譯/李京倫
The writings, etched in dark ink on a small scroll, tell the sordid story of four debauched aristocrats who lock themselves away in a castle to play out their wildest sexual fantasies, which run the gamut from orgies and animals to torture — including placing a firework up a bottom.
Even their author — the Marquis de Sade, the 18th-century French nobleman whose libidinous antics helped break sexual mores and inspired the word sadism — considered his work "the most impure tale ever written since the world began."
這些文字用黑墨水刻劃在一幅小卷軸上，訴說著四個放蕩貴族的下流故事，他們在城堡裡與世隔絕，實現他們最狂野的性幻想，從縱慾狂歡派對到動物再到虐待——包括在臀部上方放煙火。
作者薩德侯爵是18世紀法國貴族，他淫蕩的行為突破性的道德界線，「施虐癖」一詞就是以他的姓氏命名。就連他都認為自己的作品是「創世以來人類寫下的最淫亂的故事」。
France considered Sade such a notorious philanderer that he was jailed under royal orders in the late 1700s, including in the Bastille prison in Paris for over a decade, just before it was stormed by revolutionaries. It was during this time that he wrote his salacious text.
But more than two centuries later, the French government last month recognized his work, titled "120 Days of Sodom, or The School of Libertinage," as a national treasure.
法國認為薩德是如此惡名昭彰的浪蕩子，以致18世紀晚期王室下令將他監禁，其中有十多年關在巴黎巴士底監獄，恰在巴士底獄被革命者攻陷之前。也就是在這段期間，薩德寫下了這些猥褻文字。
不過，200多年過後，法國政府上個月肯定了他的作品「索多瑪120天」（又名「放縱學校」），將之列為國寶。
The government decision came just a day before his work was about to be sold off at an auction in Paris, and means that the document, Sade's earliest work of fiction, may not be taken out of the country for at least 30 months. During that time, the state is expected to shore up funds to purchase it at international rates, according to officials involved in the sale and the government decision.
Officials also designated André Breton's "Surrealist Manifesto" as a national treasure.
法國政府是在他這部作品的手稿將在巴黎拍賣會上賣掉的前一天，做出了這個決定，意味這份手稿、也就是薩德的第一本小說，至少30個月不能離開法國。與拍賣和政府決策有關的官員透露，在這段期間，法國料將設法備妥資金，以便用國際價格將它買下。
法國官方同時也把法國作家布勒東的「超現實主義宣言」列為國寶。
Sade's work, written on a scroll measuring 3 feet long and just 4 inches wide, "is a serious document of literature, of France's literary history," said Frédéric Castaing, an expert on 18th-century manuscripts and a member of a commission that advises the government on what works should be designated as national treasures.
"Without a doubt, it is a writing that challenges, that reaches into the depths of humanity, of the obscure," Castaing said. Sade, he added, was one of France's most influential authors of the 18th century, alongside Voltaire and Diderot, and inspired the Surrealist movement in the 20th century.
卡斯唐是18世紀手稿專家，也是建議法國政府應該將哪些作品列為國寶的委員會的一員，他說，薩德寫在長3英尺（91公分）、寬僅3英寸（10公分）卷軸上的這份作品，「是法國文學史上一部嚴肅的文學文獻」。
卡斯唐說：「當然，這部作品提出了挑戰，直探人性深處與黑暗面。」他還說，薩德與伏爾泰和狄德羅同屬18世紀法國最具影響力的作家，啟發了20世紀的超現實主義運動。
The Ministry of Culture said that the manuscript was "remarkable," given the prison conditions in which it was written and its journey through different hands. The ministry also pointed to the work's "sulfurous reputation" and its influence on a number of 20th-century French authors.
The writing, it said, "is of great significance, as much as it is his first work as it is his most radical and most monumental."
法國文化部表示，這份手稿「非比尋常」，因為是在獄中寫就，且輾轉經過多人之手。文化部還提到這部作品「瀆神的名聲」與對20世紀許多法國作家的影響。
文化部說，這作品「意義重大，既是薩德初試啼聲之作，也是他最激進且不朽的作品」。
說文解字看新聞
文/李京倫
本文談的是淫穢小說「索多瑪120天」在寫下200多年後的今日成了法國國寶。本文作者為了避免重複，用了很多「淫穢」方面的形容詞，包括debauched（放蕩）、libidinous（淫蕩）、impure（淫亂）、salacious（猥褻）。sordid是指行為卑鄙可恥，不一定跟性有關。philander則是動詞，指玩弄女性。
索多瑪與蛾摩拉是舊約聖經第一卷「創世記」中著名的罪惡城市，因為「罪孽」，被耶和華用「硫磺（sulfur）與火」毀滅。順帶一提，sulfurous除了「硫磺的」或「含硫磺的」以外，引申義有三：「地獄的」、「（言詞）尖刻的」和「瀆神的」（與profane、blasphemous同義）。
至於這兩個城市的罪孽為何，傳統上認為與同性性行為有關，許多專家認為是居民普遍行同性性行為而招致毀滅。聖經其他提及索多瑪與蛾摩拉的段落，如「猶大書」談到了行淫與「逆性的情慾」（unnatural lust），「以西結書」提到「可憎的事」，被視為這個觀點的佐證，然而這種說法也受到一定程度的質疑。
有些現代學者，尤其是研究猶太教和基督宗教某些支派的學者就認為，居民是因為缺乏「款待」（hospitality，熱情好客）的心，對陌生人缺乏愛，也未善盡接待外來訪客的責任，才觸怒了神。
