Lir’s children的由来

爱尔兰光头女歌星 Sinead O’Connor ,90年代最具个性并最富争议的流行音乐巨星之一，她的一首很有影响的歌曲“A Perfect Indian”有一句Too long have I been feeling like Lir’s children，查网上很多翻译都不准确，不知所以然。经过努力查找终于发现出自于爱尔兰传说故事，全文是这样的：

爱尔兰光头女歌星 Sinead O’Connor ,90年代最具个性并最富争议的流行音乐巨星之一，她的一首很有影响的歌曲“A Perfect Indian”有一句Too long have I been feeling like Lir’s children，查网上很多翻译都不准确，不知所以然。经过努力查找终于发现出自于爱尔兰传说故事，全文是这样的：

The Children of Lir (an Irish Tale)

King Lir of Ireland had four lovely children who had soft skin, sweet voices, and gentle temperaments. Their stepmother, a Druid with magical powers was jealous of the love their father had for them.

She decided she would cast a spell upon them. She struck them with a fairy wand and turned them into snow-white swans.

"You will remain as swans for nine hundred years," cried their stepmother. "Until St. Patrick comes to Ireland and brings the Christian faith, you will not be free."

The stepmother looked at the swans. She felt stricken with sadness at the spell she had cast, but alas, she had no power to undo it.

When King Lir learned of what had happened, he went to his wife’s father, King Bove, and told him what his daughter had done.

King Bove was furious. At once he struck her with his fairy wand, and she turned into a bat, which then flew away screeching.

Finally, nine hundred years had passed.

One morning the children of Lir heard a bell sounding across the sea. The thick mist lifted, and they saw in the distance, beyond the waves, a stately white-robed priest surrounded by many attendants.

"This is St. Patrick," Finola sang. "He is bringing Christianity to Ireland. We will be free."

St. Patrick stretched out his hands to them. "Children of Lir, return to your land."

The swans touched shore, but when they did, the weight of all those years fell upon them. They turned into human beings again, but now they were old and pale and wrinkled.

St. Patrick quickly baptized them. When he did, a change came over them. Lying side by side upon the ground, they died quietly. Once more they were children, dressed in white clothes.

The time of sorrow was ended, though the people who had heard the swans’ song never forgot. And all those who have looked into the sad face of the bat know that the stepmother still flies through the dark nights, suffering for her sins.