塞勒斯圓筒
Diplomatic whirl
外交漩渦
A show that tests the limits of cultural politics
一場巡展,一次文化政治學(xué)極限的考驗
CYRUS THE GREAT, king of Persia and conqueror of Babylon in the sixth century BC, has been a personal hero to many people. These include Thomas Jefferson and Iran's last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and, perhaps more oddly, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first leader.
公元前6世紀,居魯士稱帝波斯,征服巴比倫王國,史稱居魯士大帝(Cyrus the great)。其個人英雄形象萬世流芳。粉絲包括美國總統(tǒng)托馬斯杰弗遜、伊朗末代國王穆罕默德禮薩巴列維(Mohammad Reza Pahlavi),或許還意外地成為伊朗前總統(tǒng)馬哈茂德艾哈邁迪-內(nèi)賈德(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)和以色列首任總理戴維本-古里安(David Ben-Gurion)的偶像。

Xenophon, a Greek historian whose “Cyropaedia” has been read by statesmen down the ages, believed that Cyrus embodied all the qualities of a perfect king. Now the British Museum (BM) is sending an object closely associated with Cyrus on a tour of five American museums, beginning with the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. The curators hope the show will highlight the Persian king's religious tolerance and his close relations with the Jews in particular, and that this may help improve ties between America and Iran.
希臘歷史學(xué)家色諾芬(Xenophon)著有《居魯士的教育》(Cyropaedia)一書流傳至今,在政治人物中廣為傳閱。他認為,居魯士身上凝聚了完美無缺的君主所具備的一切品質(zhì)。如今大英博物館(BM)將一枚這位波斯大帝的舊物運至美國,分別在5家美國博物館進行巡回展覽,首站便是華盛頓市的史密森尼博物院(Smithsonian)。各家館長期望此次巡展能強調(diào)居魯士大帝推崇的宗教自由,尤其他和猶太人之間的親密關(guān)系,以此促進美伊兩國關(guān)系。
The Cyrus cylinder, one of the BM's most important objects, is made of clay and covered in dense Babylonian cuneiform script. Unearthed in 1879, it is cracked and bits have fallen off it, but enough remains for the writing to have been deciphered.
大英博物館重要藏品之一塞勒斯圓筒由黏土制成,通體鐫刻密密麻麻的巴比倫楔形文字。它于1879年出土,筒身開裂,部分泥土脫落,不過剩下部分足以供人解讀文字內(nèi)容。
Under Cyrus the Persian empire became the largest kingdom the world had ever seen, unifying many tribes, languages and cultures, and stretching across vast distances. The cylinder, which had been placed at the base of a building in ancient Babylon (now modern Iraq) proclaimed Cyrus's ambitions for his rapidly expanding domain: that those people who had been captured and enslaved by his predecessors should be allowed to go back to their homes and the statues of their different gods returned to their original shrines to be freely worshipped. The exiled Jews, who wept by the waters of Babylon when they remembered Zion, the Bible says, could return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple.
居魯士大帝統(tǒng)治下的波斯帝國成為前所未見的大國,吞并了眾多部落、語言和文化,幅員廣闊。這支塞勒斯圓筒一度躺在古代巴比倫(即現(xiàn)在的伊拉克)的建筑物腳下,敘述著皇帝謀求迅速向外擴張的雄心壯志:祖輩們俘獲的奴隸們應(yīng)該被允許回歸故土,他們信奉的神祇挪回原位供信徒自由膜拜。圣經(jīng)上說,原先猶太人被流放后,在紀念錫安圣地的日子涉過巴比倫河,此時獲準返回耶路撒冷,重建寺廟。
No ruler before Cyrus had done anything like this, and many since have claimed a connection with him. After the 1917 Balfour declaration in favour of a Jewish homeland, Jews displayed photographs of King George V alongside images of Cyrus. In 1971 the shah prayed at his tomb during the celebrations of 2,500 years of Iranian monarchy, and new coins were struck with the shah and Cyrus on one side and the cylinder on the other. The shah's sister gave a copy of it to the secretary-general of the United Nations. Some call it the first charter of human rights.
居魯士大帝此舉開歷史先河,為他贏得后人的綿綿景仰之情。支持建立猶太家園的貝爾福宣言得發(fā)表后,猶太人于喬治五世照片之側(cè)放置居魯士大帝畫像。1971年,紀念伊朗君主制2500年之際,伊朗國王在居魯士墓前禱告,并且發(fā)行新硬幣,一面同時印上國王和居魯士大帝,另一面則是塞勒斯圓筒。國王的一位姐妹將圓筒上的文字拓印成文,贈送給當(dāng)時的聯(lián)合國秘書長。這些文字被稱為人權(quán)憲章的始祖。
The leaders of revolutionary Iran at first turned away from everything that had been praised by the shah. But that began to change with the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, which began in 1980. Anxious to be regarded as superior to the Iraqis, Iran became more interested in its distant past. In 2010 the cylinder was sent to Tehran on loan. Nearly 500,000 people queued to see it, and its presence provoked a fierce national debate about Iranian values. Mr Ahmadinejad opened the exhibition at the National Museum of Iran, reminding visitors that Islam had a tradition of tolerance and that the Iranian constitution reserved seats in parliament for a Christian (Armenian), a Zoroastrian and a Jew.
伊朗陷入革命浪潮后,反對派領(lǐng)袖起先抗拒國王稱贊有加的一切事物。不過隨著一場為期八年的兩伊戰(zhàn)爭在1980年爆發(fā),他們的態(tài)度發(fā)生逆轉(zhuǎn)。由于急于塑造超過伊拉克的形象,伊朗對本國悠久歷史的興趣大增。2010年,塞勒斯圓筒被租借至德黑蘭。近50萬人排隊以求一睹其風(fēng)采。伊朗國內(nèi)掀起一股討論伊朗價值觀的熱潮。內(nèi)賈德在伊朗國家博物館組織一次展覽,透露給參觀者:伊斯蘭教擁有包容的優(yōu)良傳統(tǒng);伊朗憲法保證基督徒(亞美尼亞籍)、拜火教徒和猶太教徒在議會的席位。
The American exhibition takes up just two rooms at the Smithsonian's Freer/Sackler Gallery. The first shows the cylinder together with jewellery and seals from the same period; the second focuses on Cyrus's influence. A glass case contains Xenophon's “Cyropaedia”. Loaned by the Library of Congress, it is one of two copies that Jefferson owned. On the walls are a selection of laudatory phrases: from that student of power, Niccolò Machiavelli, Edmund Spenser, a 16th-century English poet, and Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human-rights activist and the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel peace prize.
本次美國展在隸屬史密森尼博物院的弗利爾/沙可樂美術(shù)館兩個展廳進行:塞勒斯圓筒和同時期的一批珠寶和印章放置在其中一個展廳供人觀賞,而另一展廳集中展出深受塞勒斯圓筒影響的后期文物。玻璃柜盛放著色諾芬所著的《居魯士的教育》一書,為美國約瑟芬總統(tǒng)的兩個藏本之一,由國會圖書館(Library of Congress)出面借得。墻上是名人所題的贊美之詞:研究權(quán)利的學(xué)者馬基雅維利(Niccolò Machiavelli),16世紀英國詩人斯潘塞(Edmund Spenser),伊朗人權(quán)活動家和首位獲得諾貝爾和平獎的穆斯林女性莎琳艾巴迪(Shirin Ebadi)。
American Iranians and Jews have been among the many early visitors to the show, which opened on March 9th. The BM's director, Neil MacGregor, hopes others will come too. But America's relationship with Iran is still toxic. The exhibition catalogue is subtitled: “A New Beginning for the Middle East”. But the Smithsonian posters for the show merely say: “A New Beginning”, as if the mere mention of the Middle East might put people off.
3月9日展覽舉行伊始,迎來眾多參觀者,其中包括伊朗籍美國人和猶太人。大英博物館館長尼爾麥克格瑞格(Neil MacGregor)期待更多訪客的到來。不過美伊關(guān)系依然緊張。此次展會目錄的副標題為“中東新起點”,史密森尼博物院為其制作的海報卻僅僅提到“新起點”,似乎中東這幾個字眼會使人掃興而歸。
As for Mr Ahmadinejad's views on Cyrus, the Iranian leader's words of praise were expected to hang on the wall of the exhibition's second room, alongside those of Jefferson and Ms Ebadi. But they were not included. Exhibitions like this should help Iranians and Americans understand the past better. But such caution suggests that relations between the two countries will not improve fast.
提及伊朗前總統(tǒng)馬哈茂德艾哈邁迪-內(nèi)賈德對于塞勒斯圓筒的評價,這位領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人的溢美之詞一度被指望登上第二展廳的墻壁,比鄰杰弗遜總統(tǒng)和艾巴迪女士的名言。可惜未能如愿。舉辦此類展覽理應(yīng)促進伊朗和美國兩國人民對歷史的理解,不過采取如此謹慎的態(tài)度不免令人疑心美伊兩國關(guān)系不會迅速改善。
The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning" will be at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, until April 28th. The show will be at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston from May 3rd until June 14th and then at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from June 20th until August 4th, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco from August 9th until September 22nd and at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles from October 2nd until December 2nd. The tour is supported by the Iran Heritage Foundation.
本次展覽名為“塞勒斯圓筒和波斯古國:新起點”。此次巡回展覽由伊朗遺產(chǎn)基金會(Iran Heritage Foundation)贊助。第一站是華盛頓市的亞瑟 M. 沙可樂美術(shù)館(Arthur M. Sackler Gallery)和弗利爾美術(shù)館(Freer Gallery of Art),展覽活動截止4月28日;5月3日至6月14日轉(zhuǎn)至休斯頓藝術(shù)博物館(Museum of Fine Arts);6月20日至8月4日則由紐約大都市藝術(shù)博物館(Metropolitan Museum of Art)承展;8月9日至9月22日來到舊金山的亞洲藝術(shù)博物館(Asian Art Museum);10月2日至12月2日抵達末尾站,洛杉磯的保羅蓋蒂博物館(J. Paul Getty Museum)。