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I know you've all seen this on countless Christmas cards,
我知道你們都曾在無數圣誕卡片上見過這個
but was there ever an image less brimming with Yuletide cheer.
但這些畫是如此冷清 完全沒有任何節慶氣氛
Those hunters haven't got much to show for their trouble.
這些獵人費了好大力氣 卻沒有什么收獲
A skinny fox suspended from their poles.
一只干瘦的狐貍懸掛在他們的桿子上
The exhausted dogs,
精疲力盡的狗
trying to lift their legs out of the heavy snow,
試著從厚厚的積雪中把腿拔出來
feel the pain as much as their masters.
他們能感受到跟他們主人一樣的痛苦
Bruegel painted these compendious,
勃魯蓋爾畫這些簡潔有力
visually inexhaustible masterpieces
視覺上取之不盡的杰作
after the coldest, most frigid Flemish winter
是在佛蘭德斯最寒冷的一個冬天之后
that anybody could remember in their lifetime.
每個人一生中都會記得那個冬天
But he also painted them on the cusp of a long, terrible civil war
但他作畫的時候 也處于漫長而殘酷的內戰中
that would divide the Netherlands between
這張內戰要將荷蘭分裂成
Protestant and Catholic, north and south,
新教和天主教 北部和南部
the Spanish Empire and the free Dutch Republic.
西班牙帝國和自由的荷蘭共和國
And Bruegel would actually find himself right in the middle
勃魯蓋爾發現他自己正處在
of all those troubles.
這種種爭端的中間
But, while we're looking at these glorious landscapes,
但當我們看這些美麗的風景畫時
none of that history seems to matter.
那段歷史都不重要了
For Bruegel, the natural world
對勃魯蓋爾來說 自然世界
is a consolation for the traumas afflicting civilisation.
是對這充滿創傷和痛苦的文明的一個安慰
Whatever happens in our human world,
無論人類世界發生了什么
the God-given seasons will still roll around,
上帝賜予的四季仍在有序輪回
the cattle will still return to their winter pasture.
牛仍要回到他們的冬季牧場
Let's just think for a minute
讓我們來想一想
about the way he wants us to look at these paintings.
他希望我們如何來看待這些畫作
It's a dialogue, in a way,
從某種程度上講 這是一場
between the universal and the particular.
宇宙和個體之間的對話
On the one hand, wherever the eye travels,
一方面 無論我們看向哪個角落
we are invited into a wealth of detail of work and play.
我們都能享受到一場勞作嬉戲的細節盛宴
The trudge through the snow,
有雪地獵人的艱難跋涉
the glide of the skaters across the ice.
有冰上輕盈靈動的溜冰者
And wherever we travel with our eye through the landscape,
無論我們的目光在畫作的風景中如何穿梭
we're carried to dramatically different places.
總能被帶到一處截然不同的場所
From a Flemish village huddled against the hillside,
從弗蘭德斯聚集在山腰上的村落
out to a storm-tossed river estuary,
到風雨欲來中的河口
out to the broad, open sea.
再到寬廣無垠的大海
An experience of looking at these paintings becomes, surely,
看這幅畫 心中感受著變換百態
like the experience of all of our lives.
簡直就像人生的境遇
