Today we’re doing something different.
今天 我们做点别的
Our friend John Green
我们的朋友约翰•格林
will read a story from his podcast, “The Anthropocene Reviewed”.
将朗读一篇其播客《人类世回顾》中的故事
We hope you enjoy it
希望你能喜欢
and we’ll be back with a regular video soon.
接着我们会回到往常的视频
So if you’ve ever been or had a child,
如果你有过童年或有过孩子
you will likely already be familiar with hand stencils.
那你可能已经很熟悉手印画了
They were the first figurative art made by both our kids
这些是我们的孩子在两三岁时
somewhere between the ages of 2 and 3.
创作的第一件具象艺术品
My children spread the fingers of one hand out across a piece of paper,
孩子们把一只手张开按在纸上
and then with the help of a parent traced their five fingers.
然后在我们的帮助下描出五个指头
I remember my son’s face as he lifted his hand
我记得我儿子拿开小手时的表情
and looked absolutely shocked to see the shape of his hand still on the paper,
他惊讶地看着自己留在纸上的手印
a semi permanent record of himself.
一个他自己的半永久档案
I am extremely happy that my children are no longer 3
我很高兴 我的孩子已不是三岁的小孩了
and yet to look at their little hands from those early artworks
如今看到他们早年的艺术作品上的小手印
is to be inundated with a strange, soul splitting joy.
我仍会沉浸在一种莫名的喜悦中
Those pictures remind me that they are not just growing up,
这些画提醒我 他们不仅长大了
but also growing away from me,
还会离开父母
running toward their own lives.
为自己的生计而奔波
But of course that’s meaning I am applying to their hand stencils
但显然 此刻我正在用他们的手印画
and that complicated relationship between art and its viewers
当我们沉浸于回顾过去时
is never more fraught than when we are looking deeply into the past.
艺术与观众间的复杂关系从未像现在这样令人担忧
In September of 1940, an 18 year old mechanic named Marcel Ravidat
1940年9月 一名18岁机修工马塞尔•雷维戴特
was walking his dog Robot in the countryside of southwestern France,
在法国西南乡村溜他的狗Robot时
when the dog disappeared down a hole.
狗跑进一个洞里 不见了
Robot eventually returned,
Robot最后跑回来了
but the next day Ravidat went to the spot with three friends to explore the hole
但隔天雷维戴特和三个朋友旧地重游 去洞里探险
and after quite a bit of digging they discovered a cave with walls covered with paintings,
通过一番发掘 他们发现一个洞壁上满是画作的洞
including over 900 paintings of animals: horses, stags, bison,
里面有超过九百幅动物画：马 鹿 野牛
and also species that are now extinct,including a woolly rhinoceros.
还有现在已经灭绝的物种 比如长毛犀牛
The paintings were astonishingly detailed and vivid,
这些画作栩栩如生
with red,yellow and black paint made from pulverized mineral pigments
通过一根可能是中空的骨头制成的细长管子
that were usually blown through a narrow tube,
把鲜艳的红 黄 黑三色矿物颜料粉末
possibly a hollowed bone, unto the walls of the cave.
吹在洞壁上
It would eventually be established that these artworks were at least 17,000 years old.
这些画最终测定结果是 至少存在了一万七千年之久
Two of the boys who visited the cave that day were so profoundly moved by the art they saw,
那天去过洞穴的两个男孩为眼前的艺术所折服
that they camped outside the cave to protect it for over a year.
他们在洞外扎营守护洞穴一年多
After World War II the French government took over protection of the site,
二战后 法国政府接管了保护工作
and the cave was open to the public in 1948.
这个洞穴在1948年向公众开放
When Picasso saw the cave paintings on a visit that year he reportedly said,
同年毕加索参观壁画后 接受采访时说
”We have invented nothing.”
“我们什么都没发明”
There are many mysteries at Lascaux.
拉斯科洞穴里有许多谜团
Why, for instance, are there no paintings of reindeer,
比如 作为旧石器时代穴居人的主要食物
which we know were the primary source of food for the Paleolithic humans who lived in that cave?
驯鹿没有出现在画里？
Why were they so much more focused on painting animals than painting human forms?
为什么他们更专注于画动物 而不是人？
Why are certain areas of the cave filled with images,
为什么洞穴的大部分区域画了壁画
including pictures on the ceiling that required the building of scaffolding to create,
甚至连需要搭梯才能够到的天花板上都有
while other areas have only a few paintings?
而其余地方却只有寥寥几幅画作呢
And were the paintings spiritual — “here are our sacred animals”?
这些画作是象征性的——“这儿是神圣的动物”？
Or were they practical — “Here is a guide to some of the animals that might kill you”?
还是具有实用性——“危险 请勿靠近”？
Aside from the animals, there are nearly a thousand abstract signs and shapes we cannot interpret,
除动物外 上面还有近千个我们无法破解的抽象符号和形状
and also several “negative hand stencils” as they are known by art historians.
以及一些艺术历史学家熟知的“阴纹手印画”
These are the paintings that most interest me.
这些是我更感兴趣的画作
They were created by pressing one hand with fingers splayed against the wall of the cave,
画法是把一只手张开按在洞壁上
and then blowing pigment,leaving the area around the hand painted.
接着喷上颜料 留出手印周围的地方
Similar hand stencils have been found in caves around the world,
从印尼到西班牙到澳大利亚 再到美洲 非洲
From Indonesia to Spain to Australia to the Americas to Africa.
全世界的洞穴都发现过相似的阴纹画
We have found these memories of hands from 15 or 30
我们发现这些手印已存在了一万五千或三万年
or even 40 thousand years ago.
甚至四万年之久
These hand stencils remind us of how different life was in the distant past.
这些手印画提醒我们 远古的生活有多么不同
Amputations likely from frostbite are common in Europe.
冻伤导致的肢残在当时的欧洲很常见
And so you often see negative hand stencils with three or four fingers.
因此你经常看到阴纹手印画上只有三或四根手指
And life was short and difficult.
人生如此短暂而艰难
As many as a quarter of women died in childbirth,
有多达四分之一女性因难产而死
around 50% of children died before the age of five.
只有一半儿童能活过五岁
But they also remind us that the humans of the past were as human as we are.
但这些画作也提醒我们 古人与我们是一样的
Their hands indistinguishable from ours.
他们的手和我们毫无区别
These communities hunted and gathered and there were no large caloric surpluses.
这些部落以打猎 采集为生 没有太多的热量
So every healthy person would have had to contribute to the acquisition of food and water,
所以每个健康的人都得贡献食物和水
and yet somehow they still made time to create art.
但他们仍挤出时间进行绘画
Almost as if art isn’t optional for humans.
就好像艺术是必需品似的
We see all kinds of hands stenciled on cave walls,children and adults,
我们在洞壁上看见各种手印画 孩子的 成人的
but almost always the fingers are spread.
都是五指张开的
Like my kids’ hand stencils.
就像我孩子的手印画一样
I’m no Jungian.
我不是研究荣格学说的人
But it’s fascinating and a little strange that so many Paleolithic humans,
但奇妙甚至有点奇怪的是
who couldn’t possibly have had any contact with each other,
这么多可能无法与彼此交流的古人
created the same paintings the same way –
却用相同方式创作同样的画作——
paintings that we are still making.
我们仍在创作的手印画
But then again, what the Lascaux art means to me
话又说回来 拉斯科洞穴艺术对我
is likely very different from what it meant to the people who made it.
对其创作者的意义是截然不同的
Some academics theorized that the hand stencils were part of hunting rituals.
一些学术理论认为 手印画是狩猎仪式的一部分
Then there’s always the possibility that the hand was just a convenient model situated at the end of the wrist.
也可能只是手比较方便作为绘画模型
To me though, the hand stencils at Lascaux say,
不过对我来说 拉斯科洞穴的手印画像是在说
“I was here.” They say, “You are not new.”
“我来过这儿” 他们说 “你不是第一个”
And because they are negative prints surrounded by red pigment,
这些阴印画用红颜料描出轮廓
they also looked to me like something out of a horror movie.
在我看来 它们又像是出自某部恐怖片
Like ghostly hands reaching up from some bloody background.
像血淋淋的背景里伸出的鬼手
They remind me that, as Alice Walker wrote, “All history is current.”
他们提醒了我 如阿里斯•沃克尔写道的 “一切历史都是当代史”
The Lascaux cave has been closed to the public for many years now.
如今 拉斯科洞穴早已不对外开放
Too many contemporary humans breathing inside of it led to the growth of mold and lichens,
太多现代人在洞穴内呼吸导致霉菌和地衣的滋生
which has damaged some of the art.
损毁了一部分绘画
Just the act of looking at something can ruin it, I guess.
我想 仅是观赏就能毁了它
But tourists can still visit an imitation cave called Lascaux II,
不过游客还是可以去“拉斯科二号”仿制洞穴
in which the artwork has been meticulously recreated.
其再现了原始洞穴中的作品
Humans making fake cave art to save real cave art
为拯救真正的洞穴艺术而制作仿造洞穴艺术
may feel like peak Anthropocene behavior.
听起来像是人类的巅峰之作
But I have to confess that even though I am a jaded and cynical
即便我是个悲观厌世的半职业人类活动评审员
semi-professional reviewer of human activity,
也不得不承认
I actually find it overwhelmingly hopeful,
这件事充满了希望
that four teenagers and a dog named Robot
四个少年和一条叫Robot的狗
discovered a cave with 17,000-year-old handprints,
发现一个 内壁绘有一万七千年前手印画的洞窟
that the cave was so overwhelmingly beautiful
（绘有手绘画的）洞穴如此壮丽
that two of those teenagers devoted themselves to its protection.
以至于两个年轻人自发维护它
And that when we humans became a danger to that caves’ beauty, we agreed to stop going.
而且在人类危害到洞穴艺术时 我们愿意停止参观
Lascaux is there. You cannot visit.
拉斯科洞穴就在那儿 你无法参观了
You can go to the fake cave we’ve built, and see nearly identical hand stencils.
你可以参观我们建造的仿制洞穴 看那些几乎一样的阴版手印
But you will know this is not the thing itself,
但你会明白 那不是古老的手绘画
but a shadow of it.
只是它的投影罢了
This is a handprint,
这只是个手印
but not a hand.
而不是手本身
This is a memory that you cannot return to.
这是你无法回到的过去
All of which makes the cave very much like the past it represents.
所有这些正是洞穴所代表的远古时代
We hope you enjoyed this video even if it was different.
我衷心希望你喜欢这个视频 尽管它与众不同
Check out John Green’s podcast, “The Anthropocene Reviewed”,
看看约翰•格林的播客 《人类世回顾》
where he poetically reviews the human world we live in.
他充满诗意地回顾了我们生活的人类世
John is a good friend of Kurzgesagt.
约翰是《科学坚果》的好朋友
In fact without his channel, Crash Course,
实话说 要是没有他们的频道 《速成课》
that he and his brother Hank started years ago,
也就是他和他的兄弟汉克几年前创立的频道
Kurzgesagt would not exist,
《科学坚果》就不会存在
because it was the original inspiration for what we do today.
因为它是我们频道的灵感源泉
And over the years, John and Hank have helped us in a multitude of ways
多年来 约翰和汉克用尽各种办法帮我们
, from advice to just being friends.
从一开始提建议到后来成为朋友
So check out “The Anthropocene Reviewed” or any of their many channels.
观看《人类世回顾》或他们的其他频道