Oedipus, his father's murderer, his mother's lover, solver of the Sphinx's riddle!
奥狄浦斯是自己父亲的凶手,自己母亲的丈夫,奥狄浦斯是斯芬克司之谜的解答者!
What is the meaning of this triple fate?
这神秘的三联命运毕竟告诉我们甚么呢?
An ancient popular belief, especially strong in Persia, holds that a wise magus must be incestuously begotten.
有一种原始的民间信仰,尤其是波斯的民间信仰,说聪明的妖教僧只能从乱伦的交配生育出来。
If we examine Oedipus, the solver of riddles and liberator of his mother, in the light of this Parsee belief,
想到解谜和娶母的奥狄浦斯,我们就会立刻得到解释。
we may conclude that wherever soothsaying and magical powers have broken the spell of present and future, the rigid law of individuation,
大凡在某种预言的魔力打破了现在与未来的界限,破坏了顽强的个性原则,
the magic circle of nature, extreme unnaturalness--in this case incest--is the necessary antecedent;
总之,道破自然的内在魔谜的场合,就必先有一种非常的反自然现象,例如奥狄浦斯的乱伦,作为前因;
for how should man force nature to yield up her secrets but by successfully resisting her, that is to say, by unnatural acts?
因为,若不是违反自然,也就是说,苦不是以非自然来克服自然,人怎能够强迫自然交出它的秘密呢?
This is the recognition I find expressed in the terrible triad of Oedipean fates: the same man who solved the riddle of nature (the ambiguous Sphinx) must also,
我在奥狄浦斯的可怕的三联厄运中看出这个道理,他解答了自然之谜,
as murderer of his father and husband of his mother, break the consecrated tables of the natural order.
二重性的斯芬克司之谜,就必须以试父娶母的行动打破最神圣的自然秩序。