Appreciation of Foreign Fairy Tales "[British] James Barry Pan (Excerpt)"

Appreciation of Foreign Fairy Tales "[British] James Barry Pan (Excerpt)"

[British] James Barry

Chapter 4 Flight

"The second road on the right, keep going until daybreak."

This is the road Peter told Wendy to go to Neverland. But even if the bird carries a map and looks for it at every wind corner, it cannot be found by following the route it indicates. You know, Peter just said whatever came to his mind.

At first his companions were convinced of him, and flying was so much fun that they spent a lot of time flying around the spire of the chapel or other interesting tall objects along the way.

John and Michael competed to see who could fly faster, and Michael was ahead.

Recalling that they thought they were heroes just now because they could fly around the room, I feel so ridiculous now.

It was not long ago, but how long? Just after they flew over a sea, this question made Wendy feel uneasy. John thought this was the second sea and third night they had flown over.

Sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's bright; sometimes it's cold, and sometimes it's too hot. I don’t know if they are really hungry sometimes or if they are pretending to be hungry. Because Peter had such a novel and interesting way to find food for them. His method was to chase the birds that had edible things in their mouths and snatch the food from their mouths. So the bird chased it and took it back. In this way, they chased each other happily for several miles; at last, they expressed their kindness to each other and parted. But, Wendy noted with mild concern, Peter seemed unaware of the strangeness of this method of foraging, or even of other ways of foraging.

Of course, they want to sleep, they are not pretending, they are really sleepy. That's dangerous, because as soon as they take a nap, they plummet. The bad thing is, Peter thinks it's funny.

When Michael fell like a stone, Peter shouted happily: "Look, he's fallen again!"

"Save him, save him! "Wendy shouted, looking at the turbulent sea below, frightened. At the end, just when Michael was about to fall into the sea, Peter swooped down from mid-air and caught Michael. His hands are really beautiful. But he always waits until the last moment to use this move. You feel that he is interested in showing off his skills rather than saving people's lives. And he likes to change his tricks. He likes to play one kind of game for a while, but gets tired of it after a while. It's likely that the next time you go down, he'll leave you alone.

Peter can sleep in the air without falling. He can float just by lying on his back. But that's at least partly because he's so light that if you blow on him, he'll drift faster.

When they were playing the game of "keep up with the boss", Wendy whispered to John, "You have to be polite to him."

"Then tell him not to show off. ." John said.

It turned out that when they were playing "Follow the Head", Peter flew close to the water and touched the tail of each shark with his hands as he flew, just like you would touch the iron railings with your fingers on the street. . They couldn't learn this trick, so it was like he was showing off, especially because he kept looking over his shoulder to see how many shark tails they missed.

"You have to be nice to him," Wendy warned her brothers. "What will we do if he abandons us?"

"We can go back. ." Michael said.

"Without him, how would we know the way back?"

"Then we can fly forward." John said.

"That's bad, John. We just keep flying because we don't know how to stop."

That's true, Peter forgot to tell How they stopped.

John said that if the bad luck came to an end, they would just keep flying forward, because the earth is round, and they would always be able to fly to their own window.

"But who will find us food, John?"

"We deftly snatched a morsel from the eagle's beak, Wendy."

p>

"You got it after you took it away twenty times," Wendy reminded him, "Just say we can get food. If he wasn't there to take care of us, we would hit the clouds or something." ”

Really, they run into these things all the time. They were flying vigorously now, although their legs were still kicking a little too much; but if they saw a cloud in front of them, the more they tried to avoid it, the more they had to hit it. If Nana had been here, she would have tied a bandage on Michael's forehead.

Peter was not flying with them now, and they felt strangely lonely in the air. He flies much faster than they do, so he can suddenly disappear somewhere else and have some fun, which they don't get. He would fly down laughing at some hilarious joke he had told a star, but he had forgotten what it was. Sometimes he flew up again, with the mermaid scales still attached to his body, but he couldn't tell what happened. The children who had never seen a mermaid were really annoyed.

"If he forgets it so quickly," Wendy reasoned, "how can we expect him to always remember us?"

Indeed, sometimes when he comes back I don't recognize them, at least not clearly. Wendy knew that this must be the case. During the day, he was flying past them and when he was about to fly away, Wendy saw a look of recognition in his eyes. At one point, she even had to tell him her name.

"I'm Wendy." she called anxiously.

Peter is sorry. "I say, Wendy," he whispered to her, "if you see me forgetting you, just keep saying 'I am Wendy' and I will remember you."

Of course, this is not very satisfying. However, to make up for it, he taught them how to lie flat on a gust of wind blowing in the same direction. This change is really exciting. After trying it a few times, they can sleep like this safely. They wanted to sleep a little longer, but Peter soon got tired of sleeping, and he immediately shouted in a captain's tone, "We're going to get down here." In this way, although there were some small quarrels along the way, there was always It was joyful for them, they finally flew close to Neverland. Because, after many months, they really flew there; and they kept flying straight towards it, not entirely because Peter and Tink were leading the way, but because the islands were looking at them. Only in this way can one see those magical shores.

"Right there," Peter said quietly.

"Where, where?"

"Where all the arrows point."

Really, a million golden arrows for the child They pointed out the location of the island. Those arrows are all shot by their friend, the sun. Before night comes, the sun lets them know the way.

Wendy, John and Michael stood on tiptoe in the air to see the island for the first time. Oddly enough, they recognized it at once, and before they felt frightened, they cheered loudly at it. They felt that the island was not like something they had finally seen after dreaming about it for a long time, but like an old acquaintance that they could see when they returned home from vacation.

"John, that's the lagoon."

"Wendy, look at those turtles burying their eggs in the sand."

"I said, John, I See your flamingo with a broken leg."

"Look, Michael, that's your cave."

"John, what's in the bush?"

"That's a wolf with its pup. Wendy, I believe that's your pup."

"That's my boat over there, John , the sides of the ship were broken.

"

"No, that's not it. We burned your ship. "

"Anyway, that's the boat. John, I see the smoke coming out of the Indian camp. "

"Where? Tell me, see how the smoke bends, and I can tell you whether they will fight. ”

“Right there, next to the mysterious river. "

"I saw it, yes, they were preparing for war. "

Peter was a little annoyed that they knew so much; and if he tried to show off in front of them, he succeeded quickly, for, didn't I tell you, they soon became frightened?

When the golden arrow disappeared and the island became dark, fear gripped them.

When they were at home, they would feel homeless every time they went to bed. It looked a bit dark and scary. At this time, some unexplored desolate areas appeared on the island, and they were expanding more and more; black shadows were shaking there; the roars of man-eating beasts did not sound loud. Same. Especially, you lost confidence in victory. When the night light was brought in, you felt very happy. You were even willing to listen to Nana and say that it was just a fireplace and Neverland was just a figment of their imagination.

Of course, Neverland was imaginary when I was at home, but now, it is real. The night light is gone and the sky is getting darker. Where is Nana?

They were originally flying around, but now they were all closely gathered around Peter. Peter's nonchalant look finally disappeared, and his eyes were shining every time they touched his body. There was a slight vibration in their bodies. They were flying very low on that terrible island, and sometimes the treetops brushed against their feet. However, they were flying higher and higher. Slowly, it became more and more difficult, as if they had to push away something hostile to move forward. Sometimes, they stopped in mid-air and had to wait for Peter to hit them with his fist before they could move.

"They don't want us to land," Peter explained.

"Who are they?" Wendy asked, shuddering.

But Peter couldn't tell, or didn't want to. Said. Ding Ding had fallen asleep on his shoulder, but now he woke her up and told her to fly ahead.

Sometimes he stopped in the air and put his hands to his ears and listened carefully; Then he looked down again, his eyes so bright that he wanted to drill two holes into the ground. After doing this, he flew forward again.

Peter's courage is really surprising. "You want to go there now." "How about adventure," he said to John accidentally, "or do you want to have tea first?"

Wendy quickly said "eat tea first", and Michael squeezed her hand gratefully, but, more Brave John hesitated.

"What kind of adventure?" he asked cautiously.

"On the grassland below us sleeps a pirate," said Peter. He said, “If you want, we can go down and kill him. "

"I didn't see him. " John paused for a while and said.

"I saw it. "

"What if," John said hoarsely, "what if he wakes up?"

Peter said angrily, "You think I killed him while he was asleep? Him? I want to wake him up first and then kill him. That's what I've always done. "

"Have you killed many pirates?"

"Tons of pirates. "

John said: "That's awesome. "But he decided to have tea first. He asked Peter if there were many pirates on the island now. Peter said, there were many, there had never been so many.

"Who is the captain now? "

"Hook. " answered Peter; his face fell at the mention of this hateful name.

"James Hook?"

"Yes.

"

So Michael really started to cry, and even John choked when he spoke, because they had heard about Hook's bad reputation for a long time.

"He is the Blackbeard Water At hand," John whispered hoarsely, "he is the most vicious one, and Babic is afraid of him alone. "

"That's him. " said Peter.

"What does he look like? Is he big?"

"He's not as big as he used to be. "

"How to say?"

"I cut off a piece from him. "

"You?"

"That's right, me," Peter snapped.

"I mean no disrespect to you. "

"Ah, it's okay. "

"Then... which piece of him should be cut off?"

"His right hand. "

"Then he can't fight now?"

"Can't he still fight?"

"Left-handed?"

"Instead of his right hand he used an iron hook①, with which he grasped. "

"Catch?"

"I said, John. "Peter said.

"Yeah. ”

“Say ‘yes, yes, sir’. ”

“Yes, yes, sir. "

"There is one thing," Peter continued. "Every child who works under me must promise me, so you must promise too. "

John's face turned pale.

"The thing is, if we fight Hook, you have to leave him to me to deal with him. "

"I agree. " John said obediently.

At this time, they didn't feel so eerie anymore, because Dingding flew with them, and they could see each other under her light. Unfortunately, she couldn't fly. As slow as they were, she had to fly around them in a circle, like a halo on the head of the icon. But then Peter pointed out the shortcomings. p>

"She told me," said Peter, "that the pirates had seen us before dark and had dragged Long Tom out. "

"Is it a cannon?"

"Yes. Of course they can see the tinkling light. If they guess that we are near the light, they will definitely open fire on us. "

"Wendy!"

"John!"

"Michael!"

"Tell Ding Ding to go away immediately. Peter. "The three people shouted at the same time, but Peter refused.

"She thought we were lost," Peter replied stubbornly, "She was a little scared. How do you think I could send her away alone when she is scared!"

In an instant, the circle of light was broken, and something gave Peter a gentle squeeze.

"Then tell her," pleaded Wendy, "to put out her light. "

"She can't be put out. That's probably the only thing that immortals can't do. It can only extinguish naturally when she sleeps, like a star. "

"Then tell her to go to bed immediately. " John said almost commandingly.

"She can't sleep unless she's sleepy. This is another thing that immortals cannot do. "

"The way I see it," John shouted, "the only two things worth doing. "

As he said this, he received a pinch, not a friendly one.

"If only one of us had a pocket," said Peter, "then we could Put her in your pocket. "However, they set off in a hurry, and the four of them didn't have a pocket.

Peter came up with a clever idea, John's hat.

Ting-Ding agrees to travel by hat, if the hat is in hand. The hat was held by John, although Tinker wanted it to be held by Peter. After a while, Wendy took the hat over because John said it touched his knees as he flew. This can lead to trouble, as we will see below. Because Dingding doesn’t want to accept Wendy’s favor.

The bright light was completely hidden in the black hat, and they continued to fly forward quietly. They had never experienced such deep silence, except for the occasional sound of tongues licking in the distance. Peter said that it was wild animals drinking water by the river; sometimes he heard a rustling sound, which might be the rubbing of branches. But, Peter said, it was the Indians sharpening their knives.

Even these voices ceased. Michael thought the silence was terrible. "If only there was some noise!" he shouted.

As if in answer to his request, a loud noise he had never heard before erupted in the air. The pirates opened fire on them.

The sound of artillery echoed in the mountains, and the echo seemed to scream wildly: "Where are they? Where are they? Where are they?"

Three scared men Only then did the broken child become acutely aware of how different an imaginary island was from a real island.

After the sky calmed down, John and Michael found that they were alone in the darkness. John stepped on the air unintentionally, and Michael was floating even though he was not floating.

"Have you been hit by the cannon?" John asked in a trembling voice.

"I haven't tasted it yet." Michael replied in a low voice.

We now know that no one was hit by the cannon. However, Peter was blown far out to sea by the gust of wind from the cannon, and Wendy was blown above. No one was around, only Ding Ding was with her. At this point, it would be nice if Wendy dropped her hat.

I don’t know if Dingding suddenly thought of it or if she was planning it all the way. She immediately got out of the hat and lured Wendy to her death.

Ding Ding is not completely bad; in other words, she is only bad at this moment. But at other times, she was wonderful. Immortals are either this way or that way because their bodies are too small. Unfortunately, they can only tolerate one emotion at a time. They can change; but to change, they must change completely. At this time, she was obsessed with jealousy of Wendy. Of course Wendy could not understand the lovely tinkling sound of her words; I believe that some of what she said were unpleasant, but her voice was very kind; and she flew back and forth, clearly telling Wendy, "Follow me." I'll come and everything will be fine."

Poor Wendy, what could she do? She called to Peter, John, and Michael, and all she got in reply were mocking echoes. She didn't know yet that Ding Ding hated her, as viciously as a real woman. So, she was confused, flying around, following Ding Ding towards her doom.

(Translated by Yang Jingyuan and Gu Geng)

Notes:

① Hook’s original word Hook means hook. ——Translation Note

"Peter Pan" is the masterpiece of the famous British writer James Barrie. It was performed in London as a drama after Christmas in 1904. Since then, the play has been performed in London every year on this day; Later, the author changed it to a fairy tale and published it, which was widely and warmly welcomed by Western young readers.

The plot of "Peter Pan" is very interesting. It tells the story of three children in Mr. Darling's family who could not withstand the temptation of the mysterious wild boy Peter Pan who flew from the sky. I learned how to fly, and while my parents were away, I flew out of the window overnight and flew to the strange "Never Island". This island has both ferocious beasts, "red men" from primitive tribes, terrible pirates, and of course fairies and mermaids. In short, everything that often appears in children's dreams and fantasies is here. ; so there were hunts with wild beasts, real wars between red men and pirates, or between children and pirates.

The children were separated from adults, unrestrained and free. Under the leadership of Peter Pan, they handled everything on their own, played to their heart's content, and experienced various dangers. As the author said in the book: "In their view, they can still live happily without their mothers. Only mothers believe that children cannot live without their mothers." But later, these children who ran away from home - Especially the eldest sister, Wendy, began to miss her mother. Under her mobilization, the children said goodbye to the "Never Island" that had brought them infinite joy and flew back home. Later they all grew up. Only Peter Pan never grows up and never goes home. He is always flying around, taking generations of children away from their families and letting them enjoy the freedom and joy of childhood on the "Never Island". The last sentence of the work reads: "As long as children are happy, innocent, and carefree, they can fly to Never Island."

In this work, There are three groups of images that deserve double attention:

The first is children learning to fly. The child in the story can easily fly, as long as Peter comes and gives a little guidance. They first learned to fly around the house, and soon they were able to fly out of the window and fly across the sea and blue sky. No one could stop them. This is true not only of Mr. Darling's three children, but also of all the children. When Wendy grew up, her daughter Jenny quickly learned to fly as soon as she met Peter Pan. There was an interesting conversation between Wendy and Jenny:

"That was a long time ago, honey," Wendy said, "Oh, time flies so fast, like flying Same!"

"Will time fly?" Jenny asked smartly, "Does it fly like it did when you were a child?"

"Yes, you know, Jenny, I Sometimes I wonder if I have really flown."

"Of course you have flown."

"But where are those cute times that can fly? "

"Mom, why can't you fly now?"

"Because I grow up, good boy. When people grow up, they forget how to fly. "

"Why did you forget?"

"Because they no longer have the joy of children. They have lost their innocence and have thoughts. There is only joy, innocence and carelessness. Only those who think can fly."...

The second group of images is the place where most of the stories in the work take place - Never Island. It's a mysterious environment, a place where children's fantasies come true. Regarding everything on the island, the author writes seriously and conclusively, as if it is really happening; but this seriousness has an obvious childish tone. For example, the description of a child named Tutus from Never Island: "In this brave team, he is not the most timid, but he is unlucky. He has not participated in as many battles as others, because he is always on The fighting happened when he had already walked over and just turned the corner. His companions fought without making a sound. He didn't know anything about it, so he just walked away to collect firewood and waited for him to come back. I had already cleaned up the blood stains there. This bad luck made Tutus very sad..." Is this just Tutus's regret? What little boy has never vividly described a fierce battle in his imagination? They Most of them have never participated in a real battle, and most of their lives are too peaceful, so they always imagine that the battle is happening near them, behind them that they cannot see, or around the corner of the house... When he rushes away, everything changes. All gone. It's difficult for children to distinguish between imagination and reality, so Tutus's regret is the tragedy of little boys around the world. The entire mysterious story of Never Island exists in such a way that seems real and illusory. However, Neverland is only accessible to children, and adults will never be able to find it.

The third group of images is the magical boy Peter Pan. Peter Pan first lives in the hearts of children, and also partially remains in the childhood memories of adults. His strangest characteristic is that he hates adults, never interacts with adults, and grins with hatred whenever he sees an adult.

Adults can't play with him, let alone get into his heart. Although he is so separated from adults, children are always close to him and make him the "King of Children". Peter Pan was so playful, and new tricks came to his mind from time to time, and he never let go of any happy thoughts. Even when he was leading Wendy and the others to fly to Never Island, he had to One moment, they flew high into the sky and joked with the stars. Another moment, they flew to the sea to play with the mermaid (when they came back, they still had the mermaid’s scales on their bodies). Another moment, they taught everyone to lie on their backs and glide on the back of the wind. The next moment, they asked John if he wanted to go first. Go down with him and kill a pirate before continuing to fly... Peter is so brave, protecting the children who have run away from home on Never Island, overcoming various sudden dangers again and again, and finally defeating the pretending to be a pirate. Captain Hook, the fearsome pirate leader with an iron hook. But Peter was so careless and forgetful. Sometimes he couldn't even explain the battle that had just happened, but he was thinking about new things. Several times he forgot the names of his friends as soon as he turned around, which made others very upset. Happy. The most interesting thing is that when girls expressed their love to him, he was so stupid that he didn't understand anything and only thought that they wanted to be his mother. This made Wendy and the fairy Ting-Ding so angry that they called him a "fool". He's such a real kid.

So, what kind of inspiration do these sets of images give us?

First of all, "Peter Pan" does not look like a real story, but more like a children's story. An illusion weaved in your own mind. The more you examine the real scenes with "love and restraint" there, the more they will melt away and turn into a virtual realm that seems to be nothing. Whether it is the ability to fly that only children can easily learn, whether it is the war on Never Island and all the thrilling and enjoyable experiences, or whether it is the mysterious and seductive wild child Peter Pan, they can only be achieved when children believe in them. will exist. Although they were so convinced when they were children, as they grow older, they all doubt the stories they thought they existed. In other words, all this only exists in the child's mind. Isn't the heart of a child a secret and distant "Never Island"?

Secondly, since all these stories are woven from the hearts of children, then, this is like a "Never Island" Being ignored by adults, just like Peter Pan has a natural aversion to adults, children's minds are (at least a considerable part of them) naturally repulsive to adults. Within a certain age, they long to have this little independent kingdom in their hearts. They have to have their own fantasies, their own games, their own adventures and fears, and their own joy of success. They need to "fly" away from their homes temporarily or at least in their imagination, break away from the constraints of adult wings, and fly on their own. As the book says: "Isn't that what children are like? They can just leave without any hesitation and have fun outside. They can come back at any time when they need their parents...their love for their mothers They have such a firm belief that it doesn't matter how long they play outside. "Adults often only remember their love and their responsibilities, but cannot understand children's play and need to play. In the most essential sense, it is the same as the "pure play spirit" of the urchins. This makes this "Peter Pan" have the nature of a "childhood declaration of independence".

Thirdly, although children's independent, adult-excluding, and conflicting ways of playing with the love and responsibility of their parents and elders are difficult for adults to understand and accept (and are often even interfered with by adults) , restriction or reprimand), however, they are not only reasonable, but also very beautiful. ——Barry confirmed this with the great aesthetic value of his works and its enduring charm. This independent "pure play spirit" is in line with the nature of children, and childhood is also real life, so it is also in line with the nature of "people" (even if they are not adults yet). This is also the most fundamental source of the aesthetic value of this immortal masterpiece.

(Liu Xuyuan)