The fifteenth translation exerci

The original :歌谣(ballads)跟口头流传的神话，远在文字出现之前就已大量产生。中国的文学正是发端于此。不过歌谣本是人

们在生活中随兴而发的(improvised)东西，上古时代也没有保存和记载它们的手段，因之也就很快湮灭，不留痕迹。如

今，我们只能从一些古书中推断它们的存在。古书中记载了一些据称年代非常久远的歌谣，但是大多出于后人的伪托(

derivatives)，能够断定朝代的歌谣要到《诗经》(the Book of Songs)里才能看见。从这点来看，古代神话对中国文学

的影响更为显著。

My translation 

Ballads and the myth of oral tradition were produced in large Numbers long before the word appeared. This is where Chinese literature comes in. But the ballads were the things that people had with them in life, and the ancient times did not preserve and record their means, so they quickly disappeared without leaving any trace. Nowadays, we can only deduce their existence from some ancient books. In ancient books, there are some songs that are said to be very old, but most of them are from later generations, and they can be sure that the songs of the dynasty can only be seen in the book of songs. From this point of view, ancient mythology has a more significant influence on Chinese literature.

Reference translation 

Long before the emergence of the written word,ballads and myths,passed down orally,were widely popular.

Chinese literature finds its origins in these traditions.However,ballads were what people improvised out of daily

life,and due to the lack of means to record and preserve them in ancient times,they quickly disappeared without

leaving much of a trace.Today,we can only deduce their existence from ancient books,which recorded some time-

honored ballads,though most of these are believed to be derivatives of later generations.Ballads in the Book of

Songs are the earliest writings that can be dated.From thispointofview,ancient mythology obviously has had a

great influence on Chinese literature.