評論
打印
And then you come across this.
然后再來看看這些
And in an instant, vast millennia of time just collapse
就在一瞬間 數千年的時間過去了
and you're in the midst of fellow humans.
你站在了人類同胞中間
Their hands doing what hands do,
他們用雙手做事
signalling from a very long way off,
從很遠的地方發出信號
37,000 years distant, in fact.
確切來說 是三萬七千年前
But this long-distance greeting somehow makes us bond
但不知怎么這長距離的問候卻把我們
with the makers of this because they establish a presence
和這些創作者緊緊相連 因為他們創造了
that is palpably alive.
一個鮮活的存在
Astonishingly,
令人吃驚的是
hand stencils like these have been found in caves
遠在印度尼西亞和巴塔哥尼亞的洞穴里
as far apart as Indonesia and Patagonia.
也有這些手板畫的存在
Wherever we went, it seems
似乎無論去往何地
the urge to signal a presence went with us.
想留下人類印記的強烈欲望都一直存在
And, undeniably, these hand stencils do
無可否認 這些手板畫
what nearly all art that would follow would aspire to.
做到了幾乎后來所有藝術所追求的
First, they want to be seen by others,
首先 它們渴望被他人發現
and then they want to endure beyond the life of the maker.
其次 它們想超脫創造者生命的限制
Like the earliest photographs,
就像最早的照片一樣
the images here are faded, indistinct,
這些圖像已變得模糊 難以辨別
but something tantalising is happening -
但有些誘人的事在悄然發生
the realisation that we can, however crudely, represent.
我們意識到我們可以呈現生活 盡管形式粗糙
In another cave further west in Asturias,
再往西的阿斯圖里亞斯的另一個山洞里
20 minutes walk away from any daylight,
走二十分鐘來到黑暗深處
are images that are anything but crude.
這里畫著一些絕不粗糙的圖案
