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In Transi tombs,like this one at Canterbury Cathedral,you got remembered twice over.
在Transi墓穴中 比如坎特伯雷大教堂中的這個 一個人有兩種面貌
They were double-decker affairs.In the top deck, you were seen very much in the guise the world expected,as a knight in armour or a bishop in full Episcopal rig.
它們是雙層墓穴 上層 呈現的是 世人期待的 偽裝下的面孔 身披護甲的騎士 或身著華服的主教
In the lower deck, though,there you were, a naked skeleton,the flesh fallen away from the bone.
而在下層 是一具赤裸的骷髏 只剩骨架 沒有血肉
The mindset that produced the transi tombTransi was a kind of reverse envy;
墓穴的產生 是出于一種拋棄嫉妒的心態
a determination to fall behind the Joneses,to bow to no one in your painful awareness
一種歸為布衣的決心 痛苦而清醒地意識到
that however grand you were, pretty soon you'd be reduced to a heap of dust and maggots.
不管你曾經多么顯赫 終將歸為塵土
The idea was to contrast, as shockingly as possible,two sorts of self-consciousness.
這種做法目的是更鮮明地對比 兩種不同的自我意識
On one hand, how we'd like to be remembered dying in splendour and piety.
一方面 是我們 希望別人記住的樣子 顯赫而虔誠
And on the other hand, the way we really are pathetic in our cadaverous mortality.
而另一方面 是真實的自我 注定歸為塵土
"I was pauper-born,"reads the inscription on Archbishop Chichele's tomb,Then to primate raised.
我本貧賤 大主教查切爾的墓志銘寫到 奮斗為主教
"Now I am cut down and served up for worms."Behold my grave."
失卻性命為塵土 囚禁于墓穴
