Perpetual Sleeper, Diana’s Beloved（长眠者—狄安娜的所爱）

王婧雅

    Endymion(人名，恩底弥昂) was a beautiful youth who fed his flock on Mount Latmos. One calm, clear night, Diana（狄安娜，月亮女神）, the Moon, looked down and saw him sleeping. The cold heart of the virgin goddess was warmed by his surpassing beauty, and she came down to him, kissed him, and watched could not long be hidden from the company of Olympus. For more and more frequently she was absent from her station in the sky, and toward morning she was ever paler and more weary with her watching. When, finally, her love was discovered. Jupiter gave Endymion, who had been thus honored, a choice between death in any manner that was preferable, or perpetual（永久的，永恒的） youth united with perpetual sleep. Endymion chose the latter. He still sleeps in his Carian cave, and still the mistress of the moon slips from her nocturnal （夜间的，夜的）course to visit him. Diana, it was said, took care that his fortunes should not suffer by his inactive life, for she made his flock increase and guarded his sheep and lambs from the wild beasts.
    The story of Endymion has a peculiar charm from the human meaning which it so thinly veils. We see in Endymion the young poet, his fancy and his heart seeking in vain for that which can satisfy them, finding his favorite hour in the quiet moon light, and nursing there beneath the beams of the bright and silent witness the melancholy（忧郁地，令人感伤的） and the ardor which consume him. The story suggests aspiring and poetic love, a life spent more in dreams than in reality, and an early and welcome death.
    恩底弥昂是青年诗人的化身。诗人的幻想力与心灵苦苦地寻求着能使它们得到满足的东西。静谧的月夜是他最喜爱的时刻。在那皎洁，缄默的见证人的光照下，他玩味着吞噬他的忧伤和激情。这故事使人想到热切的和富有诗意的爱情，沉湎于遐想的生活，以及心甘情愿的早亡。