Mona Lisa's Mysterious Smile—Now You See It, Now You Don't
蒙娜麗莎的神秘微笑——你既看見了，又沒看見

Any list of the world's top ten most famous paintings will surely include da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Part of the painting's appeal is its mystery.

在任何世界名畫前十名的列表中，一定都會有達芬奇的“蒙娜麗莎”。其吸引力部分來自于它的神秘。

Those lucky enough to have an unobstructed view of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre often stare in awe, baffled by the smile that seems to flicker and fade. Gazing at a reproduction of the work produces the same effect. Now she's smiling, now she's not.

那些有幸可以在盧浮宮自由欣賞蒙娜麗莎的人們眼神中常常都充滿了敬畏，他們也對蒙娜麗莎那看似一閃即逝的微笑也感到困惑。即使看它的復制品也會產生同樣的效果——似笑非笑。

What's the deal with Mona Lisa's smile?

蒙娜麗莎的微笑是怎么回事呢？

Harvard neuroscientist Margaret Livingstone is pretty sure she's solved the puzzle. Presuming nothing, Livingstone reasoned that the famous portrait's flickering smile is caused by the way we see.

哈佛大學的神經科學家Margaret Livingstone很確信自己已經解開了這個疑惑。其實沒什么其它原因，Livingstone將蒙娜麗莎這個著名畫像的如閃即逝的微笑的原因歸為我們看它的方式。

Our eyes use two separate regions to see. One is the fovea, a central area used to see colors and pick out details such as fine print. The area around the fovea is better at detecting motion, shadows, and stark, black and white contrasts.

我們是用兩個分隔開的眼睛看東西的。一個就是視網膜中央凹，一個用來看顏色并察覺出細節的中間地帶。而這個區域周圍的地方則更擅長察覺位移、影子、光亮及黑白對比。

When we look at a person's face, according to Livingstone, we usually focus centrally on the eyes. Gazing at Mona Lisa's eyes, our less accurate peripheral vision notices the mouth, picking up shadows from the cheekbones.

照Livingstone所說，當我們在注視一個人的臉時，我們經常都會集中注意在Ta的眼睛。在凝視蒙娜麗莎的眼睛時，我們并不是那么精準的外圍視力就注意在嘴巴上了，而嘴巴上則覆有臉頰骨的陰影。

The shadows play visual tricks, hinting at the curve of a smile. But when we look directly at the mouth, our central vision doesn't see the shadows, and so the smile suddenly disappears. As our eyes scan different parts of the portrait, Mona's smile seems to fade in and out.

就是這個陰影在視覺上給我們開了玩笑，它（在嘴上）隱藏了微笑的曲線。但當我們直視她嘴巴的時候，我們的中心視力并不能看到該陰影，所以微笑就立刻消失了。隨著我們眼睛看畫像部位的不同，蒙娜麗莎的微笑也就時有時無。

Did da Vinci intend to create this flickering smile effect? Perhaps. In any case, he was genius enough to paint shadows subtle enough to astound viewers for half a millennium. Meanwhile, Mona Lisa will keep smiling. And not.

是達芬奇有意營造這么一個“似笑非笑”的效果嗎？或許吧。反正，他的天賦好的讓他將陰影畫的如此微妙，細致到震驚了半個世紀的觀賞者。同時，也讓蒙娜麗莎的笑一直這樣時有時無。

生詞注釋：

appeal n. 吸引力，魅力
unobstructed adj. 一覽無余的，無阻擋的
baffle v. 使困惑，使受挫
neuroscientist n. 神經科學家
puzzle n. 謎，令人困惑的事物
reason v. 推論，推理
fovea n. 凹陷，窩
peripheral adj. 外圍的，邊緣的
portrait n. 肖像，肖像畫
genius adj. 天才的，有天分的
astound v. 使震驚