Narcissus had a twin [1] sister who is the dearest person in the world to him. Because they were twins, they looked very much alike. When they were very young, Narcissus' sister died, which made him so sad that he was thinking about dying too.
One day, as he was sitting on the edge [2] of a spring, missing his sister. He saw in the water his own reflection. But he didn't know that his sister looked exactly the same as he himself, neither did he have any idea of reflection, and thought he saw his sister.
He was very happy and spoke to her, but she never answed. This made him all the more sadder and he came to the spring ever day, trying to find out what happened.
At last, the gods were moved and took pity on [3] him and changed him into a flower which is also called narcissus.
納西索斯有一個雙胞胎姐姐,是他最親的人。因為他們是雙胞胎,所以長相非常相似。他們小的時候,他的姐姐死了,這使得他非常傷心,甚至想著也去死。
有一天,納西索斯坐在泉邊想他的姐姐。他看到了水中的倒影。但是他不知道他的姐姐和他長相酷似,他也不懂得倒影,于是他以為看到了姐姐。
他非常高興,就對她說話,可是她卻不回答。他更加傷心了,就每天來到泉邊,想看看到底發(fā)生了什么事情。
最后,眾神被感動了,并且非常同情他,于是就把他變成一朵花,名字叫水仙。
注釋:
1.Twin:“孿生的”、“成對的”等意思,如:twin girls (孿生女孩)。twin engine (雙發(fā)動機)。關(guān)于這個twin我還鬧過一個笑話。有一天,我看見同學(xué)床頭有一對漂亮的小燈,上面寫著twin lights (情侶燈),我脫口而出:“雙胞胎燈”,引得大家哈哈大笑。可見,英文中的翻譯是很靈活的。
2.Edge:是“邊緣”、“界限”、“棱角”的意思,trim the edge of a lawn (修剪草地的邊緣)。另外,edge還有一個意思,表示(言辭、聲調(diào))“尖刻”、“尖銳”,如:the remark has a bitting edge to it(評語很尖刻)。這是個引申義,大家想想看,用有“棱”、有“尖”的東西刺你,是不是很難受呀?
3.Take pity on:“憐憫”、“同情”的意思,如:He took pity on the homeless animal.(他很可憐這無家可歸的動物)。