希腊神话里的水仙

  Narcissus：from a story，calls"Narcissus and Echo"。

         Long ago a beautiful boy named Narcissus was born. An oracle told his mother that he could live forever, but only if he never saw his reflection.

         Echo, a nymph, used to be the goddess Juno's servant. Echo liked to gossip, and often told lies about the gods. One day, Juno became angry and sent Echo away to live in the forest, saying, "As punishment for your lies, from this day forward you will only be able to repeat what others have spoken."

          One day Echo saw Narcissus. She fell in love with him at first sight. Echo quietly began to follow him. How she longed to be able to say, "I love you." She started to cry.

          Narcissus turned. "Is someone here?"

          "Here," Echo whispered.

          Narcissus saw no one. "Come here," he cried.

          "Come here," Echo answered.

          Now the young man was angry. "Who are you? What do you want?"

          The nymph rushed from her hiding place and tried to kiss him, but Narcissus pushed her away. "No! Go away! I will die before I love you!"

          "I love you!" she answered, her heart broken.

          Narcissus ran away. He reached a stream. When he leaned over to take a drink, he saw his beautiful face reflected in the water. He had never seen his reflection before, so he thought that his reflection must be someone who lived in the stream. He fell in love with this beautiful person.

          He leaned over to kiss the person in the stream, but when he did, the person vanished.

          "Come back," Narcissus cried, but every time he tried to kiss his love, the reflection disappeared. Narcissus could not bear to leave his love, and so he began to waste away. Finally, he died.

           Echo, too, wasted away, leaving behind only her voice. It is Echo's voice that sometimes answers us in the mountains.

           Narcissus' body disappeared, and in its place beside the stream grew some beautiful flowers with silvery-green leaves and golden petals. These flowers have been known ever since as narcissus.

           another way of saying：A youth who pined away in love for his own image in a pool of water and was transformed into the flower that bears his name.

[译文]
那西塞司：来源于一个叫“那西塞司与回声”的故事。
   很久以前，有一个名叫那西塞司的漂亮的小男孩出生了。一个神使告诉她的妈妈：“如果他永远看不到他的倒影，他将会得到永生。”
   回声女仙是司婚姻女神的一个女仆。回声喜欢闲言碎语，而且经常向上帝撒谎。一天，司婚姻女神指气愤的把回声带进了森林，说：“从今天开始，你只能重复别人说过的话”。
   一天，回声看到了那西塞司，她对他一见钟情，回声开始悄悄地跟着他。她多么渴望能够说：“我爱你”。她喊了起来。
   那西塞司传过身说：“有人在这里？“
   “这里”回声底声回答。
   那西塞司没有看到任何人，“过来”他喊道。
   “过来”，回声回答。
   这时，那西塞司生气了：“你是谁？你要干什么？”
   女仙冲出她的藏身之地并试图吻他，但是那西塞司推开了他：“不!走开!在我爱你之前我将会死去!”
   “我爱你!”她说道，她的心碎了。
   那西塞司跑掉了。他来到小河边。当他弯下身子喝水时，他看到了水面上倒映的自己漂亮的面孔，他从来没见过自己的倒影，他以为是住在这河里的某个人。他爱上了这个漂亮的人。
   他俯身去亲吻这个水中人，但是，当他吻到的时候，这个人消失了。
   “回来”，那西塞司喊道，但每当他试图亲吻他爱的人时，倒影就消失了。那西塞司舍不得离开他爱的人，他逐渐的消失，终于，他死了。
   回声也逐渐消失了，只留下她的声音，也就是有时我们在山间说话时的回音。
   那西塞司的身体消失了，在小河的周围，长出了许多漂亮的花，光泽的绿叶，金色的花瓣。这就是自古以来的水仙花。
   另一种说法：一个青年由于对水池中自己形象的眷恋而死去，变成一种以他的名字命名的花朵

Narcissus had a twin sister whom he loved better than any one else in the world. His sister was very beautiful, but died when she was young. Narcissus missed her so much that he wished he might die too.

One day as he sat on the ground by a spring, looking absently into the water and thinking of his lost sister, he saw a face like hers, looking up at him. It seemed as if his sister, had become a water-nymph and were actually there in the spring, but she would not speak to him.

Of course the face Narcissus saw was really the reflection of his own face in the water, but he did not know that. In those days there were no clear mirrors like ours; and the idea of one's appearance that could be got from a polished brass shield, for instance, was a very dim one. So Narcissus leaned over the water and looked at the beautiful face so like his sister's, and wondered what it was and whether he should ever see his sister again.

After this, he came back to the spring day after day and looked at the face he saw there, and mourned for his sister until, at last, the gods felt sorry for him and changed him into a flower. This flower was the first narcissus. All the flowers of this family, when they grow by the side of a pond or a stream, still bend their beautiful heads and look at the reflection of their own faces in the water.

[译文]
那西塞斯有一个孪生妹妹，长得很漂亮。他爱她胜过世上的任何人。可是，他妹妹年纪很小就死了。那西塞斯非常思念她，甚至也想跟她一起去死。

一天，那西塞斯坐在泉水旁，心不在焉地看着水里，心中想念失去的妹妹。正在这时，他在水中看见一张像她妹妹的脸，正抬头看他，好像他妹妹成了水中的仙女，但没有对他说话。

那西塞斯看到的那张脸实际上是他自己的脸在水中的倒影，可他却不知道。那时还没有像我们现在这样明亮的镜子，从光亮的铜制盾牌上得到一个人面容的概念还很模糊。所以，那西塞斯靠在水边看着那张像他妹妹的美丽的面孔感到纳闷，他是不是还能见到自己的妹妹。

此后，他天天到泉水旁注视那张面孔，同时还哀悼他的妹妹。众神为此而感到难过，于是就把他变成了一朵花。这朵花就是第一朵水仙花。这种花长在池塘或溪旁时，仍然低下美丽的头看着水里自己的影子。