英文自修58：萨顿胡珍宝和“黑暗时代”

本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站，朋友们也可以下载节目录音收听。

本篇译者：默谦，沪上某名牌大学英语专业学生

审读、定稿：晏梓，沪上某名牌大学英语专业学生

中文标题、图片、背景新闻：武太白，沪上某名牌大学英语专业毕业生

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Thought for the Day 20140325 Rev Dr Michael Banner

On Thursday the British Museum will reopen a gallery, the centre piece of which is to be the spectacular Sutton Hoo treasure. 75 years ago archaeologists dug up a 7th century burial mound covering a 27 metre-long ship loaded with the grave goods of an Anglo-Saxon noble or king. Perhaps the most famous and iconic object is a striking and forbidding helmet complete with face mask with moustache and eyebrows.

星期四不列颠博物馆会重开画廊，最重要的展品将会是耀眼夺目的萨顿胡珍宝。75年前，考古学家挖掘了一座7世纪的古坟，坟内有一艘27米长的船，船上堆满了一位盎格鲁-撒克逊贵族或者国王的陪葬品。或许最著名最形象的物品是一件令人惊叹令人生畏的钢盔，连同一个带有胡子和眉毛的面具。

The revamped gallery is devoted to Europe from 300 to 1100 and the curator expresses the hope that the now beautifully displayed objects will finally put to bed that popular categorization of the time between the Romans and the Renaissance as the Dark Ages. Not only are many of the exhibits stunningly beautiful, but they are skilfully engineered and manufactured – nearly 1400 years after they were made, the hinges on a sword belt still move freely. ‘We refer to it as the early Middle Ages or the early medieval period’ says the curator - the notion of the Dark Ages should be consigned to history.

修补后的画廊致力于展现300年至1100年间的欧洲，同时馆长也表达了他的期待，希望如今展出的优秀展品能终结当代盛行的分类方法，而这个分类将罗马时代和文艺复兴之间的时段划分为黑暗时代。很多展品不仅有着让人惊叹的美，而且设计构造都十分精巧——在距离它们被制造出来将近1400年的今天，佩剑腰带上的铰链仍然可以自由移动。馆长说“我们称之为中世纪前期”，黑暗时代的概念应该告一段落，成为历史了。

There is a certain melancholy incongruity, of course, in the fact that the Sutton Hoo treasure was dug up during the mythically glorious summer of 1939. As these fabulous and sophisticated objects from a supposedly barbaric age emerged into the light, 20th century Europe was about to descend into a period of moral darkness marked by crimes and horrors which almost defied belief. The very century which, from time to time, had been tempted to pride itself on being the high point of civilization and was accustomed to look back with some contempt towards its primitive forebears, was about to outdo any other age in the scale and inventiveness of its barbarisms.

当然，萨顿胡珍宝是在神话般荣耀美好的1939年之夏被挖掘出来的，这一事实总有某些让人忧伤的不适感。在这些来自传说中野蛮时代并且奇妙精致的物品重见天日之时，20世纪的欧洲也即将坠入一个精神上的黑暗时期，那段时间满是罪恶和恐怖的印记，其罪恶与恐怖的程度令人无法置信。那个世纪，时不时地为自己身处文明顶端而骄傲自满；那个世纪，习惯带着丝轻蔑回看原始的祖先；那个世纪，即将发生不论是规模还是“创新”方面都超越其他一切时代的野蛮行径。

When Christians talk about the Fall, the point is not to speculate about some event in the distant past, but to describe how things are in the present. The book of Genesis has God say to Cain, about to become the Bible’s first murderer, that sin is crouching at the door – its desire is for you, but you must master it. This is not however, some striking fact about the mythic or long dead Cain, but a description of the human heart. Evil, says Christ, proceeds from within – from out of the heart – and some project of moral self-mastery is – no exceptions – universally demanded.

当基督徒谈论堕落时，他们并非去推测在遥远的过去发生的某些事情，而是讲述当下发生的事情。《创世纪》一书里上帝对即将成为圣经中第一个谋杀犯的该隐说，罪恶就蜷伏在门口，它的目标是你，但你必须要战胜它。然而这并非只是和虚构的或者死去的该隐有关的事实，而是关于人心的描述。基督说，邪恶是从内心里或内心之外衍生而来的，精神上的自我掌控是普遍要求，无一例外。


Cain Slaying Abel, by Jacopo Palma, 1590

So we can go to the British Museum, or go on line, and see these fabulous objects – and see for ourselves that it was wrong to write off 1000 years as artistically and technically unsophisticated. But if we are thinking of moral, not cultural history, I will still speak of the Dark Ages – just so long as we remember that rather than happening a long time ago, they may not have finished.

因此我们可以去不列颠博物馆或者去网上看那些精妙的物品，同时也可以亲眼看到匆匆写就历史是错误的，这1000年无论在艺术上还是技术上都是极其先进的。但如果我们谈论精神史而非文化史，那我仍然要说这是黑暗年代。我们要记住也许这一时期并非只是发生在过去的一段历史，它们也许尚未结束。