Picturesque Biertan, one of Transylvania’s seven Saxon UNESCO World Heritage villages, feels frozen in time. Horse-drawn carts are still a part of daily life, and local residents gather to trade their wares in a cobbled village square. At the heart of the village, a 15th-Century fortified church towers over the surrounding structures from its hilltop perch.
美麗的別爾坦，這個被國際教科文組織列入世界遺產(chǎn)的七個撒克遜村莊之一，這個村子仿佛在時間的長河中凝固住了腳步。馬車依舊是當?shù)厝巳粘Ｉ畹囊徊糠郑麄円策€是會聚集到村子里那個用鵝卵石鋪就的廣場上買賣生活物品。在村子的中心位置，一座建造于15世紀的教堂矗立于山頂，俯瞰著周遭的一切。
Inside the church grounds, along one of its fortification walls, is a small building with a room inside barely larger than a pantry. For 300 years, couples whose marriages were on the rocks would find themselves here, locked away for up to six weeks by the local bishop in hope that they would iron out their problems and avert a divorce.
在教堂內部的一段防御城墻旁，有一個小小的建筑，里面有一間只比食品儲藏室大不了多少的小房間。300年來，但凡婚姻中遭遇危機的夫婦們都會來到這里，由主教將自己鎖在屋子里長達6個星期，他們希望能夠在這段時間中找到解決問題的方法，從而避免離婚。
It may sound like a nightmare – but records show that this ‘marital prison’ was rather effective.
這聽起來也許有些不可思議，但事實證明這個“婚姻牢房”相當有效。
In the 300 years there has only been one divorce
300年來這里只發(fā)生了一例離婚案
“Thanks to this blessed building, in the 300 years that Biertan had the bishop’s seat we only had one divorce,” said Ulf Ziegler, Biertan’s current priest.
“多虧了這座神圣的建筑，在別爾坦擁有主教以來的300年里，這里只發(fā)生過一樁離婚案。”別爾坦現(xiàn)任神父Ulf Ziegler這樣說道。
Today, the small, dark prison is a museum complete with long-suffering mannequins. The room has low ceilings and thick walls, and is sparsely equipped with a table and chair, a storage chest and a traditional Saxon bed that looks small enough to belong to a child. As couples attempted to repair their marriages inside this tiny space, everything had to be shared, from a single pillow and blanket to the lone table setting.
如今，這個小小的、昏暗的“牢房”已經(jīng)變成了一個博物館，里面擺放著人形模特模擬那些夫婦們當時的情境。房間的天花板很低，墻壁很厚實，屋內零散擺放著一張桌子、一把椅子、一個儲物箱，還有一張老式的撒克遜床，床看上去很小，只容得下一個小孩。夫婦們在這狹小空間里尋求辦法修復婚姻的時候，必須和對方共享每樣物品，比如同枕一只單人枕、同蓋一條毯子，或者共用一張單人桌。
Lutheranism, the religion of the Transylvanian Saxons, governed most aspects of life, and although divorce was allowed under certain circumstances – such as adultery – it was preferred that couples attempt to save their union. So a couple seeking divorce would voluntarily visit the bishop, who would send them to the marital prison to see if their differences could be reconciled before they parted ways.
路德教，作為特蘭西瓦尼亞撒克遜人的宗教，幾乎管束著當?shù)厝藗內粘Ｉ畹姆椒矫婷妗１M管在有些情況下是可以離婚的（例如通奸），但人們還是傾向于想辦法拯救自己的婚姻。因此想要離婚的夫婦們會主動來這里找主教，然后主教會將他們關進“婚姻牢房”，看看雙方是否能夠和好，不至于分道揚鑣。
“The prison was an instrument to keep society in the old Christian order,” explained Zielger, who noted that it also protected women and children, who were dependent on the family unit to survive. If a divorce did occur, the husband had to pay his ex-wife half of his earnings, but if he remarried and divorced again, the second wife was entitled to nothing.
“這個牢房是將社會秩序維持在舊有的基督制度下的一種工具。”Zielger這樣解釋道。他提到這也是保護婦女和兒童的方式，因為他們的生活依賴于完整的家庭。夫妻雙方一旦離婚，男方必須把自己一半的財產(chǎn)給女方，而如果男方再婚后又一次離婚，那么他的第二任妻子將得不到任何東西。
In the 12th Century, Saxon settlers ? originally from areas that today are France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany ? were invited by Hungary’s King Géza II to settle rural Transylvania and protect it against threats from Tatar and Ottoman invaders, as well as develop the area economically. Transylvanian Saxons were industrious craftspeople; Biertan became an important market town and cultural hub with a 5,000-strong population in 1510.
12世紀時，祖上由今天的法國、比利時、盧森堡和德國遷徙而來的撒克遜居民響應匈牙利國王Géza二世的號召，前往特蘭西瓦尼亞農(nóng)村定居，保護那里免受韃靼人和奧斯曼侵略者的威脅，并發(fā)展當?shù)氐慕?jīng)濟。特蘭西瓦尼亞薩克遜人是一群勤勞的人民，他們讓別爾坦成為了商業(yè)重鎮(zhèn)和文化中心，并令人口數(shù)在1510年達到了5000人之多。
Walking through the streets of Biertan as the sun begins to disappear behind the rolling hills, a few locals sit outside drinking beers and a farmer moves his hay cart through the village. The imposing church, with its nine surrounding fortification towers, is illuminated by bright lights and its purpose evident: it was a central point for the early Saxon settlers ? a place of safety and worship.
當太陽開始消失在連綿的山丘后，我漫步在別爾坦的街上，一些當?shù)厝俗谖萃夂戎【疲€有一個農(nóng)夫趕著裝滿干草的馬車穿過村子。那座雄偉的教堂，連同它周圍的九座守護塔，一齊被燈光照亮，其地位不言而喻：這里曾是早期薩克遜居民聚居的中心，是一個既安全又備受尊敬的地方。
The view from the church’s nearly 11m-high fortification walls next to the marital prison extends out across the village and surrounding countryside. Many current residents work their land using old-age farming techniques, and trade their wares to earn a living. Weather-worn shepherds can be spotted in the surrounding green hills herding sheep ? a scene that likely hasn’t changed much over the past several centuries.
站在“婚姻牢房”旁幾近11米高的防御圍墻處，整個村莊和四周的田野盡收眼底。現(xiàn)在仍有許多居民采用舊時的技術耕田，并通過與他人交易物品謀生。牧羊人在四周綠色的山丘上放著羊群，風雨無阻，這樣的畫面延續(xù)了幾個世紀，幾乎從未變過。
Life continues to move at a slow, meditative pace; however, these days there is less economic and religious pressure on struggling couples to remain together.
這里的生活以一種緩慢的、充滿禪意的節(jié)奏繼續(xù)著。不管怎樣，現(xiàn)今對于處在困境中的夫婦來說，雙方如果要想維系婚姻，其中牽涉到的經(jīng)濟和宗教壓力較小。
“The reason to remain together was probably not love. The reason was to work and to survive,” Ziegler said. “If a couple was locked inside for six weeks, it was very hard for them to have enough food the following year, so there was pressure to get out and to continue to work together.”
“那些夫妻們之所以選擇繼續(xù)在一起或許并不是出于愛情，而是基于工作和生存的考慮。”Ziegler說道，“如果一對夫妻被鎖在‘牢房’里長達6個星期，那么他們會很難為來年儲備夠食物，所以出于這種壓力他們必須走出‘牢房’共同工作。”
Ziegler believes that, even today, the concept of a marital prison has potential lessons for any modern marriage. And he’s not the only one: he says that he’s received requests from couples looking to use the prison to repair their own struggling marriages.
Ziegler堅信，即便是今天，“婚姻牢房”對新時代的婚姻仍舊具有潛在的教育意義。持這種觀點的并不止Ziegler一個，他說他收到過不少夫婦的請求，希望通過“婚姻牢房”來修復他們苦苦掙扎的婚姻。
“In modern families, there is less and less time for each other, we are more selfish than our ancestors,” Ziegler said. “We suffer from loneliness, which is why today we need to talk more, so we can find out what is important to us and what connects us.”
“在現(xiàn)代家庭里，雙方留給對方的時間越來越少，比起以前的人，我們要自私得多。”Ziegler講到，“我們備受孤獨的煎熬，所以我們應該多花點時間與對方交談，這樣我們才能明白對我們來說什么才最重要，什么才是彼此間的維系。”
*原文來自BBC? Travel頻道。僅做翻譯練習之用。*
