卷六·第 281–294 问　纪元间的日数、犹太节日与基督教节日

§281. Is what lies between these eras known?

第二百八十一问　这些纪元之间相隔多少，可以知道吗？

The periods between them, if expressed in years and months, would not be general, because years and months differ; but if they are stated in days the matter is general, because days are common to all years and eras. I have set down the days between the beginnings of the eras in a table shaped like a pulpit, the number standing in the cell common to each two of them, and it comes out with the utmost correctness. How useful it is as an aid to deriving the eras one from another, once their matter is pictured together with the years and the months as it ought to be pictured!

它们之间的时段，若以年、月来表示，就不普遍适用，因为年与月各不相同；若以日来表示，事情就普遍适用了，因为日是一切年与纪元共有的。我把各纪元起点之间的日数，列在一张形如讲坛的表里，数就写在每两个纪元共有的那一格中，结果极为准确。只要把它们的事情连同年、月按应有的样子设想清楚，这张表在由一个纪元推出另一个纪元时，是多么有用的帮助啊！

§282. What are the feasts and the days of the nations?

第二百八十二问　诸民族的节日与纪念之日是什么？

Because their years and months differ, the days they observe in them are likewise. Every nation has known days in its months. Among them are feasts, in which they rejoice, display finery and perform customs prescribed for them, either inherited from forefathers or taken from the law and the creed. Among them are fasts, in which reward is sought, either from commands of the law that have told of their merits, or from the occurrence of grim and fearful events by which they seek intercession. And among them are dhukrānīn, which belong to the Christians, in which they commemorate the saints and the martyrs and seek nearness to God through them. The position of these days among the seasons of the year follows the condition of the year itself: if the year goes round through the seasons, the days go round in it too; if it is fixed, these are fixed with it; and if the year fluctuates, running ahead at one time and falling behind at another, like the years of the Jews and the Indians, the days fluctuate according to its fluctuation. Those whose years are fixed have other days, which are the times of sowing, seeding, planting, harvest, pollination and breeding, and the signs of heat and cold, of the winds and of the other changes in the air whose order in the year is found to hold for the most part. These exist also for those whose years fluctuate, though the running ahead and falling behind in them is hardly evident to the senses.

由于他们的年与月各不相同，他们在其中守的日子也是如此。每个民族在自己的月份里都有一些已知的日子。其中有节日，他们在节日里欢庆、穿戴华美，并奉行为他们规定的习俗，这些习俗或承自祖先，或取自律法与教义。其中有斋日，在斋日里求取报偿，或出于律法中讲过其功德的诫命，或因发生了严酷可怖之事，借此祈求说情。其中又有祖克拉宁，属于基督徒，他们在其中纪念圣徒与殉道者，并借他们求近于神。这些日子在一年四季中的位置，随年本身的情形而定：若年在四季中轮转，这些日子也随之在其中轮转；若年是固定的，它们便随年固定；若年浮动不定，时而超前、时而落后，如犹太人与印度人的年，这些日子便随其浮动而浮动。年固定的人另有一些日子，那是播种、下种、栽植、收获、授粉、配种的时节，以及冷热、诸风与空气中其他变化的征兆，人们发现这些变化在一年中的次序大体是成立的。年浮动的人也有这些日子，只是其中的超前与落后几乎觉察不到。

§283. What is the Pesaḥ among the feasts of the Jews?

第二百八十三问　犹太人节日中的逾越节是什么？

The fifteenth day of Nīsān is called Pesaḥ. It is the day on which the Children of Israel went out of Egypt in flight and were delivered from bondage, and offered the sacrifices as they had been commanded. It is the first of 7 days called the Unleavened Bread, in which they may not eat leaven nor keep it in the dwelling. On the last day of them Pharaoh was drowned in the Sea of Sūf, which is al-Qulzum; this day is known as [illegible].

尼散月第十五日称为逾越节。那是以色列人逃出埃及、脱离奴役的日子，他们照所受的命令献上祭牲。它是称为无酵节的七日中的第一日，这七日里他们不许吃酵，也不许把酵留在住处。七日的最后一日，法老溺死在苏夫海，即古勒祖姆海；这一日称为〔抄本此处字迹难辨〕。

§284. What is al-ʿAnṣara?

第二百八十四问　安撒拉是什么？

The sixth day of Sīwān is called ʿaṣartā, derived from 'assembly'. It is one of the pilgrimage feasts of the Jews, for the ripening of the crops.

西弯月第六日称为阿萨尔塔，名出于“聚会”。它是犹太人的朝圣节日之一，为庄稼成熟而守。

§285. What is the Kippūr?

第二百八十五问　基普尔是什么？

It is the tenth day of Tishrī, and for this reason it is sometimes called al-ʿĀshūr. Kippūr is from the atonement of sins. This day alone is the one whose fast is made obligatory on the Jews, with death for whoever does not fast it. The fast lasts 25 hours: it begins before sunset on the ninth day and ends when an hour has passed after sunset on the tenth day. The Kippūr may not fall on a Sunday, a Tuesday or a Friday.

它是提斯利月第十日，因此有时也称为阿舒尔。基普尔出于赎罪之意。犹太人只有这一日的斋戒是必须守的，不守者处死。斋戒持续二十五小时：在第九日日落之前开始，在第十日日落后过了一小时结束。基普尔不许落在星期日、星期二或星期五。

§286. What is the Feast of Booths?

第二百八十六问　住棚节是什么？

In their language it is maṭallē. It is 7 days, the first of them the fifteenth of Tishrī, and all of them are feast days. They sit in them under the shade of branches of willow, reed, olive and the like, and during that time they do not dwell in their houses, in remembrance of God's commanding the clouds to shade them in the Wilderness (al-Tīh).

在他们的语言里称为玛塔勒。它共七日，第一日是提斯利月十五日，七日都是节日。他们在这些日子里坐在柳枝、芦苇、橄榄枝之类搭成的荫下，这期间不住在自己的房屋里，以纪念神命云彩在旷野为他们遮荫。

§287. What is ʿarābā?

第二百八十七问　阿拉巴是什么？

Its meaning is the willow tree. It is the last of the Feast of Booths, I mean the twenty-first of Tishrī, and it is also a pilgrimage feast for them.

它的意思是柳树。它是住棚节的最后一日，我是说提斯利月二十一日，也是他们的一个朝圣节日。

§288. What is al-Tabrīk?

第二百八十八问　塔卜里克是什么？

It is a feast whose name is derived from 'blessing', and it is two days after ʿarābā.

它是一个节日，名出于“祝福”，在阿拉巴之后两日。

§289. What is the Ḥanukka?

第二百八十九问　哈努卡是什么？

It is a feast whose name is derived from 'cleansing'. It is 8 days, the first of them the twenty-fifth of Kislēw. They light lamps at the doors of their houses, one lamp on the first night, two on the second, and so on until on the eighth there are 8 lamps. That is a remembrance for them of the youngest of a family of brothers, who killed a tyrant ruling over them who used to deflower their virgins, and cleansed the Temple of his doings.

它是一个节日，名出于“洁净”。它共八日，第一日是基斯流月二十五日。他们在房门口点灯，第一夜一盏，第二夜两盏，如此递增，到第八夜共八盏。这是为纪念一家兄弟中最小的一个，他杀了统治他们、玷污他们处女的暴君，并把圣殿从那人的所为中洁净出来。

§290. What is the Pūrī?

第二百九十问　普里是什么？

Its name is derived from the casting of lots and omens. It is the fourteenth day of the Ādhār that is followed by Nīsān. It is also known as the Feast of the Scroll, that is, megillā. Its cause is that Hāmān, the vizier of Aḥashwērōsh, that is, Kisrā, was plotting against them in the days when they were in captivity in Babylon, and had schemed to root them out; but the matter turned against him, and he was killed on this day and crucified. For this reason they make crucified effigies and burn them, and rejoice at it. The Jews have voluntary fasts in their months, whose causes are the occurrence of grievous things that made abstaining from food necessary, out of grief.

它的名字出于抽签与占兆。它是紧接尼散月的那个亚达月的第十四日。它又称为经卷节，即米吉拉。它的缘由是：亚哈随鲁——即库思老——的大臣哈曼，在他们被掳于巴比伦的日子里谋害他们，图谋把他们连根拔除；但事情反落到他自己身上，他在这一日被杀并被钉上十字架。因此他们制作钉在十字架上的人像加以焚烧，并为此欢庆。犹太人在他们的月份里还有自愿的斋戒，缘由是发生了悲痛之事，出于哀伤而必须禁食。

§291. The feasts of the Christians: what is the Nativity?

第二百九十一问　基督徒的节日：圣诞是什么？

It is the night of the birth of Jesus son of Mary, peace be upon him, and it is the twenty-fifth of Kānūn the Former. The birth was in a village called Nāṣira, of Galilee, near Ūrishalim, which is Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis). Jesus was known among the people as Yasūʿ the Nazarene (al-Nāṣirī), and by this attribution his people became known as the Naṣārā.

它是马利亚之子耶稣——愿他平安——降生之夜，是前卡农月二十五日。降生之地是加利利的一个村子，名叫纳西拉，靠近乌里沙利姆，即耶路撒冷。耶稣在人们中间以拿撒勒人雅苏之名著称，他的信众也因这一归属而被称为纳撒拉。

§292. What is the Danḥ?

第二百九十二问　丹赫是什么？

It is the sixth day of Kānūn the Latter. On it John son of Zechariah baptized Jesus son of Mary in the river Jordan, that is, washed him. He used to baptize people to put away their sins from them, and for this he was surnamed Yūḥannā maʿmadān (the Baptist). The water of baptism is that by which the children of the Christians, and those of other religions who become Christians, are made Christian. When Jesus came out of the water the Holy Spirit joined him in the form of a dove.

它是后卡农月第六日。这一日撒迦利亚之子约翰在约旦河为马利亚之子耶稣施洗，也就是为他洗身。约翰常为人施洗，以除去他们的罪，因此得了约翰·马阿姆丹（施洗者）的称号。洗礼之水，是基督徒的孩子以及皈依基督教的其他宗教之人借以成为基督徒的水。耶稣从水中上来时，圣灵以鸽子的形状降临与他相合。

§293. What is the Fast of Nineveh?

第二百九十三问　尼尼微斋是什么？

Nineveh is the name of a village in Syria (al-Shām); it is the village of the prophet Jonah, God bless him, who is Yūnān. They hold that he stayed in the belly of the whale three days, corresponding to the stay of Jesus in the belly of the earth, also three days. The Fast of Nineveh is three days; it comes three weeks before the Great Fast, and its first day is a Monday.

尼尼微是沙姆一个村子的名字，那是先知约拿——愿真主福佑他——的村子，他也称为尤南。他们认为约拿在鲸鱼腹中待了三日，与耶稣在地腹中待了三日相应。尼尼微斋共三日，在大斋之前三周，第一日是星期一。

§294. What is the Great Fast?

第二百九十四问　大斋是什么？

They fast it, comprising 7 weeks of days. Its first day is always a Monday and its last a Saturday, excepting its Saturdays and Sundays, which may not be fasted, apart from the last Saturday. In it they eat neither meat nor anything that comes from animals. Its condition is that its beginning may not come before the second day of Shubāṭ nor be later than the eighth day of Ādhār. There is a way of knowing it that is right for the most part: it is approximately the Monday nearest to the conjunction that falls in Shubāṭ, provided that the Monday does not come before the second of Shubāṭ; if it does, that conjunction is disregarded and the one following it is taken, and the Monday nearest to it is the beginning of this fast of theirs.

他们守这一斋，共七周的日子。它的第一日总是星期一，最后一日是星期六；其中的星期六与星期日除外，这两天不许禁食，只有最后一个星期六除外。斋期里他们不吃肉，也不吃一切出自动物的东西。它的条件是：开始之日不得早于舍巴特月二日，也不得晚于阿达尔月八日。有一个大体可靠的求法：大约是最靠近舍巴特月内那次合朔的星期一，只要这个星期一不早于舍巴特月二日；若早于此，就舍弃那次合朔，取下一次，最靠近它的星期一就是他们这一斋的开始。