The Widow of Ephesus

贞节牌坊后面的故事

作者: Gaius Petronius (~27-66 A.D.)

佩特罗尼乌斯‧艾伯塔特.

Once upon a time there was a certain married woman in the city of Ephesus whose fidelity(忠诚; 忠贞) to her husband was so famous that the women from all the neighboring towns and villages used to troop into Ephesus merely to stare at this prodigy(奇事) (因为很少人能做到这样的高度, 所以变成珍贵). It happened, however, that her husband one day died. Finding the normal custom of following the cortege(行列; 随从) with hair unbound (披头散发)and beating her breast in public quite inadequate to express (不足以表示)her grief, the lady insisted on following the corpse right into the tomb, an underground vault of the Greek type, and there set herself to guard the body, weeping and wailing(恸哭)night and day. Although in her extremes of grief she was clearly courting death from starvation, her parents were utterly unable to persuade her to leave, and even the magistrates(地方首长), after one last supreme attempt, were rebuffed(回绝)and driven away. In short, all Ephesus had gone into mourning for this extraordinary woman, all the more since the lady was now passing her fifth consecutive day without once tasting food. Beside the failing woman sat her devoted maid, sharing her mistress’ grief and relighting the lamp whenever it flickered (闪烁; 摇曳)out. The whole city could speak, in fact, on nothing else: here at last, all classes alike agreed, was the one true example of conjugal(配偶的) fidelity and love. (贞节牌坊建立起来了)

庄子演义杂篇外物(十二)也有类似的故事: 演门有亲死者，以善毁爵为官师，其党人毁而死者半。

In the meantime, however, the governor of the province gave orders that several thieves should be crucified in a spot close by the vault where the lady as mourning her dead husband’s corpse. So, on the following night, the soldier who had been assigned to keep watch on the crosses so that nobody could remove the thieves’ bodies for burial suddenly noticed a light blazing among the tombs and heard the sounds of groaning. And prompted be a natural human curiosity to know who or what was making those sounds, he descended into the vault.

But at the sight of a strikingly beautiful (非常漂亮的)woman, he stopped short in terror, thinking he must be seeing some ghostly apparition(幽灵)out of hell. Then, observing the corpse and seeing the tears on the lady’s face and the scratches her fingernails had gashed(深长的切口)in her cheeks, he realized what it was: a widow, in inconsolable grief. Promptly fetching his little supper back down to the tomb, he implored (恳求)the lady not to persist in her sorrow or break her heart with useless mourning. All men alike, he reminded her, have the same end; the same resting place awaits us all. He used, in short, all those platitudes(陈词滥调) we use to comfort the suffering and bring them back to life. His consolations, being unwelcome, only exasperated the widow more; more violently than ever she beat her breast, and tearing out her hair by the roots, scattered it over the dead man’s body.(将头发连根拔起, 散拨在亡夫的遗体上) Undismayed (不弃馁地), the soldier repeated his arguments and pressed her to take some food, until the little maid, quite overcome by the smell of the wine(肉体的力量出现了), succumbed(屈服; 委弃)and stretched out her hand to her tempter. Then, restored by the food and wine, she began herself to assail(质问) her mistress’ obstinate(顽固的, 固执的)refusal.(肉体与理智所代表的贞操之间开始争辩)

“How will it help you,” she asked the lady, “if you faint from hunger? Why should you bury yourself alive, and go down to death before the Fates have called you? What does Vergil (弗吉尔 罗马著名的诗人) say?---

Do you suppose the shades and ashes of the dead are by such sorrow touched?

(你认为亡者的灵魂及骨灰会被你的悲哀感动吗?)

No, begin your life afresh. Shake off these woman’s scruples(良心上的不安); enjoy the light while you can. Look at that corpse of your poor husband: doesn’t it tell you more eloquently(善辩地; 富于表现力地) than any words that you should live?”(尸体是多么的丑陋呀!我们应该这么丑吗?)

None of us, of course, really dislikes being told that we must eat, that life is to be lived. And the lady was no exception. Weakened by her long days of fasting, her resistance crumbled at last, and she ate the food the soldier offered her as hungrily as the little maid had eaten earlier.

Well, you know what temptations are normally aroused in a man on a full stomach. (温饱思淫欲 口袋里钱多了, 怪毛病就都出笼了))So the soldier, mustering(使尽全力地) all those blandishments (哄骗) by means of which he had persuaded the lady to live, how laid determined siege to her virtue. And chaste (贞洁的; 纯洁的) though she was, the lady found him singularly attractive and his arguments persuasive. As for the maid, she did all she could to help the soldier’s cause, repeating like a refrain the appropriate line of Vergil:

If love is pleasing, lady, yield yourself to love.(向肉体投降吧!)

To make the matter short, the lady’s body soon gave up the struggle; she yielded and our happy warrior enjoyed a total triumph on both counts. That very night their marriage was consummated(完成; 实现), and they slept together the second and the third night too, carefully shutting the door of the tomb so that any passing friend or stranger would have thought the lady of famous chastity(贞洁) had at last expired over her dead husband’s body.

As you can perhaps imagine, our soldier was a very happy man, utterly delighted with his lady’s ample beauty and that special charm that a secret love confers. Every night, as soon as the sun had set, he bought what few provisions his slender(微薄的) pay permitted and smuggle them down to the tomb. One night, however the parents of one of the crucified thieves, notice that the watch was being badly kept, took advantage of our hero’s (美人爱英雄. 所以他成为英雄了)absence to remove their son’s body and bury it. The next morning, of course the soldier was horror-struck to discover of the bodies missing from the cross, and ran to tell his mistress of the horrible punishment which awaited him for neglecting his duty. In the circumstances he told her, he would not wait to be tried and sentence, but would punish himself then and there with his own sword. All he asked of her was that she make(s) room for another corpse and allow(s) the same gloomy(阴沈的)tomb to enclose husband and lover together.

Our lady’s heart, however, was no less tender than pure(女性最终还是比较能面对现实的. 男人比较会做傻事). “God forbid,” (但愿不会发生这样的事)she cried, “that I should have to see at one and the same time the dead bodies of the only two men I have ever loved. No, better far, I say, to hang the dead than kill the living.”

With these words, she gave orders that her husband’s body should be taken from its bier(棺架; 尸架)and strung up on the empty cross. The soldier followed this good advice, and the next morning the whole city wondered by what miracle the dead man had climbed up on the cross.