Vampires: Folklore, fantasy and fact - Michael Molina

翻译人员: Xuwen Zhu 校对人员: Zhiting Chen

Good evening!

晚上好！

What's the matter?

怎么了？

Are you afraid of vampires?

你害怕吸血鬼吗？

He he, no need to worry,

呵呵，不用担心，

I'm not staying for dinner.

我来这不是为了吸血。

(Laughter)

啊哈哈哈。我来这里是为了引导你

I'm here to guide you through a brief history of vampires,

简单了解一下吸血鬼的历史，

illustrating how our image has changed

向你解释下我们的形象是如何

from a shambling corpse

从一个步履蹒跚的死尸

to the dapper gentleman you see before you.

变成现在你面前这样一位翩翩君子。

Vampires are nearly as old as you humans.

吸血鬼几乎跟你们人类历史一样久远

Stories about us, revenants,

关于我们存在的故事，

甚至能追溯到

appear in cultures extending as far back as prehistoric times.

史前文明。

But we weren't called vampires back then

但那时候我们还不叫“吸血鬼”

and most of us did not look the way we imagine vampires today.

并且我们中的大多数看上去并不像

我们今天所想象的吸血鬼一样，

Ha, far from it!

差远了！

For example, the Mesopotamian Lamashtu

比如说，美索不达米亚的拉马什图

was a creature with the head of a lion and the body of the donkey,

就是一个长着狮子头跟

驴子身体的怪物，

and the ancient Greek striges

再比如古老希腊的史特雷姬斯

were simply described as bloodthirsty birds.

人们简单描述为嗜血的鸟类。

Others were even stranger.

其他的就更加奇怪了。

The Philippine manananggal would sever her upper torso

菲利宾的曼杜哥会撕裂自己的上半身

and sprout huge, bat-like wings to fly.

并从中长出巨大的，蝙蝠般的翅膀来飞行。

The Malaysian penanggalan was a flying female head

马来西亚的潘那贾拉是个飞在空中的女人头

with dangling entrails.

下面还挂着内脏。

(Laughter)

嘿 嘿 嘿 嘿。

And the Australian Yara-ma-yha-who

澳洲的亚拉马亚胡全身红色，

was a little red guy with a big head,

小身板却长着个大脑袋，

a large mouth,

一张血盆大口，

and bloodsuckers on his hands and feet.

用双手双脚来吸血。

Oh, and let's not forget the Caribbean's soucouyant,

噢，对了，让我们不要忘了加勒比海的斯库样，

the West African obayifo,

西非的奥巴伊弗，

and the Mexican Tlahuelpuchi.

还有墨西哥的特拉海尔普契。

(Laughter)

嘿嘿，它们是不是很迷人？

Charming, aren't they?

Though they may look vastly different,

尽管它们彼此看上去有很大不同，

all of these beings have one common characteristic:

它们却有着一个共同特征：

They sustain themselves by consuming the life force of a living creature.

它们靠吸食生灵

的血来生存。

This shared trait is what defines a vampire --

这个它们共有的特质决定了它们是吸血鬼

all the other attributes change with the tides.

而其他的特征会随着时间改变。

So, how do we arrive

所以，我们是怎样最终转变成

at the reanimated fellow you see before you?

你所看到的像我这样的形象呢？

Our modern ideal emerges in 18th-century Eastern Europe.

我们的现代形态出现

于18世纪的东欧。

With the dramatic increase of vampire superstitions,

随着对吸血鬼迷信的

stories of bloodsucking, shadowy creatures

急剧增强，吸血鬼这种虚无的生物

become nightly bedside terrors.

变成了人们睡前的恐怖故事。

And popular folklore,

还有流传甚广的民间传说，

like the moroi among the Romani people

比如罗马尼人口中的莫罗伊

and the lugat in Albania,

以及阿尔巴尼亚地区的鲁噶，

provide the most common vampire traits known today,

提供了我们今天所熟知的吸血鬼的特征，

such as vampires being undead

比如吸血鬼不死之身

and nocturnal and shape-shifting.

以及夜行性

还有可以变身。

You see, Eastern Europe in the 18th century

你看，18世纪的东欧

was a pretty grim place

是一个十分糟糕的地方

with many deaths occurring from unknown diseases and plagues.

很多人死于

不知名的疾病和瘟疫。

Without medical explanations, people searched for supernatural causes

由于没有医学方面的解释，

人们便开始寻找非自然的原因

and found what looked like evidence in the corpses of the victims.

进而在死者尸体里

发现了似是而非的证据。

When villagers dug up bodies

当村民们挖出尸体

to discern the cause of the mysterious deaths,

想要辨别这些离奇死亡的原因时，

they would often find the cadavers

他们通常发现这些尸体

looking very much alive --

看上去就跟活着一样--

longer hair and fingernails,

头发跟指甲都变长了，

bloated bellies,

肚子变得浮肿，

and blood at the corners of mouths.

嘴角边还有血迹。

(Laughter)

嘿嘿，显然，这些人并没有真正死亡。

Clearly, these people were not really dead.

Heh, they were vampires!

嘿，他们是吸血鬼！

And they had been leaving their graves

他们会离开自己的坟墓

去寻找活人为食。

to feast on the living.

(Grunt)

The terrified villagers would quickly enact

惊恐万分的村民们迅速举行

a ritual to kill the undead.

仪式来杀死这些吸血鬼们。

The practices varied across the region,

不同的地区方式也不同，

but usually included beheadings,

但通常包含了斩首，

burnings, and staking the body to the coffin

火烧，

以及将尸体钉在棺材里

to prevent it from getting up.

来防止它从里面跑出来。

(Laughter)

Grizzly stuff!

真疯狂！

But what the villagers interpreted as unholy reanimation

然而，这些村民眼中所谓的邪恶复活，

were actually normal symptoms of death.

实际上都是正常的死亡症状。

When a body decomposes, the skin dehydrates,

当尸体分解时，

皮肤会脱水，

causing the hair and fingernails to extend.

从而引起头发跟指甲外露。

Bacteria in the stomach creates gases

胃中的细菌会产生气体

that fill the belly,

使腹部鼓起，

which force out blood and matter through the mouth.

并且压迫血和体液从嘴里流出。

Unfortunately, this science was not yet known,

不幸的是，这些科学解释尚不为人所知，

so the villagers kept digging.

所以村民们不停挖掘尸体寻找解释。

In fact, so many bodies were dug up

事实上，被挖出来的尸体太多

that the Empress of Austria

以至于奥斯丁帝国的皇后

sent her physician around to disprove the vampire stories,

派遣自己的医师来证明这些吸血鬼的故事是假的，

and she even established a law prohibiting grave tampering.

并且制定法律

禁止村民们破坏坟墓。

Still, even after the vampire hunts had died down,

可是呢，尽管对吸血鬼的狩猎慢慢减少了，

the stories of legends survived in local superstition.

这些传说却在

民间迷信中保存了下来。

This led to works of literature, such as Polidori's "The Vampyre,"

这也启发了很多文学作品，

比如波里多利的《吸血鬼》，

the Gothic novel "Carmilla,"

哥特式的小说《卡米拉》，

and, most famously, Bram Stoker's "Dracula."

以及，最有名的，布莱姆·斯托克的《德拉库拉》。

Although Stoker incorporated historical material,

尽管斯托克在他的作品中加入了历史材料，

like Elizabeth Báthory's virgin blood baths

比如伊丽莎白·巴托里的处女血浴

and the brutal executions of Vlad Dracul,

以及弗拉德·德古拉的残忍行刑，

it was these local myths

却是这些民间神话

that inspired the main elements of his story:

启发了他的故事中的主要元素：

the Transylvanian setting,

特兰西瓦尼亚式的设定，

using garlic to defend oneself,

用大蒜保护自己，

and the staking of the heart.

还有用木棍插入心脏。

While these attributes are certainly familiar to us,

这些特性都是为我们所熟知，

elements he invented himself have also lasted over the years:

他（布莱姆·斯托克）自己所发明的吸血鬼特性

也延续了很多年：

fear of crucifixes,

害怕十字架，

weakness in sunlight,

恐惧太阳光，

and the vampire's inability to see their reflection.

以及吸血鬼不能从

镜子中看到自己。

By inventing new traits,

通过发明这些新的吸血鬼特征，

Stoker perfectly enacted the age-old tradition

斯托克通过

of elaborating upon and expanding the myth of vampires.

详细描述并扩充吸血鬼的故事

完美地造就了这个古老的传说。

As we saw, maybe you met my relatives,

就像我们所看到的，

也许你已经见过我的近亲们，

a huge of variety of creatures stalked the night before Dracula,

一群早于吸血鬼德拉库拉的

潜伏在夜晚的生物，

and many more will continue to creep through our nightmares.

并且还会有更多

会慢慢爬到我们的噩梦中去。

Yet, so long as they subsist off a living being's life force,

是的，只要它们依赖

生灵的血而活，

they are part of my tribe.

它们就属于我们吸血鬼家族。

Even sparkling vampires can be included.

即使闪闪发光的吸血鬼也算数。

After all, it's the continued storytelling and reimagining of the vampire legend

说到底，是这种一直以来

对于吸血鬼传奇的讲述跟想象加工

that allows us to truly live

使我们吸血鬼真正永久

forever.

存活下来了。

(Ominous laughter)

啊哈哈哈哈哈！