COC 日本秘史(1)

Something is coming

有「甚麼東西」要來了

Seek not to understand. Seek nothing. Let yourself be the void.

And when understanding arrives, true enlightenment will follow.

-Zen Proverb.

探尋無解、追尋無物，讓自身化為虛空。

但當你到達了領會之境，隨之而來的將是真正的啟迪。

-Zen Proverb

There is something. . . important . . . coming. It’s a vague stirring sensed by every soul with Japanese blood coursing through their veins -a deep, inchoate feeling that can’t be grasped. It screams for remembrance, but is only glimpsed on the edge of nightmare.

有什麼…嚴重的…要來臨了。

每個日本人的靈魂感受到一種含糊不清的騷動，這種感覺流遍了全身的血管─一種深沉、萌發且無法控制的感覺，它在記憶中尖嚎著，又僅僅在惡夢的邊界中一閃而逝。

Upon waking, these fragments are quickly eclipsed by the daily drone of pop music, television drama, and office gossip. Lingering in consciousness is a formless dread, a deep sense of urgency most often channeled into the everyday grind and forgotten. Is the forgetfulness a sanity-protecting safety valve( for Japan’s inhabitants? Have they lost hold on something much more sacred and valuable by living in a fantasy world of material possessions and diversions?

一旦醒來，這些片段很快的被每天各種饒舌音樂、電視劇和政府醜聞的聲音給侵蝕，徘徊在潛意識中無形的恐懼，這種深沉且急切的感覺往往被每天的日常給掩蓋並遺忘，這種健忘，可能是一種日本民眾調節理智閘門的自我保護？難道他們因為失去原本賴以為生的中心價值和恐懼感，只能將其轉嫁於幻想和物欲的世界之中？

When not dreaming half-remembered nightmares, sleepers travel to places in the Dreamlands like Old Edo, land of medieval heroes; havens of super-technology like Colony Five; dwellings of the o-bake-mono; or even gateways to the Buddhist heavens and hells. All these worlds permeate the waking thoughts of a contingent of painfully shy people, known as otaku. These ultimate fans bury themselves heart and soul in fantasy realms, to try to forget the harsh disappointments that reality constantly drums into them, and to shield against the hovering terror all Japanese feel in their hearts.

在似乎記得又不記得的噩夢中，睡眠者在一個像舊江戶般的夢中世界遊歷，一個有著像Colony Five的中世紀英雄和妖魔鬼怪居住的地方，或是佛教徒所稱的通往天堂和地獄的通道，這個世界滲入一群代表著極度自閉的的族群，我們稱之為御宅族，這些狂熱的信徒將身心靈魂全部埋入這個幻想世界中，在嚐試遺忘那些在現實世界既椎心刺骨又無時無刻拍打著他們的失落感，同時又要防範著盤旋於日本之上的恐懼殖入他們的心中。

In the gloomy secret corners of Japan there are beings who refuse to be consigned to the oblivion of fantasy. These things are satisfied to be dormant, as long as they are given the proper respect and rightful fear due them. The “New Japanese” have forgotten their people’s origins; these “ancestors” are determined to remind the living of lessons buried with the dawn of the modern age. These beings have not forgotten the darker history of Japan. They relish re-educating Japan’s forgetful people whenever they can.

在日本那些秘密的黑暗角落，一群生物拒絕被交付於遺忘的幻想之中，除非他們得到從人們出於懼怕所給予妥善的尊重，否則不會滿意的蛰伏於世。新世代的日本早已忘記自己的根源，這些「古老」的存在打算好好的在現代社會中上一堂課程，讓這群人回想起當初那黎明與希望皆被遮蓋的年代，這些「存在」不甘被忘卻於日本歷史上的闇影，他們想要盡其所能的再次教育這群健忘的日本人。

As much as these native monsters of myth disdain the living, they also need them. Much more that is incomprehensible to men slumbersin the cold Japanese waters. Some beings are pleased with Japan’s ignorance of the old ways. The gears of destiny set in motion millennia ago may grind the unwary to pulp under leviathan teeth.

即便那些神話中的原始怪物藐視著生靈，生靈卻是他們不可或缺之物，但更讓人難以理解的是那些沉眠在日本寒水中的人們。有些人對於日本仍保持著舊日的無知感到高興，或許，千年前轉動命運的齒輪早已被海中怪獸的牙齒不經意的嚼個爛碎。

This book is about rediscovering Japan’s true legacy, a process set in motion before the first emperor ever stepped down from the heavens to rule mankind. Can the heritage be discovered and stopped before the world reaps a bitter harvest?

這本書述說著日本未被揭發的真正遺產，一套能讓最初的征服者從天堂降臨、帶領人類的程序，這些遺留之物或許能夠發現和阻止苦痛豐收的這個世界？

Something waits for the stars . . . to be right. . . . M.D.

有甚麼東西正等待著星辰…來臨…M.D