【每日克苏鲁】《达贡》中英文对照

前言

填补上一篇科普洛夫克拉夫特生平的文章中留下的坑，我准备开始按照HP本人的创作顺序不时地给大家分享一些作品，其中会包含原文和译文的对照（纯业余翻译，不恰之处敬请指正）以及一些相关背景、细节、趣事的补充，希望感兴趣的朋友们能够喜欢。

《达贡》（也译作大衮）是洛夫克拉夫特正式发表的第一部作品（在此之前的大部分作品都被他自己销毁），创作于1917年，1919年刊登于《漂泊者》杂志。此时27岁的洛夫克拉夫特正处于隐居状态，不喜欢与人接触，写作风格正处于开始模仿邓锡尼爵士和大师爱伦·坡的阶段，不过，偏爱粘腻、腥臭的海底生物这一特色已经开始显现。

因为这个阶段影响洛夫克拉夫特想要创作自己神话宇宙的主要人物是邓锡尼爵士，他尝试着将神话故事中的神放置在现实世界当中。《圣经》中记载的达贡，原本是古代闪族的农耕之神，后来被菲利士人崇拜后，海神的神格加强，成为半人半鱼的形态。到了耶稣时期，菲利士人将约柜（代表与上帝同在）和达贡神像放在一起祭拜，达贡神像竟然段首匍匐在约柜前，菲利士人便得知，原来信仰的神达贡连自己都救不了，从此不再信奉达贡。此后被基督教标记为邪恶之神，在《失乐园》中首次被描写为居住在海中的半人半鱼的恶魔。

正文

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.

我在极大的精神压力之下写出了这些文字，今晚我将不复存在。身无分文，而那唯一能让我苟延残喘的药物也消耗殆尽，我再也忍受不了这份痛苦的折磨；也许应该直接把自己扔出这阁楼的窗户，扔到下面那肮脏的街道上去。请不要因为我臣服于吗啡，就认为我是个软蛋或是堕落者。读完这仓促写下的潦草几页，你也许无法完全理解，但至少能猜到为什么我一定要渴求遗忘甚至是选择死亡。

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.

变化在我沉睡之时发生了。尽管内心充满不安，梦境也绵绵不绝，我的沉睡却未曾间断，因此我永远也会不知道那些变化的细节。当我终于醒来时，却发现自己半身都陷在一片仿佛来自地狱的粘腻黑泥之中，放眼望去这黑泥连绵起伏，无边无际；我的小艇就搁浅在不远处。

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.

尽管有人可能会想象，我的第一感觉会是对场景如此出人预料的巨大变化而感到惊奇，但事实上，我更感到惊恐而非惊讶；因为空气和腐败的土壤中充斥着一种不祥的品质，让我感到从内而外的战栗。这片区域到处都是腐烂的鱼的尸体，以及其他不可名状的东西，从那片无尽平原的肮脏泥泞中凸起。也许我不该寄希望于用寥寥几句话就能描述。那栖身于绝对的静寂和贫瘠的无垠平原中难以形容的丑陋。耳朵听不见任何声音，眼里除了大片大片的黑色泥浆也看不见任何其他事物；完全的静谧和景观的同质性用一种令人作呕的恐惧压抑着我。

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.

太阳从天空向下耀射，在我看来，这份无云的残酷几乎是漆黑的；仿佛映射着我脚底这片如墨的沼泽。当我爬上搁浅的小船时，我意识到只有一种假设能够解释我的处境。通过一些史无前例的火山剧变，一定有一部分海底被抛至海平面以上，暴露出那些无数年来潜藏在深不可测的水下区域。我脚下这片新崛起的陆地如此广阔，以至于无论我多努力地竖起耳朵聆听，也无法捕捉到来自汹涌大海中哪怕是一丝的微弱声音。也没有任何前来掠夺那些腐尸的海鸟。

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.

我在侧卧的小船笼罩下沉思或是焦虑了好几个小时，当太阳在天空中移动时，它能为我提供一点点阴影。随着时光推移，地面变得不那么黏了，并且看起来似乎短时间内就能干燥得足以用于旅行。那天晚上我睡得很少，第二天，我整理了一包水和食物，准备来一次陆上旅行，寻找消失的海洋或可能的救援。

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.

第三天早晨，我发现地表已经干燥得可以轻松行走。腐鱼的腥臭味简直令人抓狂；但我太关心更重要的事情了，这点小事可以忽略不计，我大胆地动身前往一个未知的目的地。一整天我都在远处一座高于这片起伏荒漠的山丘的指引下一路向西。那天晚上我席地而卧，并在第四天继续向着山丘前进，夜晚前，我到达了山丘底部，结果发现比我在远处发现它时要大得多；横在面前的一条凹谷使山丘显得更加陡峭。我太累了，爬不上去，便直接睡在了山丘的阴影里。

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.

我不知道为何我那一晚的梦境如此狂野，但当那诡异盈凸的皎月从平原东部升起时，我就被一身冷汗惊醒了，我决心不再睡了。我看到的幻想多得再一次难以忍受。沐浴在月光之下，我突然明白在白天旅行是多么不明智。如果没有灼热的阳光，我就能消耗更少的体力了；事实上，我觉得自己现在就能爬上那座日落时阻碍着我的山丘。收拾妥当后，我便开始向着山顶出发。

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.

我之前曾说过，那高低起伏的无际平原对我来说是那种模糊恐惧的源泉；但那份恐惧在我登上山顶时更强烈了——我从另一边向下望去，看到的是一个无法丈量的深渊，月亮甚至没有升到能够照亮它的高度。我感到自己处于世界的边缘；正站在边沿窥视着这永恒之夜中无法理解的混沌。我在这恐惧中竟开始回忆《失乐园》，以及描写撒旦邪恶地爬过未成形的黑暗领域那段。

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.

随着月亮升的更高了些，我开始看清山谷的斜坡并不像我想象的那么陡峭，岩壁和突出的石块为下坡提供了相当合适的立足点，而且再下降几百英尺后，坡度变得非常平缓。在一种我自己都无法明析的冲动驱使之下，我艰难地顺着岩石爬了下去，站在下面较为平坦的缓坡上，凝视着光线无法穿透的至暗深渊。

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.

突然，我的注意力被对面斜坡上一个巨大而怪异的物体吸引住了，它在我面前大约一百码的位置陡然升起；在升起的月亮新赋的月光照耀下隐隐映射出白色的光芒。我很快就确信，那仅仅是一块巨大的石头；但我有一个确定的印象，那就是它的轮廓和位置绝不完全是大自然的手笔。更仔细地观察过后，我被一种难以表达的感觉填满；因为其不但规模宏大，而且自世界的早期就已经坐落在这海底深渊当中，毫无疑问，我注意到这个奇怪的物体是一块精细雕磨的石柱，从巨大的体积可得知其建造工艺，并且可能受到智慧生物的崇拜和信仰。

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.

我感到头晕目眩和恐惧，但也并非没有科学家或考古学家独有的那种激动的喜悦，我更加仔细地审视着周遭的环境。现在已然接近穹顶的月亮，怪异又生动地在裂谷峭壁之上闪烁着；它照亮了谷底一条流向远方的水体，水流朝着两个方向蜿蜒而出，并且几乎是在拍打着我站在斜坡上的双脚。水流穿过裂谷，细小的水波冲刷着巨大石柱的底部；使我现在得以看清石柱表面的铭文和粗糙的雕刻。铭文是由一种我不知道的象形文字体系书写，和任何我在书中见过的都毫不相似；其内容大部分是由诸如鱼类、鳗鱼、章鱼、贝类、软体动物、鲸鱼等传统水生符号组成。有一些符号很显然代表着一些现代世界没有的海洋生物，不过我倒是已经在那片粘腻平原上见识过它们腐烂分解后的形体了。

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.

然而，最让我着迷的是那些雕刻在石柱上的图画。得益于巨大的尺寸，那些雕刻画哪怕是隔着这溪流依然能够清晰可见：一系列连画家多雷都会对其主题嫉妒不已的浮雕。我认为这些浮雕描绘的应该是人类——至少是某种人类；尽管那些生物看起来正在某种海洋洞穴内嬉戏，或是在某个明显建在海底的巨大神殿中做着敬拜的动作。我不敢详细描述它们的面容和形态，仅仅是回想起来都令我几近昏厥。它们的怪异外形远远超出爱伦坡或布尔沃的想象，从整体轮廓来讲勉强算是种扭曲的人类，如果忽略它们长着蹼的手脚、宽大松弛得骇人的嘴唇、像玻璃一样的凸眼球以及其他回忆起来会令人不快的特征的话。古怪的是，它们和背景的比例被凿刻得极为离谱，比如有一只生物甚至被描绘成正在杀死一只比自己大不了多少的鲸鱼。当注意到上述的的奇怪尺寸和怪诞外表后，我第一反应就是：它们仅仅是某些捕鱼或航海原始部落虚构的神而已，在皮尔唐人和尼安德特人的祖先诞生前，这些部落的最后一代就已经灭绝了。惊叹于自己竟然在无意中窥视到连最大胆的人类学家都不敢想象的悠久历史，我不禁陷入了沉思，同时月光在我面前寂静的河道投下了一个奇怪的倒影。

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.

这时我突然看见了它。只有一阵轻微的波澜标志着它浮出水面，那生物从幽暗的水面潜入了我的视野。那像是波吕斐摩斯一样巨大而丑恶的身体如同梦魇怪一般冲向石柱，挥动它那布满鳞片的粗壮手臂，同时低下丑陋的头颅，发出一些有节奏的声音。我想我那时已经疯了。

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.

我几乎完全不记得自己是怎样疯狂地爬上斜坡和峭壁，并精神错乱地回到搁浅小船上的。我肯定是唱了很久，而当我不能唱了的时候，便开始怪异地大笑。隐约记得当我回到小船后，经历了一场风暴；无论如何，我知道自己听到了轰轰作响的雷声，还有其他一些大自然最狂暴的状态下才会发出的声音。

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.

当我恢复意识时，已经身处旧金山的一家医院中了；把我送来的是一艘美国船的船长，他在大海中央发现了我的小艇。在精神错乱的状态下我说了很多话，但基本没有人在意。至于太平洋中有一块上升的陆地这件事，救我的人也一无所知。我并不认为需要坚持一件我知道他们不会相信的事情。有一次，我找到了一位著名的民族学家，半开玩笑地向他提出了一些古代菲利士传说中鱼神达贡的问题，但很快我便发现他的思维保守得无药可救，因此没再追问下去。

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.

每当夜晚来临，特别是诡月盈凸时我都会看到那怪物。尝试过吗啡，但这东西只会在提供短暂的安逸之后让我成为一个绝望的奴隶。因此在原原本本地写下这篇供同胞们参考或嘲笑的记录之后，我就要彻底结束这一切。我常常问自己，有没有一种可能这一切都是纯粹的幻觉——在逃离德军后，当我躺在露天的船上晒太阳、精神错乱时，由于高烧看到的一些列幻觉？我这样问自己，但从来都没有一个具体的景象来回答我这个问题。一想到深海，我就会感到不寒而栗，因为可能就在此时此刻，一些无名的生物正在它粘腻的温床上爬行和挣扎，崇拜它们古老的石像，并在潮湿的花岗岩石碑上雕刻它们自己那令人憎恶的肖像。我在梦中看到，它们终有一天会随着巨浪游上海面，用恶臭的爪子把被战争搞得衰弱不堪的弱小的人类幸存者拖进海里；终有一天，陆地会沉没，而黑暗的海底会在世界的混乱中缓缓升起。

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!

末日即将来临。我听到了门口的声响，像是有什么巨大的、滑腻的身躯正缓缓地撞击着房门。它不会找到我的。天啊，那只手！窗口！窗口！

结语

文中图片来自Steam免费游戏《Dagon》。

以下附上H·P·洛夫克拉夫特的原文手稿扫描件（虽然但是…）

首次尝试翻译，多多包涵