Urban myths or Urban legends?
都市神话还是都市传奇?
1.    London has the most extensive network of underground tunnels in the world. But for some inhabitants, the tunnels are more than just convenient一they live in them. The London Subterraneans are a race of people who live beneath the streets. They're human, but they don't speak English, and they have their own customs. Occasionally, a few of them come to the surface. They only appear at night through the drains in a dark backstreet, and if they hear footsteps, they hide in a dark alleyway and only come out when it's quiet again. And before sunrise, they go back under ground. Very few Londoners have seen them, but the friend of a friend has seen them several times.
伦敦有着世界上最为庞大的地下隧道网络。但是对某些伦敦居民来说，隧道不仅仅便利——他们还住在那里。伦敦地下人是生活在街道下面的一族。他们属于人类，却不会说英语，他们有自己的风俗习惯。他们种的个别人偶尔也会到地面上来。他们只有在晚上才会从一条黑魆魆的偏僻街道的下水道里钻出来，到地面上活动，而且一听到脚步声，他们就会躲到黑暗的小巷子
里，直到没有了动静才出来。日出之前，他们回到地下。没有几个伦敦人真正见过他们，但是某人的朋友的朋友曾经见过他们好几次。
2.    True story? Probably not. It's a classic example of what's called in many languages an urban myth. An urban myth is a story you hear by word of mouth. It usually describes something which might have happened, an apocryphal, second d-hand story told as if it were true, just about plausible enough to be credible, about some event which has supposedly happened to a real person. Factual or not, it's likely to rely on expert storytelling and on a trustworthy source, such as "It happened to my brother's friend's mother".
extensive翻译真事吗？很可能不是。这是在很多语言中被称为都市神话的一个典型例子。都市神话是你通过口口相传听来的故事，讲述的是一些可能发生过的事情，一个杜撰的、二手的故事，却被当做真事来讲，听起来像真的似的。不论是真是假，都市神话依赖的是讲故事的技巧以及来源的可靠性，比如“这件事发生在我弟弟的朋友的母亲的身上”。
3.    However, some academics claim that urban myths are not really myths. According to th
em, a myth is a story which held some religious or spiritual significance for those who told it or listened in the past to it, and which contributed to the expression of shared beliefs and values. However improbable a myth might be, it's always true for those who belong to that culture from which the myth comes.
但是，有一些学者认为都市神话并非真正的神话。在他们看来，神话故事对于讲故事和听过故事的人来说都有某种宗教或精神层面的意义，而且神话帮助人们表达共同的信仰和价值观。不管一个神话看上去是多么匪夷所思，对于那些从属于这些文化的人来说，它们永远是真实可信。
4.    So should we use the term urban myths? Let's look at one of the most durable of urban myths, The Vanishing Hitchhiker. The basic story is that of a driver alone at night on a dark, country road, who sees a young woman hitchhiking. The driver stops and offers her a lift. Soon the driver drops the hitchhiker off at her destination, and they say goodbye. But it's only when the driver stops later that he realizes the young woman has left behind a coat with her wallet, or sometimes an old envelope in the pocket. He then goes to the address t
o return the coat. An old woman opens the door of the house, and the driver explains what has happened. It turns out that the coat does belong to the old woman's daughter, but she was killed several years before on the same stretch of road where the driver picked her up. That day was the anniversary of the accident.
那么我们该不该用“都市神话”这个术语呢？让我们来看一下经久不衰的都市神话之一：“消失的搭车客”。故事的大概是：一个司机独自开车行驶在漆黑的乡村公路上，他看到一位年轻女子在路边要搭车。司机停下来，让她上了车。很快司机就把她送到了目的地，他们相互道别。可直到后来停车时司机才发现，这个年轻女子落了一件外套在车上，兜里还装着一个钱包，有的版本是兜里装着个旧信封。于是他按照钱包里或信封上的地址把外套送回去。一位老妇人开了门，司机向她讲述了事情的经过。原来，这件外套的确是老夫人女儿的，而她的女儿已经在几年前的车祸中去世了，车祸的地点正是司机让她上车的那个地方。那一天也正是车祸的周年纪念日。
5.    In fact, like many myths, this story can be traced back to some time before the cars and roads of the 20th or 21st centuries, and to other countries or regions such as Sweden
or East Africa. It also has other features common to the myth in its traditional sense. As we have already seen, it's a story for those people who want to believe in it, and who share the same cultural values. It has been told and retold many times over the years, gathering embellishments which are specific to the culture in which it's set. Finally, it's enjoyable, exciting and captivating to the listeners.
事实上，和许多别的神话一样，这个故事可以追溯到20世纪或是21世纪的汽车和公路出现之前的其他国家和地区，比如瑞典和东非。这个故事还具有传统神话所共有的其他一些特征。正如我们所看到的，这个故事是讲给那些愿意相信它并持有相同的文化价值观的人听的。多年以来，这个故事被人们讲了又讲，在不同的地方还被添加了专属于各地文化的一些元素。最后，这个故事变得好玩、刺激，引人入胜。
6.    Another well-known urban myth is about the baby alligators which parents on their return from Florida bring home to their children in New York. As the alligators grow in size, they are no longer cute and the parents have to dispose of them down the toilet. But some of them survive, and as a result there are full-grown alligators living under the streets of Manhattan.
另外一个很有名的都市神话是关于佛罗里达小短吻鳄鱼的故事，大人们去佛罗里达度假，回纽约的时候给孩子们带了几条小鳄鱼。后来短吻鳄越长越大，不像小时候那么可爱了。大人们只好把它们扔进抽水马桶里冲掉。但是其中一些短吻鳄活了下来，所以现在有一些成年短吻鳄在纽约曼哈顿街区下面游荡。
7.    This is also a myth in that it describes something of the geography of a city or a region, warning of possible dangers. In Greek mythology, Odysseus sails between Scylla and Charybdis, the narrow and dangerous channel between mainland Italy and the island of Sicily. In the same way, the story of the alligators warns New Yorkers of the dangers which they may face when they use the subway.

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