何罗之鱼

The Classic of Northern Mountains: four hundred li north is Mount Qiaoming. The Qiao River rises there and flows west into the Yellow River. It is full of Heluo fish — one head and ten bodies, barking like a dog. Eat them and abscesses heal. One head, ten bodies. The first reaction is: impossible. But there are other ways to read it. First: ten fish swimming abreast. Some small schooling fish press so close together that from a distance they look like one large body trailing ten tails. Someone standing on the bank sees a single head in front and ten shadows behind it, and writes that down. Second: "body" may mean segment or fin. Squid have eight arms and two tentacles; octopuses have eight. There are no freshwater cephalopods, but the image of one head with many limbs was already available. Third: the text itself may be corrupt. In copying, "ten" could have been "seven," or "body" could have been "tail." But the shape is not the interesting part. The next two lines are: it barks like a dog, and eating it cures abscesses. Fish make noise. This is not legend. Catfish grumble. Croakers (huangyu) drum with their swim bladders, and in spawning season the chorus is loud enough to keep fishermen awake at night. Chinese fishermen have located schools by sound for millennia. A fish that barks is entirely within experience. Yong is a suppurating sore. Eating this fish cures it — a very specific prescription. There is no logical link between a noisy fish and an infected wound, but that is how most of the book's pharmacology works: attach a locally effective remedy to the most distinctive animal around. The Qiao flows into the Yellow River, cold and fast. Heluo fish live in that water, one head, ten bodies, barking. A fisherman hears a dog in the river, looks down — and that image is probably the whole entry.

แม่น้ำเฉียวไหลลงแม่น้ำเหลือง มีปลาเหอหลัว หนึ่งหัวสิบตัว เรียงกันเป็นแถว เสียงเหมือนหมาเห่า กินแล้วรักษาฝี ปลาส่งเสียงได้จริง ปลาดุกส่งเสียงคราง ปลาจวดใช้ถุงลมส่งเสียงดังจนชาวประมงนอนไม่หลับ "สิบตัว" อาจเป็นฝูงปลาที่ว่ายติดกันจนดูเหมือนตัวเดียว

Sungai Qiao mengalir ke Sungai Kuning. Banyak ikan Heluo: satu kepala sepuluh badan, bunyinya macam anjing menyalak. Makan, sembuh bisul. Ikan memang berbunyi. Ikan patin menggerutu, ikan croaker berdentum dengan pundi udara sampai nelayan tak boleh tidur. "Sepuluh badan" mungkin sekumpulan ikan rapat.

Sông Tiều chảy vào Hoàng Hà. Nhiều cá Hà La: một đầu mười thân, kêu như chó sủa. Ăn vào khỏi mụn nhọt. Cá thật sự phát ra âm thanh. Cá trê grừ, cá đù dùng bong bóng phát tiếng lớn đến mức ngư dân mất ngủ. "Mười thân" có thể là đàn cá bơi sát nhau.

Sungai Qiao mengalir ke Sungai Kuning. Banyak ikan Heluo: satu kepala sepuluh badan, suaranya seperti anjing menggonggong. Dimakan menyembuhkan bisul. Ikan memang bersuara. Lele menggerutu, ikan croaker berdentum dengan kantung udara sampai nelayan tak bisa tidur. "Sepuluh badan" mungkin kawanan ikan yang rapat.