bubble50 DH Freelance 中翻英 英翻中

原文字數:1974

譯文字數:3926

What the earliest fragments of English reveal?[1]

最早的英語殘頁中揭露了什麼秘密？

The earliest fragments of English reveal how interconnected Europe has been for centuries. As an exhibition in London brings together treasures from Anglo-Saxon England, Cameron Laux traces a history of the language through 10 objects and manuscripts – including a burial urn, a buckle with bling, and the first letter in English.

最早的英語殘頁揭開了歐洲幾個世紀以來是如何相互產生關聯的。當倫敦的展覽匯聚了盎格魯─撒克遜英格蘭的寶藏之時，卡梅倫·雷克斯藉由10件古物與手稿追溯了這個語言的歷史—包括一個骨灰甕、一個金光閃閃的扣環和第一封用英語寫成的信。

The interconnectedness of Europe has a long history, as we’re reminded when we explore the roots of the English language – roots that stretch back to the 5th Century. Anglo-Saxon England “was connected to the world beyond its shores through a lively exchange of books, goods, ideas,” argues the Medieval historian Mary Wellesley, describing a new exhibition at the British Library in London – Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War – that charts the genesis of England.

當我們在探詢著可以追溯至5世紀的英語根源時，它也在提醒著我們一段關於歐洲間相互交雜已久的歷史。在描述倫敦大英圖書館一個詳細記錄著英格蘭起源的新展覽《盎格魯─撒克遜諸國：藝術、文字與戰爭》時，中世紀歷史學家瑪麗·韋爾斯利說盎格魯─撒克遜英格蘭「如火如荼地交換書籍、商品與想法，藉此跨越國土與世界各地相連。」

“Something like 80% of all surviving Old English verse survives in four physical books… for the first time in recorded history they are all together [in this exhibition],” she tells BBC Culture. “The period that is represented by Old English is about 600 years, which is like between us and back to Chaucer… imagine if there were only four physical books that survived from that period, what would that say about our literature?”

她告訴BBC文化：「大概所有倖存的古英語詩歌中有8成都存在四本實體書之中......這是有史以來第一次它們一同出現[在這個展覽中]。古英語所代表的時期大約有600年，這個時長大概就像是我們到喬叟那個時代之間......想像一下，若只有四本實體書從那個時期倖存下來，我們的文學又會變得怎麼樣？」

What we understand as English has its roots in 5th-Century Germany and Denmark, from where the Anglian, Saxon and Jute tribes came. As the Roman legions withdrew around 410AD, so the Saxon war bands (what Rome called ‘the barbarians’) landed and an era of migration from the Continent and the formation of Anglo-Saxon England began. The word “English” derives from the homeland of the Angles, the Anglian peninsula in Germany. Early English was written in runes, combinations of vertical and diagonal lines that lent themselves to being carved into wood and were used by other closely related Germanic languages, such as Old Norse, Old Saxon and Old High German.

我們所理解的英語源於5世紀的德國和丹麥，盎格魯人、撒克遜人和朱特人的部落就是從這些地方來的。隨著羅馬軍團在西元410年左右撤退時，被羅馬人稱為「野蠻人」的撒克遜戰團也登陸了，歐洲大陸遷移時期以及盎格魯─撒克遜英格蘭的形成也隨之展開。「英語」這個詞來自於盎格魯人的故鄉，德國的盎格利亞半島。早期的英語是用符文寫成的，這個垂直線和斜線的組合，使它們能夠被雕刻在木頭上，也被其他關係密切的日耳曼語使用，例如古挪威語、古撒克遜語和古高地德語。

Cremation urn from Loveden Hill, 5th Century[2]

Loveden Hill的火葬甕(5世紀)

“The earliest fragments of the English language are likely to be a group of runic inscriptions on three 5th-Century cremation urns from Spong Hill in Norfolk,” Wellesley has written. “The inscriptions simply read alu, which probably means ‘ale’. Perhaps the early speakers of Old English longed for ale in death as well as life.”

韋爾斯利寫道：「英語中最早的殘頁可能是來自於一組用符文寫成的銘文，其被刻在諾福克Spong Hill三個5世紀時的火葬甕上。這些銘文解讀出來就是alu，它可能是指『ale』(一種啤酒)。也許早期講古英語的人，在死亡和生活中都想要喝啤酒。」

The exhibition gathers together an array of documents, books and archaeological evidence to form a dense picture of the Anglo-Saxon period, including a burial urn with runic inscriptions in early English from Loveden Hill, Lincolnshire, England.

展覽匯集了一批文件、書籍和考古證據，塑造出一幅盎格魯─撒克遜時期濃厚的圖像，其中包括了一個在英格蘭林肯郡Loveden Hill發現的用符文寫著早期英語的銘文骨灰甕。

Anglo-Saxons cremated their dead and interred their remains in earthenware vessels. About 20 objects with runic inscriptions from before 650AD are known from England, making this vessel – which seems to feature a woman’s name and the word for tomb – one of the earliest examples of English.

盎格魯─撒克遜人將他們的死者火化並將他們的遺體埋葬在陶瓷器皿中。目前已知在英格蘭大約有20件在西元650年前所製成的、用符文寫成的銘文古物，使這件器皿(上面似乎寫著一個女人的名字以及墳墓這個字)成為英語中最早的例子之一。

World map made in southern England, 11th Century

英格蘭南部所製的世界地圖(11世紀)

The exhibition also includes a charming 11th-Century English map of the world, which gives us an insight into Anglo-Saxon identity. Britain and Ireland are squeezed into the bottom left-hand corner. (The two main population centres in England, London and Winchester, are noted.) The Mediterranean Sea is at the centre of the world’s land mass, with Rome prominent near the bottom on the left (‘Ro’ and then ‘ma’, with towers in between); across the water, Jerusalem is also prominent. Africa looms large on the upper right (follow the orange line up from the Nile delta), and India is the roughly triangular mass at the top centre.

展覽中也包括了一幅迷人的11世紀英語版世界地圖，讓我們能夠深入地了解盎格魯─撒克遜人對世界的認知。不列顛與愛爾蘭被擠在左下角。（英格蘭的兩個主要人口中心倫敦和溫徹斯特都有標出來。）地中海位於世界大陸的中心，然後羅馬出現在左邊的底部附近（圖中的「Ro」和「ma」之間有塔樓矗立）；穿過地中海後，也出現了耶路撒冷。非洲則是一大片地靠近右上方（沿著橘線從尼羅河三角洲上去），而在中心上面像三角形的那塊是印度。

This worldview was inherited from the Romans, who regarded Britain as being on the far edge of the world, but remained tied to the ‘centre’ by the Christian religion. Throughout the Anglo-Saxon era, which ended with the Norman Conquest in 1066, there was religious (and with it, intellectual) traffic across Europe.

這種世界觀承襲自羅馬人，他們認為不列顛位處在世界的邊緣，但卻能以基督教與「中心」聯繫在一起。在1066年諾曼征服之前，整個盎格魯─撒克遜時期知識分子帶著宗教勢力，將其傳遍整個歐洲。

A representation from the 12th Century of the Anglo-Saxon god Woden

12世紀盎格魯─撒克遜神Woden的圖像

Venerable Bede, an English monk and historian, noted in the early 8th Century that Britain was inhabited by four peoples who used five languages: the Picts (who remain shadowy); the Scots (whose language became Gaelic); the Britons (whose language became Welsh, Cornish, and Breton); and the Anglo-Saxons (who used a form of English). The fifth language was the Latin of the church, which eventually provided an alphabet to replace runes. On top of all of this, the Viking invasion of Britain began in the early 8th Century, adding Danish culture to the mix.

可敬者聖比德是一位英國僧侶和歷史學家，他在8世紀早期就注意到不列顛住著四種使用五種語言的人：皮克特人（鮮為人知）；蘇格蘭人（其語言成為凱爾特語）；不列顛人（其語言成為威爾斯語、康沃爾語和不列塔尼語）；和盎格魯─撒克遜人（用的是一種英語）。第五種語言是教會的拉丁語，最後就是由它提供一種字母來取代符文。最重要的是，在8世紀初維京人入侵不列顛時，將丹麥文化加入這個混雜的文化之中。

It is important to remember that the formation of English was influenced by a huge range of ethnic and geographical forces. The emerging ‘England’ of this period was a melting pot.

需銘記在心的是英語的形成受到了各式各樣的民族與地理位置的影響。這個時期所出現的「英格蘭」是一個大熔爐。

For example, we owe our English names for the days of the week, Tuesday to Friday, to the pagan religion that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them to Britain (Saturday, Sunday and Monday derive from the Greco-Roman tradition). Equally, the name of the Christian festival Easter is linked by Bede to ‘Eostre’, who seems to have been a pagan goddess. Woden, the most important pagan god, to whom we owe the word Wednesday, was also claimed as the ancestor of Anglo-Saxon royal lines. (The similarity to the name of the Norse god Odin is no accident.)

例如，我們認為英語中星期二到星期五的名字是從盎格魯─撒克遜人帶到不列顛的異教而來的（星期六、星期日和星期一都來自希羅傳統）。同樣地，基督教節日復活節的名稱是由聖比德將它與「Eostre」聯在一起，後者是一位異教徒的女神。而且，多虧最重要的異教神Woden[3]，才會有英語中星期三這個詞，Woden也被稱為是盎格魯─撒克遜王室的祖先。（與北歐神奧丁的名字這麼像並非偶然。）

Even Alfred the Great, an extremely pious Christian, claimed to be a descendant of Woden. The image here is a copy from a 12th-Century manuscript; it shows Woden at the centre of the kingly lines of (clockwise from top right) Wessex, Bernicia, Deira, Mercia and Kent.

即便是虔誠如阿爾弗雷德大帝這樣的基督徒，都自稱是Woden的後裔。這個圖是12世紀手稿的抄本，其將Woden放在（從右上方順時針方向開始）西撒克遜、伯尼西亞、德拉、麥西亞和肯特等國王血統的中心。