某持明少年的笔记 A Vidyadhara Youth's Notes

一位持明族学童遗落在鳞渊境的笔记。上面记录着他对持明族历史的怀想。 A notebook left behind in the Scalegorge Waterscape by a young scholar of Vidyadhara heritage. It details his fantasies about the history of the Vidyadhara.

先生说，人如果不牢记自己的来自何处，就同样会搞不清自己该去向何方。

My teacher says, if people don't remember where they come from, then they'll be similarly confused about which direction they should go.

所以趁着学宫放假，我来到圣地鳞渊境，追忆我们持明一族的过去。

School's out, so I've come to the Scalegorge Waterscape to find out about the history of us Vidyadhara.

课本上说，我们来自一片与这里相似的汤海。但那里远比这小小的波月古海辽阔，一望无际的汤海甚至占据了整颗行星的表面。

In our textbooks, we came out of a primordial ocean, a Roiling Deep just like this one — but far vaster than the tiny reaches of these Lunarescent Depths. There is an ocean as far as the eye can see — covering up the entire planetary surface.

祖先们与汤海中无数生灵一起，在汤海中过着无忧无虑的生活。

Our ancestors lived a carefree life together in the Roiling Deep with countless other living things.

那时，我们还能使用龙祖赋予我们的力量。身为汤海中万物的灵长，一切都在我们的掌控之中。鱼儿多刺，我们就去除它体内的刺；海兽瘦小，我们就让它丰腴且多产；水草苦涩，我们就让它变得甘甜可口。

Back then, we could still use the power gifted to us by our dragon ancestor, Long. As the prime species among sea life in the Roiling Deep, everything was under our control. If a fish species was too bony, we'd remove the bones from inside their body. If a sea beast was too small, we'd fatten it up and make it proliferate. And if a seaweed was too bitter, we'd sweeten it until it was delicious.

先生说，我们那时可以用龙祖的力量改变一切生物的形体，就像比我更小的孩子们揉捏塑泥一样简单。祖先们将肥美的鱼类改造成一座厚实的肉山，每当需要取食时，就从那座山上剜下一块。那时还曾有一千多条腿的螃蟹，每条腿的甲壳中都装满了好吃的蟹肉。

My teacher says that back then, we could use our powers derived from Long to change the form of any creature, as easily as children playing with modeling clay. Our ancestors could modify fish into a thick mountain of meat and gouge meat from this mountainous mass whenever they wanted a bite to eat. Back then, crabs could have thousands of legs, each leg filled with delicious crab meat.

我好希望能回到那个时候，但先生说，我们永远也回不去了。

I wish that we could go back to those days, but my teacher says that we can never return.

某一天，我们不再能控制龙祖的力量，整片汤海中的生灵都变成了危险的敌人。鱼儿身有剧毒、海兽心怀敌意，连海草都可以捕食人类。后来，那些汤海中看不见微小生物，也变得危险了起来。它们越来越多，直到有一天，连汤海都不再适合我们生存了。

One day, when we could no longer control the powers of our dragon ancestor, all of the creatures in the entire ocean became our enemies. The fish were toxic, the sea beasts hostile, and even the seaweed could prey upon us. Later on, even the microscopic creatures in the Roiling Deep became dangerous. They multiplied until the oceans were no longer fit for our survival.

再后来，我们成为了仙舟联盟的一员。在仙舟上，我们的生活也很好，汤海中的自由却永远也不会回来了。

Even later on, we became a member of the Xianzhou Alliance. Life is good aboard the Xianzhou, but the freedom of the ocean is something we will never know again.

不过，先生也说，人应该面向未来而活，而不应该过度沉浸于那些回不去的事物。所以我相信，虽然我们再也无法回到汤海，但只要我努力成长为一个合格的大人，就一定有能力开创一个比过去更好的未来。

But my teacher also says that people should live with the future in mind, and we shouldn't suffocate ourselves with nostalgia. So I believe that even though we'll never be able to go back to our ocean home, so long as I can become an adult of adequate merit, then I will definitely build a more beautiful future than the past.