高雄地名的由來

As I sit at my window this summer afternoon, hawks are circling about my clearing; the tantivy of wild pigeons, flying by two and threes athwart my view, or perching restless on the white pine boughs behind my house, gives a voice to the air; a fish hawk dimples the glassy surface of the pond and brings up a fish; a mink steals out of the marsh before my door and seizes a frog by the shore; the sedge is bending under the weight of the reed-birds flitting hither and thither; and for the last half-hour I have heard the rattle of railroad cars, now dying away and then reviving like the beat of a partridge, conveying travellers from Boston to the country. For I did not live so out of the world as that boy who, as I hear, was put out to a farmer in the east part of the town, but ere long ran away and came home again, quite down at the heel and homesick. He had never seen such a dull and out-of-the-way place; the folks were all gone off; why, you couldn't even hear the whistle! I doubt if there is such a place in Massachusetts now: —

"In truth, our village has become a butt
For one of those fleet railroad shafts, and o'er
Our peaceful plain its soothing sound is — Concord."

高雄，這個竹林，

已經成了二氧化碳的故鄉 －
因為，她只剩下馬卡道路，
在打狗山旁！

高雄的原意是竹林，正是從打狗轉音而來。馬卡道族（平埔族中的西拉雅族的支系）為了防禦敵人和海盜的攻擊以及颱風的侵襲，在部落、家屋的四周，種植刺竹林作為防衛圍籬。他們稱這種圍籬叫作TAKAO。六世紀時，漢人開始和馬卡道人頻繁接觸，對竹林圍籬的妙用印象深刻，就以閩南話翻譯成【打狗】，因此出現打狗山、打狗社的稱呼。一八九五年以後，日本人統治台灣，根據日本本國同音的地名，取漢字【高雄】傳統名稱，移用到打狗來，從此打狗變為高雄，並且在大正十三年《民國十三年》建立高雄市。 （取材自柴山探訪）