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The first French explorers who had arrived in the 1760s regarded the people they found there as the most content on earth.
十八世紀六十年代 第一批到達的法國探險家 把這座島上的人視為地球上最幸福的人
They seemed, to the European imagination,to be living proof of the idea of the noble savage -a simple people with an unspoiled way of life.
島上的居民對歐洲人來說 是高貴野蠻人的現實代表 一群簡單的 原生態的人
But that is not the Tahiti Gauguin found.
但高更看到的塔希提島卻絕非如此
By the time Gauguin arrived in Tahiti in 1891,this was one of the most tragic places in the world.
高更1891年到達塔希提島時 這里是世界上最悲慘的地方之一
Because while a tiny local elite had done rather well from the arrival of Europeans,the Tahitian people had been devastated by war, disease and alcohol.
因為在歐洲人到來之后 盡管一小撮當地精英還混得不錯 大部分塔希提人正飽受 戰爭 疾病和酒精的摧殘
The population was a fraction of what it had been and the missionaries had done their absolute best to stamp out the local culture and religion.
當地人口大幅下降而傳教士們在消滅當地文化和宗教方面 也做得相當徹底
Tahiti was no longer a romanticised alternative to European civilisation,it was a classic case study of what European civilisation could do to other societies.
塔希提不再是歐洲文明理想化的替代選擇 而是研究歐洲文明擴張 對其他社會影響的一個經典案例
Once he got away from the capital, Papeete,Gauguin discovered that some parts of the old legend still survived.
當他離開首都帕皮提后 高更發現 這個古老傳奇的某些部分得以幸存
He found beauty in the landscape...
他發現了如畫的風景之美
And in the villages,proof of the island's reputation for the easy availability of women.
而在村莊中 他證實了這座島上 婦女的廉價與開放
Gauguin quickly found himself a local mistress,a girl of around 13, called Teha'amana, who became his model and his muse.
高更很快給自己找了個當地的情婦 一個十三歲左右的女孩 名叫蒂哈阿瑪拉 她也成為了他的模特和靈感源泉
There are many reasons to not like Paul Gauguin.
有很多原因會讓人不喜歡保羅·高更
He was a man who spent much of his life wallowing in self pity or else engaged in an endless campaign of self-promotion.
他一生中大部分時間都在自憐自哀 或是在無休止地自我推銷
And the relationships that he had with young Tahitian girls is something that we today find deeply disturbing.
如果用今天的道德標準來衡量 他和年輕塔希提女孩之間的關系令人譴責
And yet, for all his faults, the art that he produced here on the islands of the Pacific was radical, vivid and stunningly beautiful.
然而盡管他有種種缺點 他在這個太平洋島上 創作出的藝術卻是激進的栩栩如生而又驚人的美麗
The way Gauguin used solid blocks of colour was something new in art.
高更大量使用平涂色塊 這在藝術上是一種創新
And these images were no mere European fantasy version of a carefree paradise.
這些圖像不僅僅是歐洲人幻想中 無憂無慮的天堂
