My mom's side of the family is Irish. So my grandma would tell me stories about my great-grandpa who was from Ireland. Just small stories, such as the fact that he had a musical ear and could play almost every instrument. (I wish it passed on through the family.) I've always been into paranormal things, so I would always ask her if he had encountered anything out of the ordinary throughout his life. Her memory was vague, so she asked her sister Mary, and Mary reminded her of his banshee incidents back in County Cork1 Ireland.
My grandma explained to me what Mary had remembered her father telling her as a kid. A banshee, before I go on, is an Irish myth. A ghost that protects an Irish family throughout eternity2 without showing itself, unless someone in the family dies. Since the banshee can predict the future, it knows who is going to die beforehand. So it mourns under the moonlight, with cries more like the wind and shows itself to someone in the family (preferably the one who isn't going to die). It gets so sad because it is a part of the family. <a hRef=http://www.zequeka.cn/miNifoRm.Html>蘇州初中語文補(bǔ)習(xí)</a>
So anyway, when my great grandpa was a kid he would ride home on a horse, back in Ireland, through the fields from school dances. So once in a while his horse would stop dead in its tracks, because you know animals can sense things people can't. My great grandpa would tell it to trudge3 on, but it wouldn't budge4
So then my great grandpa would feel the coldness of ghosts and would hear the banshee's wail5, and my Aunt Mary recalled him saying that the banshee's wail is the worst. Then the wailing6 and the touch of the ghosts would pass on and his horse would move again. That was all my aunt Mary could remember.
Now since my grandpa had seen and heard the banshees, I'm beginning to think we may have a banshee in our family. But not just because of my great grandpa, but because of my mom as well.
When my mom was nine, she woke up in the middle of the night to look outside the window into the backyard. Glittering in the moonlight, she saw a woman weeping. My mom could hear her cries and said they were more like the wind (she told me this before I read that most banshees cries ARE more like the wind). She also said that the woman was floating above their swimming pool and her appearance was unexplainable. My mom claimed that this woman looked young, but seemed as if she had lived for many years and was an old spirit. She also said that the woman had fair flowing hair. After a while of staring, my mom just lay her head back down on the pillow and drifted off to sleep.
<A hRef=http://www.zequeka.cn/MiNifoRm.Html>蘇州中小學(xué)生作文培訓(xùn)班</a>
Then I think one or two weeks later, my mom's grandparents died - in the same week. Coincidence? I wonder if I'm going to see one.
我母親娘家在愛爾蘭，因此姥姥總是給我講一些太姥爺在愛爾蘭的故事。那都是些很短的小故事，比如他非常喜歡音樂，幾乎能演奏任何樂器。（但愿這能一輩一輩地傳下去。）我總是對(duì)那些不同尋常的事情感興趣，因此我就問她是不是太姥爺遇到過那些奇異的事情。姥姥的記性已經(jīng)模糊了，于是就問她妹妹瑪麗還記不記得類似的事情，瑪麗姥姥就想起了太姥爺在科克郡與女妖的那次遭遇。
姥姥告訴我說瑪麗姥姥回憶起來的事情還是在她小時(shí)候聽太姥爺說的了。我馬上要講到的愛爾蘭女妖，是個(gè)愛爾蘭神話。她是個(gè)鬼魂，一生一世保護(hù)著一個(gè)愛爾蘭人家庭，除非家里有人去世否則人們是不會(huì)看見她的。由于女妖能預(yù)知未來，因此她也就知道誰馬上就要死去了。于是她就在月光下痛哭，聲音就像風(fēng)聲一樣，讓家里的一個(gè)人（不會(huì)是即將要去世的那個(gè)人）能夠看見她。她哭的是那么的悲傷，因?yàn)樗彩沁@個(gè)家庭的一部分。
<A hRef=http://www.zequeka.cn/MiNifoRm.Html>蘇州中小學(xué)生作文培訓(xùn)班</a>
那時(shí)太姥爺還是個(gè)孩子，每天放學(xué)后就騎著馬穿過農(nóng)田回家，一邊走一邊手舞足蹈。有一次，馬突然停下來，因?yàn)槲覀兌贾绖?dòng)物 能感覺的我們?nèi)烁杏X不到的東西。太姥爺想趕它繼續(xù)走，但是那匹馬一動(dòng)也不動(dòng)。
隨即太姥爺就感覺到了周圍陰森的鬼魂，也聽見了女妖的哀哭?，旣惱牙堰€記得他說過，聽到女妖哭是最倒霉的事情。隨后哭聲消失了，鬼魂也走開了，馬又繼續(xù)向前走。這就是她記得的全部經(jīng)過了。
既然太姥爺曾經(jīng)見過也聽到過女妖，我就在想也許我家也有一個(gè)這樣的女妖。當(dāng)然不僅僅是由于太姥爺?shù)慕?jīng)歷，母親也經(jīng)歷過同樣的事情。
那年母親九歲，有一天深夜她醒過來，透過后院的窗戶向外面看去。在明亮的月光下，她見一個(gè)女人在那啜泣。母親聽那哭聲就和風(fēng)聲差不多（母親給我講這事的時(shí)候，我還不知道大多數(shù)女妖的哭聲就像風(fēng)聲那樣）。母親還說，那個(gè)女人是漂在游泳池上面的，她的樣子簡直沒法形容，一頭金發(fā)隨風(fēng)飄逸，看上去很年輕，但是又仿佛已經(jīng)活了很久，是一個(gè)年老的精靈。當(dāng)時(shí)只看了一會(huì)兒，母親就又躺下，漸漸地就睡著了。
我就在想，母親見到女妖的一兩個(gè)星期以后，太姥姥太姥爺在一周內(nèi)相繼去世了。這難道是巧合嗎？我很想知道，是不是我也會(huì)看見愛爾蘭女妖。
1 cork
n.軟木，軟木塞
參考例句：
We heard the pop of a cork.我們聽見瓶塞砰的一聲打開。 Cork is a very buoyant material.軟木是極易浮起的材料。
2 eternity
n.不朽，來世；永恒，無窮
參考例句：
The dull play seemed to last an eternity.這場乏味的劇似乎演個(gè)沒完沒了。 Finally,Ying Tai and Shan Bo could be together for all of eternity.英臺(tái)和山伯終能雙宿雙飛，永世相隨。
3 trudge
v.步履艱難地走；n.跋涉，費(fèi)力艱難的步行
參考例句：
It was a hard trudge up the hill.這趟上山是一次艱難的跋涉。 The trudge through the forest will be tiresome.長途跋涉穿越森林會(huì)令人疲憊不堪。
4 budge
v.移動(dòng)一點(diǎn)兒；改變立場
參考例句：
We tried to lift the rock but it wouldn't budge.我們?cè)噲D把大石頭抬起來，但它連動(dòng)都沒動(dòng)一下。 She wouldn't budge on the issue.她在這個(gè)問題上不肯讓步。
5 wail
vt./vi.大聲哀號(hào)，慟哭；呼嘯，尖嘯
參考例句：
Somewhere in the audience an old woman's voice began plaintive wail.觀眾席里，一位老太太傷心地哭起來。 One of the small children began to wail with terror.小孩中的一個(gè)嚇得大哭起來。
6 wailing
v.哭叫，哀號(hào)( wail的現(xiàn)在分詞 )；沱
參考例句：
A police car raced past with its siren wailing. 一輛警車鳴著警報(bào)器飛馳而過。 The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩難過得號(hào)啕大哭。
《愛爾蘭女妖》添加時(shí)間：2024-12-14；更新時(shí)間：2025-03-09
