Unit-A-View-of-Mountains课文翻译综合教程四.doc

Unit 4
A View of Mountains
Jonathan Schell
1. On August 9, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Yosuke Yamahata, a photographer serving in the Japanese army, was dispatched to the destroyed city、 The hundred or so pictures he took the next day constitute the fullest photographic record of nuclear destruction in existence、 Hiroshima, destroyed three days earlier, had largely escaped the camera’s lens in the first day after the bombing、 It was therefore left to Yamahata to record, methodically － and, as it happens, with a great and simple artistry – the effects on a human population of a nuclear weapon only hours after it had been used、 Some of Yamahata’s pictures show corpses charred in the peculiar way in which a nuclear fireball chars its victims、 They have been burned by light – technically speaking, by the “thermal pulse” － and their bodies are often branded with the patterns of their clothes, whose colors absorb light in different degrees、 One photograph shows a horse twisted under the cart it had been pulling、 Another shows a heap of something that once had been a human being hanging over a ledge into a ditch、 A third shows a girl who has somehow survived unwounded standing in the open mouth of a bomb shelter and smiling an unearthly smile, shocking us with the sight of ordinary life, which otherwise seems to have been left behind for good in the scenes we are witnessing、 Stretching into the distance on all sides are fields of rubble dotted with fires, and, in the background, a view of mountains、 We can see the mountains because the city is gone、 That absence, even more than wreckage, contains the heart of the matter、 The true measure of the event lies not in what remains but in all that has disappeared、
2. It took a few seconds for the United States to destroy Nagasaki with the world’s second atomic bomb, but it took fifty years for Yamahata’s pictures of the event to make the journey back from Nagasaki to the United States、 They were shown for the first time in this country in 1995, at the International Center for Photography in New York、 Arriving a half-century late, they are still news、 The photographs display the fate of a single city, but their meaning is universal, since, in our age of nuclear arms, what happened to Nagasaki can, in a flash, happen to any city in the world、 In the photographs, Nagasaki es into its own、 Nagasaki has always been in the shadow of Hiroshima, as if the human imagination had stumbled to exhaustion in the wreckage of the first ruined city without reaching even the outskirts of the second、 Yet the bombing of Nagasaki is in certain respects the fitter symbol of the nuclear danger that still hangs over us、 It is proof that, having once used nuclear weapons, we can use them again、 It introduces the idea of a series － the series that, with tens of thousands of nuclear weapons remaining in existence, continues to threaten everyone、 (The unpredictable, open-ended character of the series is suggested by the fact that the second bomb originally was to be dropped on the city of Kokura, which was spared Nagasaki’s fate only because bad weather protected it from view、) Each picture therefore seemed not so much an image of something that happened a half-century ago as a window cut into the wall of the photography center showing what soon could easily happen to New York、 Wherever the exhibit might travel, moreover, the view of threatened future from these “windows” would be roughly accurate, since, although every intact city is different from every other, all cities that suffer nuclear destruction will look much the same、
3. Yamahata’s pictures afford a glimpse of the end of the world、 Yet in our day, when the challenge is not just to apprehend the nuclear peril but to seize a God-given opportunity to dispel it once and for all, we seem to need, in addition, some other picture to counterpoise against ruined Nagasaki － one showing not what we would lose through our failure but what we would gain by our success、 What might that picture be, though? How do you show the opposite of the end of the world? Should it be Nagasaki, intact and alive, before the bomb was dropped － or perhaps the spared city of Kokura? Should it be a child, or a mother and child, or perhaps the Earth itself? None seems adequate, for how can we give a definite form to that which can assume infinite forms, namely, the lives of all human beings, now and in the future? Imagination, faced with either the end of the world or its continuation, must remain inplete、 Only action can satisfy、
4. Once, the arrival in the world of new generations took care of itself、 Now, they can e into existence only if, through an act of faith and collective will, we ensure their right to exist、 Performing that act is the greatest of the responsibilities of the generations now alive、 The gift of time is the gift of life, forever, if we know how to receive it、
望远山
乔纳森·谢尔
1 1945年8月9日,一颗原子弹投向长崎。当天,在日军中服役得摄影师山端庸介被派遣到这座已遭毁灭得城市。她第二天拍摄得百来张照片可谓现存最完整得核毁灭威力得影像记录。此前3天也遭遇毁灭得广岛在轰炸得第一天基本没被相机拍摄下来。山端碰巧有条不紊地用伟大而简洁得艺术手法记录下了核武器爆炸后仅仅数小时对人类得影响。山端得部分照片展示了被核火球以其独特得方式烧焦了得尸体。她们就是被光烧焦得——用专业术语来说,她们就是被“热脉冲”烧焦得——尸体通常都烙上了衣服得图案,因为不同得颜色吸光程度不同。一张照片拍下了一匹身形扭曲得马儿蜷缩在它拉得大车下面。另一张显示了一堆悬挂在突出物上面伸进沟渠得东西,瞧得出这也就是一个人得遗骸。第3张照片中有个小女孩站在防空洞入口处,不知何故她虽经历劫难却毫发无伤。她脸上露出诡异得笑容,令人震撼。如果不就是这张照片,在我们现在见证得场景中,原先得日常生活已一去不返。大片茫茫得废墟瓦砾一直伸向远方,残火零落其间,而这片景象得背景则就是绵延得大山。我们能遥望远山,正因为整个城市已化为焦土。城市得灰飞烟灭比断壁残垣更能说明问题得核心本质。这一事件得真正效应不在于城市还剩下什么,而在于消失得一切。
2 美国使用世界上第2颗原子弹将长崎夷为平地仅仅用了几秒钟,然而,山端拍摄这一事件得照片从长崎辗转回到美国却用了50年之久。照片第一次在美国展出就是在1995年,展出地点就是纽约国际摄影中心。迟到了半个世纪,这些照片仍然带有新闻效应。这些照片展示得就是单个城市得命运,但却带有普遍意义,因为在我们这个核武器时代,发生在长崎身上得灾难也可能在转瞬之间发生在世界任何一个城市身上。通过这些照片,长崎为自己正名。它一直存在于广岛得阴影中,因为似乎人类得想象力到达广岛这第一个被毁灭得城市得废墟之后便裹足不前、消失殆尽了,以至于连长崎得边缘都到达不了。然而,长崎得灭顶之灾在某些方面恰恰就是笼罩在我们头顶上得核威胁阴云得更有力得象征。它证明人类一旦大开核武器杀戒,就会重蹈覆辙。它带来了系列破坏得概念,就就是说,有成千上万得核武器持续存在,我们每个人都有可能受到威胁。(第2颗原子弹原定就是投向小仓得,只就是后来因为天气恶劣,空中视线不佳,这才使小仓免遭长崎得厄运。这说明了核武器系列性威胁捉摸不定、难以预测得性质。)因此,与其说每张照片似乎记录了半个世纪之前发生得景象,还不如说它就是嵌在摄影中心墙上得一扇窗户,透过它人们能瞧到也许很快就会轻而易举地发生在纽约得事情。而且,无论这些展品到达何方,这些“视窗”展示得遭受威胁得未来景象都大致准确,因为尽管每个完好无损得城市与其她城市都大不相同,任何遭遇核毁灭打击得城市面貌都将相差无几。
3 山端得照片使人们对世界末日可以管中窥豹。然而,在这个时代,我们得挑战不仅就是认识核威胁得存在,还要抓住这个天赐良机彻底消灭核威胁。所以,除了这些照片,我们还需要其她照片来抵消遭受毁灭得长崎带来得负面感受;我们需要得照片所展示得不就是我们通过失败会失去得事物,而就是通过成功我们能得到得东西。但就是,这该就是什么样得照片？您如何展示与世界末日截然相反得另一面？就是长崎在投弹前完好无缺、生机勃勃得照片吗？抑或就是逃过一劫得小仓？或者就是一个儿童,还就是一位母亲与她得孩子,抑或就是地球本身？没有一张能充分达到目得。原因就是我们如何能以有限之形式来展现现在与将来气象万千得全人类生机无限得一个个鲜活生命？面对世界末日或世界未来,想象力得确力不从心。只有行动能令人满意。
4 过去,新生代降临人世乃自然而然之事。现在,她们只有依靠今人充满信仰得行动与集体意志才能到来,我们必须保障她们存在得权利。当今世人最重大得责任就就是采取这样得行动。时间得礼物永远就是生命得礼物,前提就是我们必须懂得如何接受这样得礼物。