大洪水

大洪水

The Flood

在很久很久以前，有一个名叫丢卡利翁的人，他是普罗米修斯的儿子。他只是一个普通人，不是像他伟大的父亲那样的泰坦神，但他做的好事和他正直的生活却远近闻名。

In those very early times there was a man named Deucalion, and he was the son of Prometheus. He was only a common man and not a Titan like his great father, and yet he was known far and wide for his good deeds and the uprightness of his life.

他的妻子名叫皮拉，她是人类女子中最美丽的女子之一。

His wife’s name was Pyrrha, and she was one of the fairest of the daughters of men.

在朱庇特把普罗米修斯绑在高加索山上，并把疾病和烦恼降到人间之后，人类变得非常非常邪恶。

After Jupiter had bound Prometheus on Mount Caucasus and had sent diseases and cares into the world, men became very, very wicked.

他们不再盖房子，不再放牧羊群，也不再和平相处；相反，每个人都和邻居打仗，整个大地上既没有法律，也没有安全。

They no longer built houses and tended their flocks and lived together in peace; but every man was at war with his neighbor, and there was no law nor safety in all the land.

现在的情况比普罗米修斯来到人类中间之前要糟糕得多，而这正是朱庇特想要的。

Things were in much worse case now than they had been before Prometheus had come among men, and that was just what Jupiter wanted.

但随着世界一天比一天变得更邪恶，他开始对看到这么多的流血、听到被压迫者和穷人的哭喊感到厌烦了。

But as the world became wickeder and wickeder every day, he began to grow weary of seeing so much bloodshed and of hearing the cries of the oppressed and the poor.

“这些人，”他对身边强大的同伴们说，“不过是麻烦的源头。

“These men,” he said to his mighty company, “are nothing but a source of trouble.

当他们善良快乐的时候，我们担心他们会变得比我们更强大；而现在他们坏得如此可怕，我们面临的危险比以前更大了。

When they were good and happy, we felt afraid lest they should become greater than ourselves; and now they are so terribly wicked that we are in worse danger than before.

对待他们只有一种办法，那就是把他们每一个人都消灭掉。”

There is only one thing to be done with them, and that is to destroy them every one.”

于是他把一场大暴雨降到大地上，暴雨下了很长时间，白天黑夜都不停；大海都满了，水流过陆地，先淹没了平原，接着淹没了森林，然后淹没了山丘。

So he sent a great rain-storm upon the earth, and it rained day and night for a long time; and the sea was filled to the brim, and the water ran over the land and covered first the plains and then the forests and then the hills.

但即使在大雨倾盆、海水漫上陆地的时候，人们还是继续互相打斗和抢劫。

But men kept on fighting and robbing, even while the rain was pouring down and the sea was coming up over the land.

除了普罗米修斯的儿子丢卡利翁，没有人为这样的风暴做好准备。

No one but Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, was ready for such a storm.

他从来没有参与过身边那些人的坏事，并且常常告诉他们，如果不改掉邪恶的做法，最终一定会遭到报应的。

He had never joined in any of the wrong doings of those around him, and had often told them that unless they left off their evil ways there would be a day of reckoning in the end.