世上真的有美人魚嗎？

01-24

海人魚，東海有之，大者長五六尺，狀如人，眉目、口鼻、手爪、頭皆為美麗女子，無不具足。皮肉白如玉，無鱗，有細毛，五色輕軟，長一二寸。發如馬尾，長五六尺。陰形與丈夫女子無異，臨海鰥寡多取得，養之於池沼。交合之際，與人無異，亦不傷人。（出《太平廣記》）

按：本文是我昨晚在Quora上看到的，中文部分是我的譯文。

Have any one ever seen mermaid?

I have this uncle who is a decorated war veteran and has served in the Indian Army for 20+ years.

我有位在戰爭中授過勛的老兵叔叔，曾在印度軍隊里服役了20多年。

He is very stern but soft spoken, vegetarian, usually calm with a hue of arrogance and he has never touched alcohol in his life- ever.

他為人非常嚴厲，但講話卻很柔和，還是位素食主義者，並且終身滴酒不沾，總是喜怒哀樂不形於色，有點兒高冷的樣子。

He retired as a Major and has taken part in a couple of wars.

在參加過幾次戰爭之後，以少校軍銜退役。

One of the combat operations involved fighting in the jungles of Assam, which was used as a hideout by the infamous ULFA terrorist group.

其中有次作戰是在Assam(註：印度東北部的邦)叢林里開展，那裡還曾是臭名昭著的ULFA恐怖組織的窩點。

This was back in the 1990』s, My uncle along with a handful of men were entrusted with the task of setting up a radio transmission center in the aforementioned area and were busy installing the equipments when a group of militants ambushed them.

那是在1990年，叔叔帶了一些人去Assam叢林里執行任務，準備在那建立一個無線傳輸中心，但在安裝設備的過程當中，遭到了一群激進分子的伏擊。

They were scattered, outnumbered and badly injured. My uncle took a couple of bullets to his thighs and was bleeding profusely.

由於他們寡不敵眾，各自都失了聯，並且還受了重傷。叔叔大腿中了幾槍，血流如注。

He couldn"t focus any more, but was firing nonetheless, the last thing he remembered was tripping and falling into a nearby lake and drowning.

他有點挺不住了，但仍硬撐著作戰，再之後就意識模糊了，只記得好像被什麼絆倒，接著便溺進了旁邊的湖裡。

Then a couple of flashes, he has vague memory of what happened next. Two mermaids, he describes, part human-part fish, caught him by his hands and pulled him ashore. He lost consciousness soon afterwards.

但對接下來發生的事，他仍有些模糊的記憶，眼前曾閃出一些畫面，他這樣描述道，當時只見兩隻半人半魚的美人魚，抓起了他的手，一直把他推送到岸上，再之後他就徹底失去了意識。

He woke up the next day in a nearby village, and was told by the villagers that they found him unconscious and barely breathing, so they carried him there, bandaged his wounds and waited for him to wake up.

等到第二天他醒來的時候，發現自己已經身在附近的村子裡。村民們告訴他，他被發現的時候已經快沒呼吸了，於是便把他抬到村裡，並給他包紮了傷口，只等他醒來。

They informed his battalion about his condition and before leaving the village he described his encounter to the village chieftain, who in turn assured him that he wasn"t dreaming and that the locals have seen and at times have been rescued by these mermaids.

他們還將叔叔的情況通知到了他的部下。在叔叔離開村子之前，他將他遇到美人魚的經歷告訴了村長，沒想到村長竟很肯定地告訴他，這不是在做夢，因為當地村民們也都見過，有幾次甚至也被這些美人魚們搭救過。

Now, was he dreaming/hallucinating or was it a case of real life encounter?

現在回想，叔叔那次到底是在做夢/幻覺，還是真實的經歷呢？

You be the judge.

請您自行判斷。

He isn"t boastful or known to lie. He doesn"t drink or has any history of substance abuse. He was sent home to recover from these injuries and had to undergo a surgery, aunt tells me that he narrated this incident to her the very night he arrived home.

我們這眾所周知，叔叔並不是那種喜歡吹牛說謊的人，他也從不飲酒，也沒有任何濫用精神性藥物的經歷。當時他被送回家進行治療，必須要進行手術，阿姨告訴我，當晚叔叔一回到家，就把他遇到美人魚的經歷跟阿姨講了。

A couple of his friends were martyred that day, so a part of the story did really happen.

他有幾個朋友還在那天的戰鬥中犧牲了，所以可以知道，至少有部分情節是真實發生過的。

This was one of my favourite stories as a kid. He never talks about this in the public or during family gatherings.

這是我兒時最喜愛的故事之一，不過叔叔從不在公開場合或家庭聚會上講這件事。

This one time though, when his grandchildren pressured him into narrating the incident, i could clearly see that he was disturbed, as if a part of him was struggling to acknowledge what happened on that day.

但有一次呢，他的幾個孫子非纏著他要他講，當時我能很明顯看出他內心的不安，好像是在沉重地回想當年那不堪回首的往事。

Do I believe his account of the events?

那麼，對於他所講的美人魚的故事，我到底是信還是不信呢？

Well, Umm... Yes!

嗯...我是相信的。