Dalyan  德陽

 

   德陽是愛琴海邊一個小鎮﹐因為臨海﹐又有一條長滿蘆葦的河流過﹐很是悠閒。剛下榻﹐找到自己的房間安頓好﹐推開窗一看﹐哇﹐那對面山上一排是什麼東西﹐太陽把它照得發紅﹐紅得透明﹐紅得詭異﹗怎麼導遊沒提呢﹖別處也沒見過宣傳的圖片﹖

Dalyan is a little town on the shore of Aegean Sea.  Nestled along the seashore and with a river full of reeds flowing through it, the town appeared in a leisure mood.  I opened the window after I checked in and settled down in my room.  Wow!  What was the thing across the mountain in front of me?  It looked red, translucent and strange under the sun!  Why was that we had neither been told about it by our tour guide nor had we seen any promotional pictures about this place?

 啥事都放下﹐決定出去探究竟。 

I decided to put down everything and go out to take a look. 

搭上小渡船到對岸﹐這山岩裡有好多這種石墓。 有的在崖壁﹐有的在平地。貴族或大戶人家的墓就鑿在高崖﹐階級低的就鑿在山下。原來五里路外還有一個古城廢墟Kaunos﹐是六世紀建的﹐也有衛城(Acropolis)。但天色已晚﹐不便繼續走﹐於是渡船回旅館。

	Taking a small ferry I reached the other side of the river.  There are many kinds of rock tombs carved into the cliff face of the mountain -- some on the very walls of the cliff and some on the flatter ledges.  The tombs of the royalty or the rich were built near the top of the cliff, while those for the lower classes near the foot of the mountain.  Kaunos, another ruin of an ancient town built in the 6th Century with an acropolis, lies 5 kilometers away.  But I decided not to continue to walk there as the evening was approaching.  I returned to the hotel by ferry.

團裡包了一條船﹐在天剛亮的時候出游於蘆葦蕩﹐寂靜的河上﹐只有船滑過的輕柔水波聲﹐還有幾隻被驚動的水鳥撲撲飛開﹐世界靜得如此安詳美好。

The group started touring the river early next morning in a chartered boat.  We were moving near the reeds along the river.  The river was quiet and I could only hear the sound of the gentle waves as the boat sliding over them.  We startled a few water birds, who fluttered away gracefully.   The world was so quiet and peaceful.

看那遠處成了一條金線的蘆葦蕩，小河終於流入海。

As the reeds gradually turned into a golden band in my sight, the little river finally met the sea.

其實德陽有名的是愛琴海瀕臨絕種的大海龜(赤蠵龜loggerhead turtles) ﹔還有天然的泥漿泉。
Actually, Dalyan is well known for its loggerhead turtles, an endangered species in the nearby Aegean Sea, and its natural mud spring.

 團裏的小伙子領先下到泥漿泉，“過來呀，怕什麽！“

大家在泥漿泉裏泡，泡完了就到旁邊的溫泉洗一洗。

 路過一所小學，他們正在唱國歌。小朋友立正站好，老師在臺上指揮。多麽熟悉的情景，那不是我小時候上學的樣子嗎？耳邊竟響起了“青天白日滿地紅...”。
As I was passing an elementary school, I heard students singing the national anthem.  The children were standing in attention following the direction of a teacher on stage.  What a familiar scene!  Wasn’t this just like when I was a child in school?  In my ears I heard the tune “The sky is blue, the sun is bright, our country is shining red, …”   

魔眼(evil eye)到處都挂，到處都賣。許多文化裏都有它的傳説。土耳其尤其盛行，它是一種護符吧。守護你的健康，財富，美貌不被嫉妒而遭毀。

每次旅行縂要出點事。這次出了什麽事呢？哎，這次被野狗咬了！幾十年在外旅行，這是頭一次被狗咬。

It is just my luck that some kind of accident occurred every time I travel.  What happened this time then?  Well, a stray dog bit me.  I have been traveling for decades, but this was the first time I have been bitten by a dog.

那天清早，天剛亮我就出門去照相。一個人沿著小河走。正聚精會神地拍這棵樹上的葉子，忽然大腿被咬了一口，回頭一看，一條狗飛奔而去。“會吠的狗不咬人“，這隻混賬狗一聲不吭，咬了人就逃。我按住傷口趕快回去檢查。這是三月天，清晨蠻冷的，我穿了兩條長褲，還好，兩根狗牙只插進了一點，沒有把肉咬開。但我的土耳其領隊堅持我非去醫院不可。到了醫院，擦葯打針還不夠，醫生說每隔兩天還要再打，連續打三針。

That morning I went out for a photo session at daybreak on a footpath along the little river.  As I concentrated on taking a shot of the leaves of a tree, suddenly I felt my thigh was bitten.  Reflexively, I turned around to see what had happened.  There I saw a dog rushing away from me.  Indeed the saying which goes “dogs which bark don’t bite” is true.   This rascal dog bit me and ran away without uttering even a sound.  I pressed on my wound and quickly returned to the hotel to better examine it.  This was March, quite cold in the early morning, so I was wearing two layers of long trousers.  Luckily, no part of my bare skin was exposed, so I was only stabbed slightly by two teeth marks of the dog  My Turkish tour guide insisted that I go to the hospital.  In the hospital the wound was dressed with medication and I was given a shot for rabies.   But this was not the end of it.  The doctor said I would need subsequent shot every third day for three more times.

以後幾天，團裏的人就被我拖累了，每兩天我們的車就開著全隊的人去找醫院，找到醫院，等我打完針才繼續前進。 等到第十天，看我沒有異樣（口吐白沫或瘋言瘋語），大家就放心了。

For the next few days, I felt like I was slowing down the group. Every third day, the entire group riding on the coach would look for a hospital for me to get my rabies shots before we could get on our regular schedule.  It was only after the 10^th day, when I still looked normal (not spitting up white foam or talking incoherently), people felt relieved.

不知什麼原因﹐這次旅行拍了好些狗照片。記得十幾年前﹐我帶女兒旅行﹐到了莫斯科﹐她指著滿街跑的狗問我﹕媽媽﹐為什麼這裡的狗不on leash (不被人牽)﹖我答不出來﹐就對她說﹕出門要多看人﹐不要看狗，人比較好看。但她回來對人津津樂道的﹐仍然是蘇俄的狗比美國的狗自由，不被人牽。

I don’t know why I took so many pictures of dogs on this trip.  About 10 or more years ago when I was traveling around Moscow with my daughter, we saw many dogs running around on the streets.  She pointed at these dogs and asked, “Mom, why are they not on leash?”  I wasn't able to give her an answer, but said to her, “Look at the people instead of the dogs.  People are more interesting.”  But still, what she liked to talk about after the trip was how free the dogs were in Soviet Russia as compared to dogs in the United States. 

土耳其也到處是自由自在的狗，大搖大擺進出公共場所。你看這些漂亮的懷孕狗﹐牠們會生幾隻啊﹖說來也怪﹐這些狗是我在亞底米(胸前掛滿乳房的女神)神廟附近看到的，妙吧？

	In Turkey, you can also see that the dogs are free.  They move around in public places without restraint.  Look at these beautiful pregnant dogs and guess how many puppies will they have?  Ironically, these dogs were near the temple of Artemis (the goddess depicted with many breasts on her chest).  Wouldn’t you say this was an interesting coincidence?                               (Translated by Paul Ho)

亞底米 - 烏菲玆美術館的一座雕像底座。
在意大利的佛羅倫斯（張讓提供）