《奥德赛》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, oh daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.

告诉我，缪斯，那位足智多谋的英雄，他在攻陷著名的特洛伊城后，漂泊四方。他游历了许多城市，熟知许多民族的风俗习惯；此外，他在海上历经艰辛，只为保全性命，带领同伴平安返乡；然而他竭尽全力，却未能救回同伴，因为他们由于自己的愚蠢，吃了太阳神许珀里翁的牛群，因而丧命；于是神明让他们永远无法归家。也请把这些事都告诉我，宙斯的女儿，无论你从何处得知。

So now all who escaped death in battle or by shipwreck had got safely home except Ulysses, and he, though he was longing to return to his wife and country, was detained by the goddess Calypso, who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him. But as years went by, there came a time when the gods settled that he should go back to Ithaca; even then, however, when he was among his own people, his troubles were not yet over; nevertheless all the gods had now begun to pity him except Neptune, who still persecuted him without ceasing and would not let him get home.

如今，所有在战争中或海难中逃过一死的人，都已平安归家，唯独奥德修斯例外。他虽然渴望回到妻子和故乡身边，却被女神卡吕普索扣留。她把他关在一个大洞穴里，想要嫁给他。但随着岁月流逝，众神终于决定让他返回伊萨卡；然而即便他回到自己人中间，磨难仍未结束；不过此时众神都已开始怜悯他，只有波塞冬例外，他仍不断迫害奥德修斯，不让他回家。

Now Neptune had gone off to the Ethiopians, who are at the world’s end, and lie in two halves, the one looking West and the other East.[1] He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen, and was enjoying himself at his festival; but the other gods met in the house of Olympian Jove, and the sire of gods and men spoke first. At that moment he was thinking of Aegisthus, who had been killed by Agamemnon’s son Orestes; so he said to the other gods:

波塞冬去了埃塞俄比亚人那里，他们位于世界尽头，分为两半，一半朝西，一半朝东。他去那里接受百牲祭，享用牛羊，并在自己的节日中寻欢作乐；而其他神明则聚集在奥林匹斯宙斯的家中，神与人的父亲首先发言。当时他正想着埃癸斯托斯，此人已被阿伽门农之子俄瑞斯忒斯杀死；于是他对其他神明说：

“See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly. Look at Aegisthus; he must needs make love to Agamemnon’s wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it would be the death of him; for I sent Mercury to warn him not to do either of these things, inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. Mercury told him this in all good will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in full.”

「看看吧，人类竟把他们自己的愚蠢归咎于我们神明。看看埃癸斯托斯，他非要非礼地勾引阿伽门农的妻子，然后又杀死阿伽门农，尽管他知道这会要了他的命；因为我曾派墨丘利去警告他不要做这两件事，因为俄瑞斯忒斯长大后，想要回家时，必定会为他报仇。墨丘利好心告诉他这些，他却不听，如今他已为此付出全部代价。」

Then Minerva said, “Father, son of Saturn, King of kings, it served Aegisthus right, and so it would any one else who does as he did; but Aegisthus is neither here nor there; it is for Ulysses that my heart bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far away, poor man, from all his friends. It is an island covered with forest, in the very middle of the sea, and a goddess lives there, daughter of the magician Atlas, who looks after the bottom of the ocean, and carries the great columns that keep heaven and earth asunder. This daughter of Atlas has got hold of poor unhappy Ulysses, and keeps trying by every kind of blandishment to make him forget his home, so that he is tired of life, and thinks of nothing but how he may once more see the smoke of his own chimneys. You, sir, take no heed of this, and yet when Ulysses was before Troy did he not propitiate you with many a burnt sacrifice? Why then should you keep on being so angry with him?”

于是密涅瓦说：「父亲，克洛诺斯之子，众王之王，埃癸斯托斯罪有应得，任何像他那样做的人也是如此；但埃癸斯托斯的事无关紧要；让我心痛的是奥德修斯，一想到他在那座孤悬海外的岛上受苦，可怜的人，远离所有朋友。那是一座覆盖森林的岛，位于大海中央，那里住着一位女神，是魔法师阿特拉斯的女儿，她照看海底，撑着分隔天地的巨大柱子。这位阿特拉斯的女儿抓住了可怜不幸的奥德修斯，不断用各种甜言蜜语让他忘记家乡，以致他厌倦生命，只想再次看到自家烟囱冒出的炊烟。您，陛下，却对此毫不理会，可当奥德修斯在特洛伊城下时，难道没有用许多焚祭来讨您欢心吗？那您为什么还要对他如此愤怒呢？」