海外文化:英美民俗-不祥之舉:打破鏡子

【英文原文】

Breaking a Mirror One of the most common superstition is that to break a mirror brings death, or seven years of bad luck. Since very early times the mirror has been used in fortunetelling. People believed that one could see the will of god in the mirror. To break a mirror accidentally, therefore, was interpreted as an effort on the part of the gods to prevent the person from seeing into the future. This was understood as a warning that something unpleasant would happen in the future. It is said that when Napoleon was in Italy fighting in a war, he broke a mirror accidentally which hung over Josephine’s portrait. An idea came into his mind that she had died, and he couldn’t rest until he returned home and saw for himself that she was well and alive.

【中文譯文】

最普遍的一種迷信說法是打破鏡子的人會死去，或至少倒運7年。鏡子自古就用來算命，人們認為從鏡子里能看到神的意旨。因此，不慎打破鏡子就被解釋為神不愿泄露天機，因而是一種警告，有不妙的事即將發生。據說拿破侖在意大利作戰時偶然打破了約瑟芬畫像上方的鏡子，馬上想到愛人已死，于是馬不停蹄地趕回家，看到約瑟芬安危無恙才放下心來。