史詩文學的魅力 Why Epics Endure 神話文學的魅力 Why Myths Endure

題目一：史詩文學的魅力 Why Epics Endure

Be it the Iliad's rage, the Ramayana's exile or Gilgamesh's grief over a dead friend, epic poetry, composed to be performed aloud before audiences who knew the plots by heart, deals less in surprise than in the slow magnification of a single choice, lingering over armor, genealogies and feasts, so that a warrior's quarrel or a king's search for immortality comes to carry the weight of an entire people's sense of who they are and what they owe their dead, the more so because each retelling by a new singer added fresh detail without erasing the old, a process that explains why epics, whatever their age, feel at once ancient and strangely unfinished.

1. 結構破解

Be it the Iliad's rage, the Ramayana's exile or Gilgamesh's grief over a dead friend,

epic poetry,

composed to be performed aloud

before audiences who knew the plots by heart,

deals less in surprise

than in the slow magnification of a single choice,

lingering over armor, genealogies and feasts,

so that a warrior's quarrel or a king's search for immortality

comes to carry the weight of an entire people's sense

of who they are and what they owe their dead,

the more so because each retelling by a new singer

added fresh detail without erasing the old,

a process that explains why epics,

whatever their age,

feel at once ancient and strangely unfinished.

2. 分解為短句

The subject may be the Iliad's rage, the Ramayana's exile or Gilgamesh's grief.（讓步）

Epic poetry was composed to be performed aloud.（主句骨架）

The audiences knew the plots by heart.

Epic poetry deals less in surprise.

It deals more in the slow magnification of a single choice.

It lingers over armor, genealogies and feasts.

A warrior's quarrel comes to carry great weight.

A king's search for immortality also comes to carry it.

The weight is an entire people's sense of who they are.

It is also their sense of what they owe their dead.

Each new singer retold the story.

Each retelling added fresh detail.

It did not erase the old detail.

This was a process.

The process explains something.

Epics feel ancient and strangely unfinished at once.

3. 參考譯文

無論主題是《伊利亞德》中的憤怒、《羅摩衍那》中的流放，還是吉爾伽美什痛失摯友的悲慟，史詩都是為了在聽眾面前朗誦而作，而聽眾早已熟知情節。因此史詩與其說靠驚奇取勝，不如說是慢慢放大一個單一的抉擇，並在盔甲、譜系與宴席上流連。於是，一位戰士的爭執，或一位國王對不朽的追尋，漸漸承載起整個民族對「我們是誰、我們欠亡者什麼」的認知，何況每位新歌者的重述都添上新細節，卻不抹去舊的。這個過程說明了為何史詩不論年代多久，都同時顯得古老又奇異地未完成。

4. 組合寫作練習（請勿看例句，嘗試將短句組回原長句）

5. 補充說明

句型創新：以 Be it A or B 這種倒裝的讓步句型開頭，語氣莊重；主詞 epic poetry 被過去分詞片語與關係子句拉長；主句用 deals less in A than in B 的比較結構，再接分詞 lingering 補充細節；後段以 so that 表結果，並用 the more so because 追加理由，最後以 a process that explains why 的同位語收束。

單字：

epic：「史詩」；magnification：「放大、強化」

genealogy：「譜系、家譜」；immortality：「不朽」

retelling：「重述」；by heart：「憑記憶、背熟」

at once A and B：「同時既 A 又 B」；erase：「抹去」

文法提醒：

Be it A or B 相當於 Whether it be A or B，是帶虛擬意味的倒裝，後面接逗號與完整主句，屬書面語。

epic poetry, composed to be performed aloud, ... 中，composed 是過去分詞，修飾 epic poetry；to be performed 是被動不定詞，表目的；audiences who knew ... 的 who 修飾 audiences。

deals less in surprise than in ... 中，less ... than ... 前後都是「in + 名詞」，要保持平行。

lingering over ... 是現在分詞構句，主詞與主句相同（epic poetry）；armor, genealogies and feasts 三個名詞平行。

so that ... comes to carry 中，主詞是單數化的 a warrior's quarrel or a king's search（以 or 連接時，動詞多與靠近的主詞一致，故用 comes）；of who they are and what they owe their dead 中，兩個名詞子句平行，they 指 an entire people，因此視為複數。

the more so because ... 的 so 代指前面的內容，意為「更是如此，因為……」；added ... without erasing the old 中，the old 是「形容詞前加 the」表「舊的東西」。

whatever their age 是省略了 may be 的讓步片語；feel at once ancient and strangely unfinished 中，feel 是連綴動詞，後接兩個形容詞作補語。

舉例：荷馬的《伊利亞德》以阿基里斯之怒開篇，整部作品圍繞一場爭執如何引發巨大後果；《奧德賽》寫奧德修斯十年返鄉，成為「歸途」故事的原型；《羅摩衍那》講述羅摩被流放與尋回妻子悉多；《貝奧武夫》則是古英語的英雄史詩，結尾以一場注定的屠龍之戰收束。

一點提醒：學界常認為荷馬史詩與口傳傳統關係密切，但口傳程度與成書過程仍有討論，本句因此只說 composed to be performed aloud，而不斷言它們完全是即興創作。各地史詩的長度、風格與功能差異也很大，這裡談的是共通傾向。

題目二：神話文學的魅力 Why Myths Endure

What makes myth endure is not that anyone still believes Zeus hurls thunderbolts or that Maui fished islands from the sea, but that these stories gave early peoples a shared and memorable language for explaining why seasons turn, why the dead are mourned and why human beings must labor and die, insofar as a question too large for argument can sometimes be answered by a story, so that even now, when science has taken over the explaining, writers, filmmakers and game designers keep returning to the old figures, not out of nostalgia but because a myth, once stripped of its claim to literal truth, remains a remarkably efficient and flexible way of asking what we owe to gods, to nature and to one another.

1. 結構破解

What makes myth endure is not

that anyone still believes Zeus hurls thunderbolts

or that Maui fished islands from the sea,

but that these stories gave early peoples a shared and memorable language

for explaining why seasons turn,

why the dead are mourned

and why human beings must labor and die,

insofar as a question too large for argument

can sometimes be answered by a story,

so that even now, when science has taken over the explaining,

writers, filmmakers and game designers keep returning to the old figures,

not out of nostalgia

but because a myth, once stripped of its claim to literal truth,

remains a remarkably efficient and flexible way

of asking what we owe to gods, to nature and to one another.

2. 分解為短句

Something makes myth endure.（主詞子句）

It is not that anyone still believes something.（否定）

Zeus hurls thunderbolts.

Maui fished islands from the sea.

It is that these stories gave early peoples a language.（主句骨架）

The language was shared and memorable.

The language explained why seasons turn.

It explained why the dead are mourned.

It explained why human beings must labor and die.

A question may be too large for argument.

It can sometimes be answered by a story.

Science has taken over the explaining.

Writers, filmmakers and game designers still keep returning to the old figures.

They do not return out of nostalgia.

They return because a myth is a way of asking something.

The myth has been stripped of its claim to literal truth.

The way is remarkably efficient and flexible.

We ask what we owe to gods, to nature and to one another.

3. 參考譯文

讓神話得以長存的，並不是有人仍相信宙斯會投擲雷電，或毛伊曾從海中釣起島嶼，而是這些故事曾給早期的人們一套共享且易記的語言，用來解釋季節為何更替、亡者為何被哀悼、人類為何必須勞動與死亡。就某種程度而言，一個大到無法靠爭辯解決的問題，有時確實能靠一則故事來回答。因此，即使在科學已接手解釋的今天，作家、電影人與遊戲設計師仍不斷回到這些古老的形象，並非出於懷舊，而是因為神話一旦褪去字面真實的主張，仍是一種相當有效且靈活的方式，用來追問我們對神明、自然與彼此負有什麼責任。

4. 組合寫作練習（請勿看例句，嘗試將短句組回原長句）

5. 補充說明

句型創新：以 What 引導的名詞子句作主詞（假主題句），搭配 is not that A but that B 的對比結構；中段用三個並列的 why 子句，再以 insofar as 加入一個條件式的補充說明；後段以 so that 表結果，並在 even now, when ... 的非限定關係子句後，用 not out of nostalgia but because ... 收尾，最後以 a way of asking what ... 帶出總結。

單字：

myth：「神話」；thunderbolt：「雷電」

insofar as：「就……的範圍而言」；literal：「字面的」

nostalgia：「懷舊」；efficient：「有效率的」

figure：「人物、形象」；owe：「虧欠、負有（責任）」

文法提醒：

What makes myth endure 是名詞子句作整句的主詞，視為單數，所以動詞用 is；make + 受詞 + 原形動詞（makes myth endure）表「使神話得以長存」。

is not that A or that B, but that C 中，三個 that 子句都作補語，要保持平行；Zeus hurls 用現在式，因為談的是「仍被相信的內容」，而 Maui fished 用過去式，因為這是神話中的往事，可以並用。

for explaining why seasons turn, why the dead are mourned and why human beings must labor and die 中，三個 why 子句要平行；the dead 是「the + 形容詞」，表「亡者們」，視為複數。

insofar as 後接完整子句；a question too large for argument 中，too large for argument 是形容詞片語，後置修飾 question；can ... be answered 是被動式。

so that 引導結果；even now, when science has taken over the explaining 的 when 是非限定關係子句，補充 now 的內容；taken over 為現在完成式。

not out of nostalgia but because ... 中，前後結構不同（介系詞片語對 because 子句），但意義上屬於對比，是常見的寬鬆平行；a myth, once stripped of ..., remains 中，once stripped 是省略了 it is 的子句，表「一旦……」。

a way of asking what we owe to ... 中，of 後接動名詞，what 子句作 asking 的受詞；owe 帶有雙受詞或介系詞 to，這裡 what 省略了 owe 的受詞位置，所以不再加 it。

舉例：希臘神話中，狄蜜特因女兒波瑟芬妮被擄走而悲痛，大地隨之冬寒，用來解釋季節更替；毛伊神話在波里尼西亞廣為流傳，包括以魚鉤釣起島嶼的故事；北歐神話的諸神黃昏，講述世界毀滅與重生；中國的女媧補天、后羿射日，則解釋天地的形成與災難。這些故事後來也常被改編成小說、電影與遊戲。

一點提醒：神話的功能有很多說法，「解釋自然」只是其中一種，也有學者強調它維繫社群價值、表達集體焦慮等作用，本句因此用 insofar as 與 sometimes 限定範圍。另外，myth 在日常英語中也指「誤解、迷思」，與文學中的「神話」意思不同，使用時要看語境。