∞《想像中的動物》，1969
The Book of Imaginary Beings
博爾赫斯和瑪格麗特·格雷羅 合著
大鵬鳥
大鵬鳥（有時也被稱為鵬）是放大了無數倍的雕或鷲。某些人覺得，它就是阿拉伯人所說的那隻遊蕩在印度洋或中國海之上的大兀鷹。萊恩1擯棄了這種想法，他認為我們討論的更像是個屬於「傳說中的傳說」的物種，抑或是波斯賽末哥鳥的同義詞。《天方夜譚》讓西方人知道了大鵬鳥。讀過的人會想起辛巴達（第二次出海航行時）的故事，他被同船的水手們遺忘在一座島上後，發現：
一座極大的白色圓頂屋矗立前方，周圍廣闊。我繞著它走了一圈，卻找不到什麼門，且因它極其光滑，縱使我使出渾身解數也沒法爬上去。故而，我在所站之處做了個記號；然後繞行一周，量得其周長為五十步有餘。
不多時，一團巨大的雲遮蔽了他頭上的太陽：
我抬起頭來……只見那團雲其實乃是頭碩大無朋的鳥，體格龐大，其翼奇寬……
這鳥就是大鵬鳥，而那白色圓頂屋自然就是它的蛋。辛巴達用頭巾把自己捆到大鵬鳥的腿上，次日一早就被帶著飛走，然後降落到一座山頂上，並且他始終沒驚動到大鵬鳥。敘述者補充說，大鵬鳥以蟒蛇為食——那些蟒蛇則大到一口就能吞下頭大象的地步。
在《馬可·波羅行記》（第三卷，第36章），我們可讀到：
據（馬達加斯加）島上的人傳言，每年的特定季節，一種他們稱為大鵬鳥的奇異鳥類會從南方飛臨此地。這種鳥長得像雕，但身形卻大了無數倍；它如此巨大、如此有力，可以用爪子鉤攫大象，接著騰空而起，將這象從天上摔死，再啄食其屍骸。見過大鵬鳥的人聲稱，當它的翅膀展開時，從翼尖到翼尖的長度足足有十六步；而它的羽毛也有八步之長，厚度相宜2。
馬可·波羅還說，幾個從中國來的使者把大鵬鳥的羽毛帶回去呈獻給了大汗。萊恩的書3裡有幅波斯插畫，描繪了一隻大鵬鳥嘴銜爪攫三頭大象的情形；「恰似老鷹叼田鼠」，伯頓注釋道。
譯註：
1、愛德華·威廉·萊恩（1801-1876），英國東方學家、翻譯家、詞典編纂家，著有《現代埃及風俗習慣》等書，以其譯作刪減本《天方夜譚》、編纂《阿拉伯語－英語大辭典》聞名。
2、此處大鵬鳥的羽翼尺寸與通行的《馬可·波羅行記》相關記載（分別為三十步和十二步）及本書1967年版中引用的內容有差異。
3、指萊恩譯的《天方夜譚》。
大鵬鳥（有時也被稱為鵬）是放大了無數倍的雕或鷲。某些人覺得，它就是阿拉伯人所說的那隻遊蕩在印度洋或中國海之上的大兀鷹。
——博爾赫斯｜姜白 譯
— Reading and Rereading —
—推薦圖書—
The Rukh
Translated by
Norman Thomas di Giovanni
The Rukh (or as it is sometimes given, roc) is a vast magnification of the eagle or vulture, and some people have thought that a condor blown astray over the Indian Ocean or China seas suggested to the Arabs. Lane rejects this idea and considers that we are dealing rather with a 『fabulous species of a fabulous genus』 or with a synonym for the Persian Simurgh. The Rukh is known to the West through the Arabian Nights. The reader will recall that Sindbad (on his second voyage), left behind by his shipmates on an island, found
a huge white dome rising in air and of vast compass. I walked all around it, but found no door thereto, nor could I muster strength or nimbleness by reason of its exceeding smoothness and slipperiness. So I marked the spot where I stood and went round about the dome to measure its circumference which I found fifty good paces.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad ，1958
Moments later, a huge cloud hid the sun from him and
lifting my head…I saw that the cloud was none other than an enormous bird, of gigantic girth and inordinately wide of wing…
The bird was a Rukh and the white dome, of course, was its egg. Sindbad lashes himself to the bird’s leg with his turban, and the nest morning is whisked off into flight and set down on a mountaintop, without having excited the Rukh’s attention. The narrator adds that the Rukh feeds itself on serpents of such great bulk would that they would have made but one gulp of an elephant.、
In Marco Polo’s Travels (III, 36) we read:
The people of the island [of Madagascar] report that at a certain season of the year, an extraordinary kind of bird which they call a rukh, makes its appearance from the southern region. In form it is said to resemble the eagle but it is incomparably greater in size; being so large and strong as to seize an elephant with its talons, and to lift it into the air, from whence it lets it fall to the ground, in order that when dead it may prey upon the carcase. Persons who have seen this bird assert that when the wings are spread they measure sixteen paces in extent, from point to point; and that the feathers are eight paces in length, and thick in proportion.
Marco Polo adds that some envoys from China brought the feather of a Rukh back to the Grand Khan. A Persian illustration in Lane shows the Rukh bearing off three elephants in beak and talons; 『with the proportion of a hawk and field mice』, Burton notes.
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