry to make the links of the golden chain. When Obatala realized that the goldsmith had made all the gold into links, he had the goldsmith melt a few of them back down to make a hook for the end of the chain.

奧巴塔拉去找他的同伴，向他們要金子，而他們也把所有的金子都給了他。他把這些帶到金匠那裡，金匠將所有的首飾融化並做成一條金鏈子。當奧巴塔拉發現金匠已經把所有的黃金都做成鏈子時，他讓金匠再把鏈子融掉一些，並將融掉的部分在鏈子的末端做成一個鉤子。

      Meanwhile, as Orunmila had told him, Obatala gathered all the sand in the sky and put it in an empty snail shell, and in with it he added a little baobab powder. He put that in his pack, along with palm nuts, maize, and other seeds that he found around the baobab tree. He wrapped the egg in his shirt, close to his chest so that it would be warm during his journey.

與此同時，奧巴塔拉按照歐倫米拉告訴他的那樣，將空中所有的沙子收集起來，放在一個空的蝸牛殼中，然後在裡面加入一點猴麵包粉。他將它連同棕櫚果、玉米和他在猴麵包樹周圍發現的其他種子都放在他的背包中。他把蛋包裹在他的襯衫裡，放在靠近胸口的位置，這樣一來就能在旅途中保暖它。

      Obatala hooked the chain into the sky, and he began to climb down the chain. For seven days he went down and down, until finally he reached the end of the chain. He hung at its end, not sure what to do, and he looked and listened for any clue. Finally he heard Orunmila, the seer, calling to him to use the sand. He took the shell from his pack and poured out the sand into the water below. The sand hit the water, and to his surprise it spread and solidified to make a vast land. Still unsure what to do, Obatala hung from the end of the chain until his heart pounded so much that the egg cracked. From it flew Sankofa, the bird bearing the sprits of all the orishas. Like a storm, they blew the sand to make dunes and hills and lowlands, giving it character just as the orishas themselves have character.

奧巴塔拉將鏈子勾在天上，然後他開始順著鏈子爬下去。他一直往下爬，爬了七天，直到最後到達鏈子的末端。掛在鍊子的末端，他卻不確定該怎麼辦，所以他就看了看又聽了聽的，尋找任何線索。最後，他聽到了先知歐倫米拉讓他使用沙子。他從背包中取出殼來，將沙子倒入下面的水中。沙子碰到了水，令他驚訝的是，這些沙子擴散開來並凝固成一塊遼闊的土地。還是不確定該怎麼辦，奧巴塔拉就掛在鏈子的末端，直到他的心跳聲大到將蛋給打破。從蛋裡飛出了桑科法，這隻鳥帶著所有奧里沙的精神。就像風暴一樣，他們將沙子吹成沙丘、丘陵和低地，賦予它特點，就像有著特點的奧里沙一樣。

      Finally Obatala let go of the chain and dropped to this new land, which he called "Ife", the place that divides the waters. Soon he began to explore this land, and as he did so he scattered the seeds from his pack, and as he walked the seeds began to grow behind him, so that the land turned green in his wake.

最後，奧巴塔拉松開這條鏈子，並掉到這片他稱為「伊費」(即這片分開海水的地方) 的新土地上。不久之後，他開始探索這片土地，並在探索的過程中將背包中的種子灑出來，而當他走動的時候，這些種子開始在他的身後生長，就這樣，土地就隨著他的行走而綠意盎然。

      After walking a long time, Obatala grew thirsty and stopped at a small pond. As he bent over the water, he saw his reflection and was pleased. He took some clay from the edge of the pond and began to mold it into the shape he had seen in the reflection. He finished that one and began another, and before long he had made many of these bodies from the dark earth at the pond's side. By then he was even thirstier than before, and he took juice from the newly-grown palm trees and it fermented into palm wine. He drank this, and drank some more, and soon he was intoxicated. He returned to his work of making more forms from the edge of the pond, but now he wasn't careful and made some without eyes or some with misshapen limbs. He thought they all were beautiful, although later he realized that he had erred in drinking the wine and vowed to not do so again.

走了很長的一段時間後，奧巴塔拉感到口渴並停在一個小池塘旁邊。當他彎下腰時，他在水中看到了自己的倒影，感到很開心。他從池塘邊取些泥土，並開始將泥土塑造成他在倒影中所看到的外形。他完成了一個又開始製作另一個，不久之後，他就從池塘邊的黑土中製造出許多身體。結果他感到更加口渴了，所以他就從新長出來的棕櫚樹中取出樹汁，然後發酵成棕櫚酒。他喝了一點，又喝了一些，很快地，他就醉了。他又繼續工作，從池塘邊製作出更多的身體，但喝醉後他就不那麼小心了，所以做出來的身體，有一些沒有眼睛或有一些四肢畸形。他認為他們都很漂亮，雖然後來他發現到喝酒時犯的錯誤，並發誓不再這樣做。

      Before long, Olorun dispatched Chameleon down the golden chain to check on Obatala's progress. Chameleon reported Obatala's disappointment at making figures that had form but no life. Gathering gasses from the space beyond the sky, Olorun sparked the gasses into an explosion that he shaped into a fireball. He sent that fireball to Ife, where it dried the lands that were still wet and began to bake the clay figures that Obatala had made. The fireball even set the earth to spinning, as it still does today. Olorun then blew his breath across Ife, and Obatala's figures slowly came to life as the first people of Ife.

不久之後，奧羅倫將變色龍送下金鏈子，查看奧巴塔拉的進展。變色龍回報說，奧巴塔拉對於製作出有形而無生命的形體感到失望。奧羅倫從天上以外的空間收集了氣體，並將這些氣體引爆，形成一顆火球。他把那個火球送到伊費，將仍然潮濕的土地烘乾並烘烤奧巴塔拉製作的黏土形體。這顆火球甚至讓地球像現今一樣轉動。然後奧羅倫吹了一口氣穿過伊費，接著奧巴塔拉製作出的形體就慢慢地變成了第一批的伊費人。