#4 两首英国童谣
这诗里面引的是些预兆、纤谶的童谣，是不好懂，但上口。
也是中国历史上有名的，初中历史课本中都有的。
其实英国童谣里面也有不少天灾人祸、社会变迁的。比如顶有名的那
首HUMPTY-DUMPTY。 便有英国内战保王党的影：
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
这是咖啡里SUSAN注释的：
I was thinking about 童谣 also lately. A lot of them had morbid scenes. My "theory" is that adults intentionally or unintentionally express their anxiety or fear in 童谣 because 童谣 is a safe cover: nobody is supposed to take it seriously. An example is the famous Humpty Dumpty song. The sense of doom is so dark that it becomes hilariously funny:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
-------------------------------------------------
I checked Humpty Dumpty in wikipedia and come to realize it is about a cannon in the English Civil War, which lead me to an article about Charles I and this war, which I would further explain in the related thread...
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另外，还有一首更有名的游戏歌RING AROUND OF ROSES，这是我查到
的一些渊源资料：
Susan wrote:
Ring around of Rosies,
A pocket full of Posies,
Ashes, Ashes
We all fall down!
It is widely believed that the song is referring to the Black Death that plagued the 13th century Europe, in which one third of the population died. There are no hard evidences to support this theory and the Urban Legend website considered it a rumor. If indeed it is a rumor it is still a pretty good rumor!
xw wrote:
玫瑰脸儿一圈圈，
香草子儿一袋袋，
啊啑，啊啑－－
大家都倒地。
我这书中说这首歌叫“喷嚏歌”。
一群孩子手拉手结成大圆圈，一边转，一边唱，到最后大家都倒在地
上，笑成一团。童谣无忌，书上说这歌是十七世纪伦敦大瘟疫（牛顿
那回）的恐怖记录。原来“Ring around of Rosies”指的可不是美
丽淡红的小脸，而是得病之初脸上出现的玫瑰色红斑；那时候医药不
发达，一般人以为瘟疫的起因是有恶鬼附身，所以大家口袋里都装满
了香草蒜头，好驱鬼辟邪，这是第二句“A pocket full of Posies”
的出典。
没想到这疫鬼厉害极了，得病的人只要两个喷嚏一打，便倒地了，Ashes
，ashes，所以最后一句“We all fall down!”，一命呜呼。。。
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